"Lava" Necklace From Hydroculture Pellets

My boyfriend and me found a very pretty necklace at a medieval market. The sign said "made from lava stone and silver beads". But it was extremely expensive, and after closer inspection my boyfriend was very sure the "lava" stones was nothing else but black painted clay pellets which are used in gardening for hydroculture. So I decided to make such a necklace myself. It was super easy and really fast. This is what you need:

Material:

• Hydroculture expanded clay pellets (very cheap, got it in a do it yourself / hobby market, 5 Liter bag for 4 swiss francs. I could choose from two sizes and took the larger ones)
• Nylon thread (0.7 mm)
• silver (plastic) beads
• Black spray paint matt
• magnetic clasp

Tools:

• Drilling machine
• Glue gun

Step 1: Prepare and Paint the Pellets

1. Measure a necklace you already have to know what size fits you best. For me it was around 50 cm.
2. Dig in your bag of pellets and search for the nicest ones. I personally like it when the necklace is not too large at the back of my neck, but becomes larger in the front. So i took:
   • 7-8 large ones for the front
   • around 4 medium sized ones after the front until the silver beads
   • 34 small ones for the rest
3. Take a drilling machine and select a drilling bead which is a little bit larger than your nylon thread. I took 1.2 mm, i think.
4. Drill the holes. It's very easy since the material is not hard at all, so don't press too hard onto the driller, otherwise your pellets breake apart. I held the pellets with one hand and drilled with the other.
5. Spray your clay beads with black spray paint. Be careful, the spray blows them away easily. First I aligned them in a crease of a newspaper, I only later realized it's much easier to sacrifice a bit of the nylon thread, thread all the beads, hang the thread somewhere and spray the pellets this way.

Step 2: Thread the Beads & Attach the Clasp

1. Take the nylon thread cut it generously and align all the beads in the order you like. I had 12 beads in the front and then the silver beads and then the rest of the beads.
2. Thread all beads.
3. With the ends of your nylon thread you can now attach the clasp.
   • Put one piece of the clasp very close to the last bead, remember the position.
   • Make a loop with the thread and reenter the last 2-3 beads (see 3rd picture)
   • Put a drop of hot glue onto the last bead where the nylon thread went in, smear it a bit into the bead, to make it "invisible"
   • Repeat at the other side.
4. Wear the necklace & enjoy the faces when you tell them that its "lava" beads :).