Solar System Necklace

Solar System Necklace

This was a fun one to figure out the logistics for. We needed enough supplies for about 50 necklaces total, so the first step was finding good planets. I wanted something close to representing the size of our planets without worrying about actual scale.

Altogether, the craft requires 8 wooden beads of varied sizes, black pony beads, paint (& a paintbrush), elastic cord (& scissors), and a small rubber band (like the kind for looms or braids). 

We settled on a bulk pack of wooden beads that had around 600 pieces (about like this one). It has a variety of sizes, which we sorted out to each planet.

We ended up designating them as follows:

8 mm Mercurcy

10 mm Mars

12 mm Venus, Earth

14 mm Uranus, Neptune

16 mm Saturn

20 mm Jupiter

To save time for the kids, we pre-painted many of our planets with a base layer. To simplify this process, I strung the ones I needed to paint into lines, marked the ends of each line with tape for the color I needed to paint, and suspended them so I could paint all the way around. I just used skewers and clothespins to hold them up. 

I spray painted all of the 14 mm beads blue, the 10 mm beads orange, and then half of the 12 mm beads orange, and the other half blue.

The kids should be receiving 1 plain 20 mm bead, 1 plain 16 mm bead, 2 blue 14 mm beads, 1 orange 12 mm bead, 1 blue 12 mm bead, 1 orange 10 mm bead, and 1 plain 8 mm bead. 

We looked at pictures of the planets for reference while painting the details on the beads. Earth is a good place to start, by adding green splotches to the 12 mm blue bead. 

These can be as detailed & accurate or as simplified/stylized as you like! 

Here are the colors that I added, as an example.

Mercury - blue, orange, and yellow smudged on a plain 8 mm bead

Venus - yellow and white on an orange 12 mm bead

Earth - green spots on a blue 12 mm bead

Mars - red and orange on an orange 10 mm bead

Jupiter - white and orange striped on a plain 20 mm bead (don't forget the spot!)

Saturn - white on a plain 16 mm bead, rubber band ring

Uranus - white smudged on a blue 14 mm bead

Neptune - blue on a blue 14 mm bead

It doesn't take very long for the paint to absorb into the wood to dry, but let it sit for a couple minutes so your artwork won't smear. 

All that's left is stringing your beads onto a piece of elastic cord! Cut the cord so that it's long enough to be looped around the hear- plus enough to tie the ends (always aim for too much rather than too little). 

Again, I didn't sully worry about scale, but I tried to at least give the impression of which planets are closer to others. 

Bead numbers are flexible, but here's how I ordered mine.

7 black beads, Mercury, 3 black beads, Venus, 3 black beads, Earth, 3 black beads, Mars, 5 black beads, Jupiter, 5 black beads, Saturn, 8 black beads, Uranus, 8 black beads, Neptune, 7 black beads.

Once all of your beads are added to the necklace, tie the end of the elastic in a knot, and trim off the excess. 

Tada!

Solar System Necklace!