I’ve never been happy with the available options for making necklace cords to sell with my work, Every alternative involves some form of finicky, and delicate fittings, that need to be crimped or glued, and which leave you with a necklace whose length will be suboptimal for most people and situations…. then someone showed me how to .make an adjustable length necklace by tying knots in a cord.

The knotted, adjustable necklace is simple, and functional, but it’s sliding action can be unpredictable, and it isn’t very classy! Inspired by a video I saw online, I set about to create a metal fitting that would replace the knots. From dozens of designs I came up with, I ultimately selected, and with difficulty, produced the one seen below. These fittings were attractive, and required no adhesive, as the cord-ends were held by a knot captured within the fitting. Had I created the perfect necklace? Alas, no.

The problem turned out to be the cord itself. The imitation suede that I had designed the fittings around simply wore out too quickly. After trying numerous other cords, I could find nothing else that would work with my fittings.

At this point, I designed a new fitting to work with leather cord (3rd from the top in the image below). Unfortunately, the leather cord, while more durable than the imitation suede, varied in diameter from batch to batch, and the new necklaces weren’t much better than the old.

And so I am back where I started, using round leather cord rather than flat imitation suede. Still, I think the idea is cool, and perhaps something will come of it yet!