Cardea

Project and Sample by Drea Carbone

With many people writing in asking for help creating a mask lanyard, I knew we had to create our own tutorial. There are so many techniques you can use, Brigid and Cardea are just two of them. I hope this gives you a good jumping off point for your own ideas!
Looking to Roman mythology, I discovered Cardea..and got a laugh! Not only was she the Roman goddess of health, but also of door handles! I wonder what the ancient Romans would think of me and my trusty can of Lysol, spraying my door handles day after day??

These handy lanyards will clip to the ear loops of a mask so when you take it off it’ll hang from your neck. No more lost masks, or putting your mask in a pocket or dropping it…and knowing that we can’t be stuck in this pandemic forever, I knew I also wanted to make something convertible. This Cardea Lanyard easily converts to a wrap bracelet. At 28.5”, the length works for me...just be sure to measure for your wrist size! Simply remove one clasp for a jump ring, or clasp both Swivels clasps to each other. You know what I’m going to say here...you do you!

*First, you’ll want two clasps. I chose Swivel, the “regular size,” for two reasons. One, you need something with a large enough opening to go around the elastic of the mask’s ear loops. Two, the swivel component is key! These are far less likely to get twisted and tangled thanks to that handy swiveling feature. Little Lobster and Small Swivels would work only if your elastic loops are pretty skinny...keep that in mind!

Next, I wanted this to be “endless,” so no leather ends sticking out anywhere. The Alley Mori Splice (scroll to Page 13) was the perfect solution. While Alley usually hides her splice under large-holed beads, mine is simply under the macramé knots of C-Lon. To begin, I cut my leather and brought my first clasp component to just off-center. The tails should not be even...I left one 1.5” longer than the other. That extra 1.5” will create the loop to attach to the other side’s clasp component, folded back and glued to itself and knotted over.
Once your leather is set up on your design board how you like it, cut a long length of C-Lon. I used Regular C-Lon because I really wanted to use the shade of Marina! Regular C-Lon can be a tight fit for the 8/0 Seed beads, so be sure to make self-needles using glue, and angle cut the tips. Easy-peasy.

Directly below the clasp component, macramé ¾” and then ladder a small section. Be sure to taper from oen bead to two and so on, and to taper back down at the end of the section, too.

This first section, from the leather loop connecting to the clasp component to the end of the laddering is 3.5 inches. Keep this number in mind as you will be making this symmetrical and have this motif repeated at the other end.

Once at the other end, you’ll taper that laddering down and macramé a couple full square knots. Here’s where we do the Alley Splice. Bring your leather tail through the link and bend back onto itself to form the loop. Use Zap Gue here to secure. Zap dries very quickly, so be careful when you’re gluing! Glue so that your two cut ends of leather meet, and glue the leathers together (Kate will show this on air!) and hold in place for a moment so the glue takes a good hold. I then added a bit more glue to the leather and tied more macramé knots right over that glue. Again, that macramé section is ¾” to match the first one. Nice and secure, and the splice is hidden!

Besides those points, I simply laddered and knotted away. I wanted to be sure that my lanyard was symmetrical, so that both sides of my face would have the same pattern and beading showing. When wrapped as a bracelet, it’s no biggie how it all lines up, but I am a fan of patterns and symmetry so that made it easy for me.

Find ingredient quantities for Cardea listed above for easy shopping, and find our other samples here.

Please join us as our worldwide community gathers on Facebook and YouTube at 10:30am Pacific Time on February 10, 2021. It’s so much fun to go live with us and bead together! After the live broadcast the video will be available above.