#bead lanyard

Ultimate Beaded Lanyard Tutorial

Apologies for the lousy second photo, but this was too long to photograph without a mirror and my mirror is nowhere near a window!

I’m aware that this sits in the because I can category of crafting, but this is what happens when I decide to make a wearable roller bead lanyard with a bead ring on the end and then attach a beaded gecko to that ring. I really like it! While I find that while this is a little long for walking around in, the gecko sits on my knee such that I can roll it without dropping it or holding it. It’s pretty functional, doesn’t require me to clench or grasp it to use, and it offers me several different ways of stimming with the beads. Plus it’s easy to shorten by using fewer beads for the lanyard part, if you’d rather wear a shorter version.

Components

Regular pony beads in whatever colours you like (I used 87 different beads)

Rattail cord (you’ll want about 3 metres)

A giant pony bead or a wooden bead (the hole needs to be large enough to hold four strands of cord)

A couple of star or flower shaped beads for the top of the lanyard and the end of the gecko’s tail (if you’re fancy)

Thread and a sewing needle for a few overstitches (or glue)

Clear nail polish or glue for finishing the end of the lanyard and the knot on the gecko’s tail (this keeps the cord from unravelling)

Instructions

First, make a bead ring, a roller bead fidget/lanyard and a beaded gecko using these linked tutorials. Don’t try to put these together - just make one of each so you’re familiar with the process of making them. This tutorial assumes you know how to make each of those three things. It will not make sense if you don’t learn those three tutorials first.

Second, make the lanyard. I cut 1.5 metres of cord (taller people may want it longer still), folded it in half, threaded two pony beads on each end and then threading both ends through a star bead (but any pony bead will do). This just finishes the top of the lanyard nicely. I shifted those three beads down the cord, leaving enough space to pull the lanyard over my head, before I added however many beads I wanted in the normal way of a roller bead lanyard before leaving the usual gap of unthreaded cord. I then threaded on four beads (three rounded pony beads and one giant pony bead or wooden bead) over both ends of the cord (in the way you normally finish a roller bead lanyard) and cut the cord. Dab the cut ends of the cord with clear nail polish or glue. Do not knot the ends. Put the lanyard aside.

Third, make the bead ring in the normal way (threading beads onto a split ring).

Fourth, make the gecko in the normal way. Instead of using a new split ring, I slipknotted the cord for the gecko (I use 1.1 metres of cord) around the bead ring I made, halfway between the beads.

(I diverge from the linked tutorial in that I add a fancy bead like a star or a flower at the bottom of the tail, just because I like how it looks. I also use slightly smaller pony beads for the gecko’s claws, because I think that looks a little better. Neither of these things is necessary, though. I also seal the knot at the end of the tail with clear nail polish to make it a little sturdier.)

Firth, I join the bead-ring-and-gecko fidget to the lanyard. I push the beads at the bottom of the lanyard up to the bottom-most woven pony bead, wrap the cut edges of cord around the top of the ring and sew or glue them together, forming a closed loop of thread. Make sure the edges of the cord, the ones sticking up past the ring, are not longer than the length of your large bead - the purpose of the giant bead is to hide the cut edges of cord!

(If sewing, you’ll want the thread to go in and out of all four pieces of cord, sewing them to each other so they firmly hold the ring. I then coat the sewing with clear nail polish or glue. If gluing, make sure all four pieces are firmly glued to each other.)

Sixth, side the large bead over the four sewn or glued pieces of cord, hiding the join of the lanyard cord around the bead ring gecko - and that’s it!

Mine took less than an hour to make, was quite easy on my hands and only required a tiny bit of handsewing.

Image description under read more cut:

Hey, anon! Are you me? Because if I can grab something, spin it and hit myself in the face with it, well, I will.

The problem here is - which part of the stim do you crave? The spinning of the headphones or the hitting of the headphones against your head?

I’ll be honest: replacing the feeling of hitting myself (thunking my knees into the desk, say) is difficult. I don’t have a lot of good answers for this. You may be better to merely adapt this and look at things that can be covered with a pillow before hitting. I’ve had some success with dropping a bean bag on my legs from as high as my arms can reach for that thud feeling, but it’s not quite the same, and since this stim of mine is quite unconscious, I’m struggling to do more than stop and try to redirect.

If you’re after objects you can twirl more safely, without the hitting-oneself-in-the-face aspect, I have a few offerings. (Because twirling is good.) Note that these are not subtle stims; these are, for me, Really Autistic stims that don’t involve moving things in my hands in gentle, quiet or allistic-esque ways. They’re the kind of stims that will make folks stare in public in a way that pressing a fidget cube is less likely to provoke. But they are so satisfying.

(All links go to the item’s tag with posts about finding or making said item.)

- A roller bead fidget/lanyard. I put the split ring over one finger and twirl it around the base of said finger.

- Tangles: either twisted around one finger into a line and used the same way as the bead lanyard or spun with the opposite end held in my opposite hand, turning the Tangle over and over.

(Note: Don’t spin your Tangle around your wrist; it will fly off your fingers and smash into something. Trust me on this. I’ve done it so you don’t have to!)

- Slime! Mould your slime into a ball, poke your hand through it, let it sit on your wrist, spin your wrist until the slime forms a long, drooping loop, then just remould your slime and repeat. I can do this for an hour, easy.

(Note: putty with stretch will also do this to varying degrees, but I find it works best with handmade slime.)

- DIY spin band: the bottom of an old T-shirt, cut off a few inches (say 10 centimetres, although it doesn’t much matter) to make a loop of cloth. You can spin this in two ways: either around your wrist or on a finger (it will rise up over your hand like the tangle, but if this flies off, it’s less likely to damage, break or hurt) or looped over both hands and twisted (like the tangle) allowing you to spin your hands around. You can also just twist the fabric and then spin it - there’s many ways to stim with this, and all you need is an old T-shirt and a pair of scissors. If you can sew a basic running stitch, you can cut up the rest of the T-shirt and make loops in all sorts of sizes.

- The tassel keychains (literally anything long with a ring attachment) can be spun on a finger like the bead lanyards.

(Note: the keychains, Tangles and bead lanyards should not be held close to your face! These things stay well on my finger, but they need a little bit of space for safety.)

Now, you’re going to be in places where it isn’t safe to stim like this. Some of the toys above (Tangle, slime, tassel keychains, bead lanyards) are more often discussed as being subtler stims (toys used a little less visibly in one’s hands). So they’re likely worth getting, making or having for the dual purpose (I coil or just twist my Tangle in public; I use the bead lanyard for the normal pushing of the beads up and down the cord). You might also wish to look at, additionally, chain fidgets (turn them over and over in your hand), bead rings (and bead ring necklaces), spinner fidgets and spinner rings, which don’t offer the same sort of spin, but do spin and turn.

I hope this gives you some ideas. Like always, if folks think of something I’ve forgotten, please let us know!

ETA: @zephyrantha says,

I don’t suppose something like a yoyo would be useful to anon? I used to be able to spin a yoyo around my finger pretty well and it might be closer to the weight/feel of headphones than some of these?

Oh, yes! Yes I do! There are many toys that can go on a lanyard key chain, some as they are, some with a little work/creativity depending on the type of fastener you have for the lanyard! I’ve also got a few DIYs I’ve made myself - bead rings attached to a zip lanyard for double stimmy goodness.

Firstly: many squishies come with a cell phone charm strap or a ball chain attachment. Both of those can attach to a lanyard as they are. In my review post this morning I’ve got the macaron ($1 AUD) which is smaller and might be ideal for hanging from a lanyard; Stimtastic has the Squishy Panda Charms ($1 USD). Any squishy with an attachment point will work.

(As I’ve written about the durability of squishies, I’d coat the foam around the attachment point/plastic ring on the squishy with a layer of thick PVA/white glue and let it dry overnight before adding it to the lanyard. This will help the foam not tear away from the ring. I did this to my apple where the ring sheared away completely and it’s solid after drying.)

Secondly: there are Tangles that have lanyard attachments (linked in this post) although they’re rarer and hard to find. However, if you have a lanyard with a string attachment, like those used to attach USB drives to a lanyard or a keychain, those special attachments aren’t necessary and you can use any old Tangle. Just loop it around the Tangle the way you’d loop the cord around the anchor hole on a USB drive, as below:

[image description: a pink, blue, yellow and clear Tangle Jr Textured attached via a bright yellow plastic and cord lanyard connector to a worn Little Twin Stars lanyard.]

Other things can be attached to the lanyard in the same way, as long as there’s something for the cord’s attachment to hitch around: doughnut chewables and silicone beads, any chewable or pendant with a hole in it, a snake puzzle if you fold it so the attachment is in the centre, a telephone cord bracelet.

Thirdly: bead rings (you can DIY it with instructions here or purchase from @werevampiwolf at their etsy or through Stimtastic) are easily attached to just about anything if they’re made from a split ring or clip ring (they all are).

I’ve attached my own large bead rings (made from 50 cm clip/binder rings, available from the stationery section at Daiso) to zip lanyards (also available from Daiso) by removing the standard attachment and hooking the bead ring with two opened chain links.

[image description: three large silver bead rings attached to zip lanyards. Top left: red and yellow zip lanyard attached to a ring bearing round and square yellow, red and orange wooden beads. Top right: a blue and red zip lanyard attached to a ring bearing oval red and blue wooden beads beside red and blue pony beads. Bottom: a pink and green zip lanyard attached to a ring threaded with rainbow-coloured metallic pony beads.]

Fourthly: any standard keychain stim toy or necklace charm. A fluffy/pompom keychain, a tassel keychain, a roller bead lanyard/chain or a small plushie with a cord loop. If the loop attachment is difficult (too small for the above hitch or the clips shown below, for example), use a large jump ring: open it with a pair of pliers, thread it through the loop attachment and the bottom of the lanyard, close it with the pliers.

Fifthly: prickle animal fidgets. (Available from Stimtastic ($0.90 USD) but I’ve also seen them in multipacks at Toys R Us and in the party sections at the more expensive kind of dollar shop.) They have a closed loop on their back that can be threaded through a lanyard attachment, dog clip or a jump ring, like so:

[image description: a green dinosaur prickle fidget toy attached to a white star-print lanyard with a gold dog clip and an orange dinosaur prickle fidget toy attached to a white G2 My Little Pony print lanyard via a silver lanyard clip. Both toys have a square attachment in the middle of their prickled backs holding the clasp of each lanyard.]

Other Stimtastic offerings ideal for lanyards include the Mobius Flower Lanyard ($4.25 USD) and the Keychain Eni Puzzle ($9.60 USD). (@stimtastic​ here on Tumblr, if you want to see what other stimmers have done with these toys.)

In short: there’s many things that don’t need modding at all, and even more things that only need the application of a pair of pliers and a jump ring or two to make them attachable. I hope this gives you some ideas to find the perfect lanyard-portable toy for you!

ETA: @jaydxnalexandxr says,

With tangles, you can pull apart a bit, slide it onto a key ring loop, close the tangle then clip the key ring to a lanyard! That’s what I do