The first to break (and my favorite) was one that had been knotted, so at least I didn't have to chase beads all over the house. But that also meant that restringing it was especially intimidating--I had no faith in my ability to patiently make even, teeny knots in between every single bead on the necklace.
Finally, I went to the craft store and bought bead silk with a little attached bit of wire for threading, looking up online how to get the knots close and even and tight, and when one afternoon the Kitten decided to grace me with a nap, I sat down with the broken necklace, some tiny sewing scissors for cutting apart the original cord, the new beading silk, and a needle for pulling each knot tight against the bead.
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| The broken end, before I started cutting |
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| Three beads and one end of the clasp, after what felt like an hour |
At first, it was slow, and I considered setting it aside for the rest of the afternoon and picking it up again another day--that this might be a weeks-long endeavor. But eventually I got the hang of it, and how to allow gravity to bring the newest bead to rest snugly against the knot and bead below while I drew the needle in the knot evenly down against it.
The new necklace grew into a satisfying weight in my hand, heavier than plastic or glass, and as I cut the fraying grayed old knots apart, I wondered about the hands that had tied them. I imagined decades in the future, someone else cutting my knots apart to restring it again. The image of a theoretical granddaughter at her dinner table cued a bit of climate anxiety--what kind of world is outside her windows right now?--but if we are the kind of people who restring disintegrating necklaces and preserve the beautiful beads, maybe we can also be the kind of people who restore a collapsing world, too, and take the time to bind each little broken piece back together into a whole.
After about an hour and a half, when I began to think that maybe I could actually finish it today, the Kitten woke up. He sat and ate a snack while I finished up the necklace, and listened attentively while I explained what I was doing. At my mom's suggestion, I put a drop of super glue on the knots at each end, against the clasps, and reminded myself that if anything did break, at least the beads were tied on individually so nothing too disastrous would happen.
I'm not going anywhere today, but I decided to wear it anyway.
