Today, I decided to get my hands dirty and make a knotted jade mala. I’ve always wanted one of those, and thought, why not just make it myself? I mean, how hard could it be, right?
So, first, I gathered all the stuff I needed. I already had some jade beads that I bought a while back, just for a project like this. Then, I got myself some strong cord – I went with this nylon one because it looked pretty tough. You definitely don’t want your mala breaking and beads going everywhere. I also grabbed a pair of scissors and a needle, because I figured I’d need those at some point.
I started by cutting a long piece of cord, like, really long. I’d rather have too much than too little, you know? Then I tied a knot at one end, leaving a bit of a tail for later. This was going to be the start of my mala.
Stringing and Knotting
Next, I started stringing the beads onto the cord. This was the fun part – picking which bead went where, seeing the mala come together. After each bead, I tied a knot right up against it. This was a bit tricky at first, figuring out how to get the knot tight and close to the bead. I used the needle to kind of guide the knot into place, which helped a lot.
It was kind of slow going, to be honest. Knotting after each bead takes some time, and you gotta make sure they’re all snug. But I just put on some music and got into a rhythm. Bead, knot, bead, knot… you get the idea. It was actually pretty relaxing once I got the hang of it.
After a while, I had all 108 beads on the cord. I gotta say, it was looking pretty good! I tied another knot after the last bead to close the loop. Then came the trickiest part – the guru bead. I found this slightly larger, special bead to use as the guru bead. After stringing it on, I had to tie the two ends of the cord together, right above the guru bead, creating a tassel with the leftover cord. I trimmed the tassel to make it look neat, and that was it!
- First, gather your materials: jade beads, cord, scissors, and a needle.
- Cut a long piece of cord and tie a knot at one end.
- String a bead onto the cord and tie a knot snugly against it.
- Repeat the stringing and knotting process for all 108 beads.
- Add the guru bead and tie the ends of the cord together above it.
- Trim the tassel, and your mala is complete!
Honestly, it turned out way better than I expected. It’s not perfect, some knots are a little wonky, but I made it myself, and that’s what counts. Now, I have my very own knotted jade mala. Pretty cool, huh? And who knows, maybe I’ll make some more – it was actually a lot of fun.
