How to Make Pony Bead Pumpkins

These pony bead pumpkins are super cute and SO EASY to make! Follow our detailed step-by-step tutorial and create your own simple beaded pumpkin keychain.

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Yield: pony bead jack-o-lantern

Author: Debbie Chapman

Cost: $1

Equipment

Materials

Instructions

Step 1: Find what you need

Gather your supplies and materials.

Step 2: Prepare your cord

To make the keychain you'll need some type of keychain hardware and a 48 inch (4 foot) piece of rattail cord.
Fold the cord in half and attach the loop to the keychain hardware using a lark’s head knot.
To do this, slide the loop down through the ring and then bring it back over. Pull down on the cords to tighten the knot.
Then tape the keychain piece to your working surface. This makes it a lot easier to make knots and work with the beads.
For a pony bead pumpkin you'll need green and orange beads. To make a jack-o-lantern you'll also need black beads.

Step 3: Add the first beads

To make your pony bead pumpkin you’ll be working with the ends of the cords, first attaching beads to one strand, and then the other.
For Row 1, begin by adding 1 green pony bead to the left cord. (You can also do the right cord if it’s more comfortable to you.)
Take the end of the right cord and push it through the right side of the bead, so it's attached to both cord ends.
Pull the cord ends so that the bead ends up centered and against the knot.
For Row 2 add 2 green beads to the left cord.
Again, put the right cord through the other side of the beads and pull the cord ends so it's snug against Row 1.

Step 4: Finish the pumpkin pattern

For Row 3 add 5 orange beads in the same way.
Starting with Row 4 we're going to be adding beads of different colours. Thread on 2 orange, 1 black, 2 orange, 1 black, and 2 orange.
Follow this pattern to make the rest of the jack-o-lantern:
Row 5: 4 orange, 1 black, 4 orange
Row 6: 1 orange, 2 black, 3 orange, 2 black, 1 orange
Row 7: 1 orange, 6 black, 1 orange
Row 8: 6 orange

Step 5: Complete the keychain

Adjust the cords as needed, tightening the rows by pulling on the side cords, starting at the top.
Then make knots on either side of the last row to keep the beads in place.
Cut the excess cord close to the knots.
Optional: Melt the ends with a BBQ lighter to stop the cord unraveling.
Your jack-o-lantern pony bead pumpkin is complete!

Video

Notes

Looking for more ways to use pony beads? Here's a few of our favourite patterns:

Pony Bead Football

Beaded Pipe Cleaner Corn

Kandi Star