This week I got to teach some ladies from church how to string a basic beaded bracelet. I made a little handout, tutorial style, so I'm posting it for you too. I wanted to make something fun to photograph for the handout and was fiddling around with some zippers which seem to be all the rage in the blogosphere. (Are real people wearing zipper jewelry? I live in a bit of a fashion vacuum here and am curious.) I am particularly smitten with
Kate Cusack's works.
Anyway,
surprisingly I didn't have that many matching zippers on hand I thought I'd better start out a little more simply. I jellyrolled 3 shades of olive felt and one side of a black & silver zipper and I LOVE the results.
So that was a bit of a tangent...and on with the tutorial.
Supplies list
(Tip: Before you get to the bead store, pick an outfit you'd like to match with your new jewelry. Better yet, wear it to the store. Bead stores usually have an dizzying array of sparkle and temptation, and if you just go thinking you'll be inspired when you get there, it usually is disastrous for one's budget and/or time restraints.)
(a) 1 clasp
(b) 2 crimp beads/tubes
(c) 12 inches flexible cable
(d) Beads
Charms (optional)
Tools
(e)Flush wire cutters
(f) Flat nose pliers
(g)Hand towel
(h)Painters tape
Instructions
1. Lay hand towel on the table to keep the beads from rolling around. Wrap the flexible cable loosely around your wrist to get a rough measure of how long you will want your bracelet.
2. Mark that length, with tape, on your towel.
3. Arrange beads in the pattern you’d like for your bracelet between your tape marks.
4. Put a bit of tape on one end of the cable to keep the beads from sliding off the end and allows you to keep that end open in case you need to adjust your pattern or something mid-process.
Now begin to string the beads onto the cable. Once the beads are strung on, wrap them around your wrist again to double check the length. Remember that the clasp will add to the overall length as well.
5. When you reach the desired length, string on a crimp bead and one half of the clasp. Take the end of the cable and put it back into the crimp bead.
6. Tighten up the loop around the clasp.
7. Crush the crimp bead with the flat nose pliers (or a crimping tool). Tuck the end of the cable back down through several beads and trim as necessary
8. Remove the tape from the other end of the cable and repeat steps 5 through 7 with that end and the other half of the clasp.
9. If you are doing multiple strands, repeat steps 4 through 8 on each strand, using the same clasp each time.
10. Show off your new creation!!!! (If I'm making something for a gift, I always wear it for a day to make sure that it hangs nicely, is sturdy and there aren't any sharp edges poking out. Of course there is always the risk that I'll like it so much that the intended recipient won't get it after all...just kidding Penny!)
3 comments:
hi. yes, people are wearing zippers. i haven't quite gotten into the rage because i am pretty sure the last time i was into zippers was during the michael jackson era....your bracelet is lovely and rolling the felt in between is genius. how did you attach it to the bracelet?
Why am I not in your family?
Aleisha, I just threaded my wire/cable onto a needle and used a lot of brute force to jam it through, so actually I did that with 3 wires since thats how many strands of beads I wanted. I've also thought of threading a "bead" like this onto a metal wire and making a rosary link on either end and then using jump rings to attach it to whatever else comes along.
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