Hello and welcome to another jewelry making video brought to you by KeepsakeCrafts.net
and Fancy That Art Jewelry Etsy Shop. Today, we're going to let the beads do the
work for us. With just some simple stringing, these top drilled bicones make a very interesting
bracelet design. So it's the choice of beads that we're using
here that makes our bracelet design. I don't know if you can see it but these bicones instead
of being drilled through from point to point are actually drilled across one of the points.
And we can use that to let the beads nest into each other and make a really great kind
of spiral design. So what you'll need are some Swarovski crystal
bicone beads that are top drilled. Here we have 12 8mm Indian pink; 12 8mm mocha; 12
8mm cyclamen, then we have 12 6mm in rose and 12 6mm in lavender.
You'll also need a piece of bead stringing wire. About 12 to 14 inches is great for a
bracelet. You'll need a toggle clasp or a clasp of your choice. You'll need 2 crimp
beads and then a few accent beads. So we'll start by adding half of our clasp.
You want to slide on a crimp bead. And then, slide on one of your accent beads. By not
having your crimp bead right up against your toggle, it just protects it a little bit.
So then go through one of the pieces of your toggle and then back through both beads, the
accent bead and the crimp.
So we're just going to pull up our wires snug
to the clasp. And you don't want it too snug because then your bracelet is stiff. The next
step is to flatten the crimp bead. If you're comfortable using crimping pliers, go ahead
and do that. I happen to like just using a chain nose pliers.
So make sure that your wires are lying side by side as they come out of the crimp bead,
you don't want them crossing. And then just go ahead and grab that bead with your chain
nose pliers and give it a good squeeze. Flatten it out. Always give that a tug. Make sure
that's not going anywhere. And then if you have that secure, you don't
need to leave any tail because a tail isn't going to make it any more secure. So you can
just go ahead and snip off that excess wire. So once you have your crimp secured on the
wire, go ahead and string on another one of your accent beads. That way the crimp is sandwiched
between two accent beads and kind of protected there.
If you have a crimp cover which is a little thing, it looks like a bead once it's snapped
over it, you can go ahead and add one. I just don't happen to have any right now. And that'll
just make it look like another bead but this actually serves to disguise it.
So then you go ahead and start stringing your bead pattern and it's very simple. Just arrange
your beads in the order that you'd like them to be. And you're going to have your 6 mm,
your 6 mm and then your 3 8mm and you just string two of each. And we start with the
smaller ones because that just gives the toggle a little bit more space so that you can slide
it in. So you can see, when I said these are top
drilled, now you can see a little bit more clearly what I mean that it's drilled through one
of the points of the bicone rather than from point to point. So simply string on two of
each and really the designing here is in the sizes you choose and the colors you choose and the
way you arrange your colors.
So you can see they sort of nest into each
other and they kind of spiral as they go along the wire. You'll see what I mean when I get
a few more on.
So once you get a few on, just go ahead
shake them down so that they nest into each other and now you can see what I mean by the
way they spiral. Now at this point you may have to do a little
bit of experimenting, stringing and re-stringing to determine just how many beads that you
need for the length of bracelet you need. I have actually done that a few times. I need
a bracelet that's just a smidge over 7 inches and so I'm going to actually use all of these
beads. I've done one set that used two of each of
these five kinds of beads. Now I'm going to go ahead and do in between all the 8 mm are
always going to have two pink 6 mm rose 6 mm beads and two Provence lavender 6 mm
beads. And then to make this bracelet just a little
bit bigger, at this point I'm actually going to add a three of each of my 8 mm.
Let me lay out the pattern for you. There'll be two of each of the 8 mm and then three of each.
So, we'll have three and three and then two of each of the little ones and then two of
each of the big ones. I'm just making it symmetrical, that's just me.
And then, two of each of the smaller in between and then another three of each of the bigger
ones. And then, finishing with two more of each of these and then two.
So the smaller ones are always two and two and then for the larger ones we go two's,
three's, two's, three's, two's and that uses up all 12 of your beads.
If you need a larger bracelet what you can do is add a few more beads at the end. That's
actually a good idea to have a few more smaller beads like these accents at the end with a
toggle bar. So I'm going to go ahead and finish my stringing and then I'll show how to finish
it up. Here I have strung all my beads. Now keep
in mind because this bracelet has some depth to it, some thickness you actually need a
little bit more length than you might normally on a skinnier, slimmer profile of a bracelet.
This one right now is at... and make sure that you shake all the beads down and get
them to nest into each other because otherwise it'll be longer than you think it is. And
when you finish it, they will slide down and then you'll have a loose wire. Right now this is
at about 7 and half inches, which will be just right for a 7 or 7 and a quarter wrist.
Like I said, if you need a little bit more, go ahead and add a few more accent beads.
What I'm going to do right now is slide on an accent bead and a crimp and our last accent
bead and the toggle bar. And then slide the wire back through the accent bead and the
crimp and then go ahead and pull it up. Again make sure that those are all nested
down to each other and leave just a tiny bit of slack in your wire so that your bracelet
hangs. That's a little stiff so I'm just going to loosen it even just a 16th of an inch.
Now it's draping nicely. And then we'll just go ahead and flatten that
crimp, just the way I did to the other one making sure that the wires are flat to each
other. Give it a tug. Make sure it's secure. Cut off the excess wire. And there you have
it: a lovely bracelet, very simple to do. So here's another look at the bracelet we
made today. Isn't it fun? I think it's a lot of fun to make a project that looks complicated
but because of the materials we chose, it's actually very simple to do.
If you'd like to make a bracelet just like this one, I actually have this available in
kit form at my Fancy That Art Jewelry Etsy Shop. You will get all genuine Swarovski crystal
beads, all the ones you see here. You will get a slightly different clasp than the one
in this picture but it will be silver plated and you will get sterling silver crimps and
accent beads. So thanks so much for watching my jewelry
videos. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don't miss a thing. And also
subscribe to my blog, KeepsakeCrafts.net, for lots of jewelry making and sewing, crafting
ideas and inspiration. Have a good one and happy creating.