Have you ever come across an assortment of beads that you liked so much all
together you wanted to use them all together in a project> In today's video
I'm going to show you a simple way of wire wrapping a bunch of beads that all
work together to make a multi strand bracelet. Hi, there, Sandy here. Welcome
to another jewelry making video at keepsakecrafts.net. So in a recent Friday
findings video I showed you how to use a wire jig to make your own multi strand
findings and I wanted to make these because I had in mind
to make a multi strand bracelet using these beads. This is an assortment of
Czech glass beads called fall harvest mix that i got in a recent bead box
subscription and i just really liked the assortment, the way all the different
colors work together. One month i got these and then the next month was the
Czech glass autumn a mix with a vintage bronze luster, and at first i had thought
to put them together but then i decided there was something about the matte
finish of these and the luster finish of these that i didn't really
care for together. So i started pulling out some other beads that I had, these
are turquoise brown travertine, that's really pretty and that would go really
nice with the copper, these are olive green and those are pretty, too, and then
these are four millimeter Czech glass beads. I want to make three strands to go
on my three strand separator, another thing I wanted to do with this bracelet
is make wrapped loop bead components just because the wrapped loops really
adds something to a piece of jewelry. They're not just functional but they're
quite decorative and it'll be especially pretty once I add a patina with liver of
sulfur and then polish up the high points. I know I'm going back and forth
on these design decisions. alright now I think I'm... I don't know, no, I think I'm
gonna pass on the luster. I like this color but I don't know, grrr. Oh back and
forth. All right we'll stick with these, maybe not
these, yes, I like that. Hey, a woman is allowed to change her mind!
So I'm just gonna unstring all of these and put them in a pile, and this
one is definitely one that wants to be centerpiece, and I'm cutting the other
end, the end away from the labels, so that if I don't use them all I'll still have
the label. So for this I'm using 24 gauge wire, 22 gauge wire would work well, too,
but the 24 will be fine and it can be a little tricky to judge just how much
wire you need so I'm going to cut a good long piece, like maybe 12 inches, and then
I'll use that to get as many components as I can out of it. So the first thing
you want to do is grab it with chain nose pliers leaving about an inch and a
half or so of wire, bend it over at a 90 degree angle, tuck in your round nose
pliers, try to make your loops a consistent size, if you need to you can
always use a sharpie to mark right on your pliers where you're making all of
your loops. This 24 gauge wire is fine enough that I can actually do it with my
fingers and I'm going to use flat nose pliers, it's kind of tough doing the
first one because you don't have anything to wrap against, but you do want
those wraps nice and close together,
and now you can slide on your beads. So I think for this one I'm going to do, let's
see... I think I need to play a little. Let's see, I've got the heart, maybe one of
those, no, is there a smaller one over here? I don't want it to be too big maybe just
that. All right, just that, just my two accents with this big heart. Again, chain
nose pliers, just the tips to leave maybe an eighth of an inch of wire above
the last bead, round nose pliers again tucked in at about the same spot,
wrap it around, reposition, and see now I have something to kind of wrap against,
and if you push down just a little with your round nose pliers that will
actually smoosh those wraps together making them tighter and neater,
and then make sure you tuck in that end in. There is one component. Since this
will be a triple strand bracelet and the clasp and these findings will take up
about an inch, maybe a little over an inch, and I want a seven and a quarter
inch bracelet I'm going to need about six inches of bead strands times three.
And so you just continue making these loops, but the thing you can't forget is
that you have to connect them together. I often get all excited and start wrapping
and then forget to connect the next one. Now if you want before you get started
wrapping you can take a minute and kind of lay out your beads the way you'd like
them to be, in the order that you want your strands in, This is just - it's kind
of a floppy wire, the 24 gauge, I actually would have used 22 but I didn't have any.
Yeah, it's a little easier if you hold the loop with your round nose pliers and
then under the wire with chain nose. So I'm making these, these will probably end
up being somewhere under an inch long. Oh.and see, I forgot! I forgot to attach it. I
meant to attach this to that. I do it all the time.
Make your loop, reposition, finish your loop, and attach it to the piece that
you want it to be attached to. There! And what's wonderful is that you can use a
fairly fine gauge wire and yet know that your bracelet is going to be quite
secure, Now if you forget and wrap two ends don't despair, just make sure that
you insert it in between two other pieces that you've made. So for me for
laying this out I just find it easier to actually take a little bit of time and
kind of plan things ahead so they're spaced out evenly. So the first thing I
did was I took my heart which is kind of gonna be the central one and I centered
it on my design board here so it'll be the center one, about, of the center
strand, and then the other biggest elements are this round bead and then
also these. Actually they're drilled on the end and so the way they were strung
on the strand that I bought was kind of in a cluster and I sort of like that and
that will make another large elemen. Then I found all of the ones that give a
bit of a pop of red, there were six, so I put two on each strand and kind of spaced
them out staggered, and then just kept filling in with the next brightest
element or biggest element or, you know, most obvious element and just kept
filling in until I had a little less than six inches filled in. Here you can
see the markings on the board make it really easy to do. Then as I'm beading
I'll just fill in, like with these beads and so on. One thing you want to make
sure that you do is not too close in the loops of the ones that are going to be
on the ends because these loops are closed,
as opposed - technically you could kind of wrap it around, but who wants to do that?
In fact what I recommend you do is kind of work from the center to one side
and then attach your ends to one of these pieces, then you can work to this
side and that way you can adjust your final ones to make sure that all three
strands are about the same length. Now I've got my bracelet nearly done the
trickiest part of this design is getting all of the strands to be pretty much the
same length. So I did one I did this one first and made sure it was the length I
needed it to be to fit, and then I did this second one, and you can see it's
actually a little bit longer but it's it's not a huge difference, that's fine,
and I thought I would show you the process just on this last one and you
want to start looking and at it and thinking about your size once you get
towards like the last two links that you're going to make because you don't
want to end up with your last one being something, oh, like one bead
or not having room for many beads or have one that's too long. You definitely
want to keep your links under an inch, I tried to keep most of them under 3/4 of
an inch because with this finer 24 gauge wire they're going to bend and also they
just won't fit around your wrists nicely. So I've got this laid out and you want
to make sure first of all that all of your loops are pulled out straight. So
sometimes they kind of get hung up on each other so make sure they're all like
this where the loops are just touching on the edges and not hooked in a
different way. Let's see if I can - you know, like sometimes it'll get stuck up here, so you
want to make sure you've got them all pulled down. See like that one, this is
kind of hung up. There we go, and also you want to make sure that your separator
bars are parallel to each other. And now I have my
last few beads on I'm just gonna hold this down and give this a tug and
looking at this strand judging from by where the loop starts,
I could definitely add in a couple more beads. Okay, that's too long, so just
the one. So, like I said, this is the trickiest part, and it's not crucial that
they be exactly the same size but you do want them pretty close. And the thing you
have to be careful about with this kind of design, I'm not sure why it is,
but for me I often find out my subsequent rows end up being too short,
so just be careful. Take a little bit of time to measure. And then it's time to
finish up the loop, making sure that you remember to attach it to the loop of the
multi bar spacer. So many of you have told me that you've been inspired by and
benefited from my tutorials and you know, if everybody who told me that became a
patron what an awesome thing would that be. Let me interrupt myself for a second
here: It's at this point that you need to attach it and also you want to be sure
that your your strands aren't twisted because the loops only work, you know, if
I try to twist this one a lot it's just not gonna hang nicely, so kind of let it
hang straight down and make sure those loops are all facing in in a direction
that lets them lies smoothly, and then I can pick this up, pop that wire through
there, pop that through the loop, and then this is just a little bit more
tricky than than doing a loop that isn't attached to anything, but not
really, you just get your nice narrow chain nose pliers in there to hold that
and then I like to use my bent nose to grab the wire and make the wraps. So like
I was saying, if everybody who has been inspired by my videos became a patron-
did you know that patrons who support me at five dollars more a month get an
extra bonus tutorial every month and those of you who support me ten dollars
more a month get an extra two extra bonus tutorials every month? Just
something to think about. And everybody who supports me just three dollars a
month actually gets, after six months of support at that level, gets a gift in the
mail for me as a way of saying thank you. Now another thing you want to do is
take your fingers and just run them down each strand feeling for any snags as you
go along. Of course you should try to tuck in all of those ends, like you just
saw me do, but sometimes they just want to stick out, and so just take
a minute and make sure that you don't feel any rough spots or snags. You can do
a little tucking in with your pliers, you can file if you need to. Another reason I
want them...Oh, there's one... another reason I want to be sure that
they're nice and smooth is because I'm going to put this in a liver of sulfur
bath which will darken it and then I'm going to polish everything with a
polishing cloth and if there are bits sticking out it makes the polishing
tough. And if you want to learn more about liver of sulfur and adding a
patina that way I've done a whole video on that and it will be linked up here in
the cards. So you just add your clasp So if you're interested in the supplies be
sure to click on the link in the upper right, lower left, or in the description
box to go to my blog post where I always have a
complete supply list with links to products. And if you haven't subscribed
already make sure you do, you can also subscribe to my email newsletter so that
you'll always get an email every time I put up a new blog post or video. Happy
creating! Bye bye.