Hello and welcome to another jewelry making video brought to you by KeepsakeCrafts.net.
Over the past 100 or so videos I've shown you mostly how to make jewelry.
Today I'm going to show you not only how to make a bracelet,
but how to make the beads that go on it.
This project go started when House of Gems sent me these vibrant 4mm glass bicone beads to
use.
And I decided I wanted to make some beads to match.
So to make our beads we're going to use polymer clay.
It comes in a package like this. There's a few different brands.
There's Premo, Sculpey, Fimo.
But it usually come in 2 ounce packages.
So I'm going to make the base of my beads out of this color,
Burnt Umber.
And you'd be surprised at how little you need.
It's nice, they've divided this up for you so you know if it's a 2 ounce package,
this fourth of it is half an ounce.
We're only going to use a fourth of this fourth.
Just about this much.
That will actually be enough to make 5 or 6 beads for your bracelet.
A very important thing that you need to do when you open a package of polymer clay
is to condition it.
Just take some time
to squish it around and knead it until it's very soft and pliable and there's no crumbly
edges anymore.
I have a piece that I've already done here.
And I've rolled it into a little bit of a log.
And I also have some accent colors.
I mentioned I wanted to match those red beads, so I have this glitter red and this is copper
and gold.
All of these are far more than we'll need. We'll just need a few little pieces
to make our beads.
You'll also need this tool.
This is a bead roller. You can find it at most of your craft stores in the polymer clay
section.
And this tool will make either a bicone bead with this diamond shape,
an oval bead which is what we're going to do today or a round bead .
Using the tool you'll get perfectly shaped beads every time.
An important part of this tool is this little measuring device.
This measures the exact right amount of clay to make any one of these beads.
So the first thing you want to is take your base color and just roll it into a log
that will just fit into this tool.
It's not a crucial thing right now, just get it close to the right size.
Next, from each of your accent colors you'll want to roll a couple of little logs.
And I've actually already done that.
Little snakes really, little tiny rolls of clay.
What we're going to do
is put two of each color
on our background color.
Just kind of tap it down.
So I've got one red, I'm going to put another red on the opposite site.
Nothing real precise here.
The same with the gold,
we'll put that about a third of the way between the two reds.
And one on the other side, and then a copper.
Here's one I've already done.
So I've got 6 little logs of clay on here.
And now you need to roll this out until it's smooth
and it will fit inside your little measuring device.
You want it to just fit.
So there I rolled it a little too skinny,
so we can always just make it bigger again,
just kind of squish the ends together.
You want it to just fit into that device.
I like to work on these 6 inch by 6 inch tiles that I get from the hardware store.
So then what you do is you put your log with its stripes
(I know right now it looks terrible, it doesn't look like anything)
into that hole that's placed on a flat surface
Then you kind of push down a little bit.
What you want is for the clay to fill that space completely.
Because that exact amount is what you need to make one of those beads.
And then you can use just a single edge razor blade, I have my clay blade here,
and cut it off.
One thing I wish this tool came with is something to push the clay out of the measurer,
but I use the back end of my exacto blade.
And now we have the exact right amount of clay to make a bead.
And so here's our little bead roller
Notice it has a slot, let me show you from the side.
One side has a groove and one piece has
a slot that goes into the groove.
It doesn't matter which one is up.
So we're going to put our bit of clay with the stripes perpendicular to the grooves
right in the oval slot.
That's the one I think shows off the swirl best.
But you could experiment with the others.
And the key to making this swirl is that we're only going to roll in one direction.
If we were going to just make an oval bead you might go like this a bit,
but for the swirl you only roll in one direction.
Slide the little guide right in,
roll until you get to the end
and then bring it back.
And you'll have to do this maybe 5 or 6 times, it depends.
And the way to remember if you drop it and you lose track of which way the bead should
go,
Remember that it should be smiling at you.
Not frowning at you,
but smiling.
So we'll roll again.
Now see these ends are opening up?
That's not good.
What you want to do is pinch it,
fold it in half to close that air pocket, and then fold it the other way.
Pinch it the opposite direction,
just to fix the shape.
The same over here, it will open up more later if we don't fix it now.
So just pinch it in half, and then pinch it the opposite direction to fix the shape.
Put it back in - Nope! - It should be smiling at you.
And keep going.
Keep rolling until you like what you see.
And there you have it, a bead.
So repeat.
You'll have to squish this down after every time to make it fit back into the tool.
There's a really cool trick for piercing the holes and making them come out right.
This is a doll needle, it's a pretty fine but very strong needle.
There are bead piercing tools that you can buy.
I'm just going to put that in one end
and then I'm going to face this at me and I'm going to look
exactly where I want that needle to come out.
I'm going to not take my eyes off that spot and going to gently twirl and push the needle,
and look a that.
It's like magic. It came out in the exact right spot.
One you've finished shaping your beads you'll need to bake them.
A great bead baking rack is just an accordion folded piece of card stock.
Make sure you follow the directions on the package of clay that you purchased.
Don't skimp on the baking times as your beads will be strongest baked at the correct temperature.
Polymer clay doesn't have to be sealed, but I put a coat of satin finish on these just
to give them a bit of shine.
It brings out the gold and the metallics in the clay.
And what I use is a water-based varnish called Varathane.
If you're going to use something else be sure to do some research because not all finishes
are compatible with polymer clay.
You can put your beads on the end of skewer stick and put them in a pot to dry.
So once you have your beads made, or you can just purchase some 9mm x 16mm beads if you prefer,
these are the things you'll need for your bracelet.
You'll need 7 9mm x 16mm oval beads.
You'll need 7 4mm glass bicone beads
and 14 6mm x 4mm copper roundels.
You'll also need 2 each crimps, crimp covers and wire protectors,
and a clasp and about a 2 inch piece of chain and about 11 or 12 inches of bead stringing
wire.
Then chain nose pliers, wire cutters and crimping pliers.
So to get started we're going to string on a crimp and then
slide your wire through one end of your wire protector and back out through the other.
Put one end of your piece of chain
over the wire protector.
Then put the other end of the wire back through the crimp,
Slide it up to the wire protector and use chain nose pliers to flatten.
Give that a good tug, make sure it's holding,
trim the excess wire.
Use a pair crimping pliers to pick up your crimp cover,
and put over the flattened crimp.
And now you can start stringing on a pattern of a copper roundel
a 4mm bead glass bicone, a copper roundel,
and one of your oval beads.
Repeat this pattern and then at the end add a final copper roundel, 4mm glass bicone and
a copper roundel
Now I've finished stringing my beads and also added a crimp, wire protector and crimp cover
to the other end,
the same way as we did the first time.
Now I'm finishing up by using a jump ring to add a clasp.
And there you are your bracelet is done.
So if you like this project please be sure to click Subscribe so you subscribe to my
channel and don't miss a thing.
I just love the way these custom beads that I made work perfectly with the little bicones
and even the copper spacers.
So think about what beads you have that you'd like to make a perfect match for and have
some fun.
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Happy creating!
Bye bye