Hello and welcome to another jewelry making video brought to you by KeepsakeCrafts.net.
Today, we'll be making this pretty bracelet in shades of purple. The designing is really
simple. It's really all a matter of what materials you choose.
So to make this bracelet you will need an assortment of focal beads, bead caps, spacers
and Swarovski crystals. What I have are 20 mm by 15 mm gemstones, these purple ones and
then what's interesting with these caps, these bead caps are actually oval or square in shape
so they fit right on to these flat shaped stones. So I have 3 of those and 6 bead caps.
Also I have six 6 mm Swarovski bicones in clear and a purple color that escapes me at
the moment. I also have eight 4 mm round spacer beads and four 2 mm round spacer beads and
at the ends I have four 4 mm Swarovski bicones. You'll also need bead stringing wire. These
are gemstones and crystals so they're kind of heavy, so I'm using a medium weight bead
stringing wire .015. You will be very glad if you get these little
bead bugs. It's just a spring with handles, it clamps on to the wire so that if you're
clumsy like me, you're not dumping your beads all over the place.
This is a scrap of wire, that's why it's so long. But you just want to cut yourself a
nice long piece of wire. Your average bracelet is around 7 to 8 inches, so you want to cut
yourself a piece of wire at least 15 inches just so that you have plenty.
To finish off the ends you'll need a clasp, 2 crimps, 2 wire protectors these little horseshoe
shape things, 2 crimp covers and a jump ring. So the first step in making this bracelet
is just designing and that's one reason I like to have a length of wire that I'm working
on because I know this is going to go in the center and I won't have to take every bead
off if I change my mind. I think when I started I had these 2 and then I needed more length,
so I only had to take off these beads and then added another one.
Notice that every Swarovski crystal has a bead in between it and anything else, a
little spacer bead and that's to protect them because they are crystals and with too much
friction I mean the bracelet's going to be bent around as it goes around your wrist and
we don't want any cracking, these crystals can crack, ask me how I know.
So what you want to do is allow about an inch for your clasp and then you'll want to measure
how long you want your bracelet to be. Measure around your wrist and keep in mind if you
have a very wide bracelet, it's going to sit further up your wrist which is bigger around
than right down right next to your hand. Also, right next to your wrist is one measurement,
so here this is the inside diameter of my wrist, but if I have thick beads if they're
say as thick as my thumb, I'm going to need a length the outside diameter measurement
in order to comfortably go around my wrist because those thick beads take up space.
So my wrist is about 7 and a quarter here and I'm going to make this bracelet, 7 and
a half. So I want to have 6 and half inches of beads strung and that's what I've done
here. And that's just for you to do with what you have, I'll certainly give you a supply list
on the blog post that accompanies this video, but use what you have.
(Oh, I can't believe I left that off. Ahhhh.)
So once you have all your beads strung then it's a matter of just finishing up. First
thing we're going to do is slide on a crimp and then I'm going to slide this through this
little horseshoe shaped thing; I'll show it to you.
These are wire protectors and it's a little horseshoe shape, it's got a channel at each
of the ends and then a groove that goes around the rounded part and that's for the wire to
sit into. And what it does, if I just had my wire going through my clasp like this,
the movement of the bracelet could possibly abrade the wire, so by using these little
wire protectors it just makes your bracelet that much stronger and if you're using gemstones
and Swarovski crystals it would be a real shame if your wire broke and you lost something.
So you just go through one of the channels and then back out through the other channel
and you can see how the wire just sits right in that groove and then I'm going to go through
my clasp. Just like that. So now the wire isn't going to abrade ever.
And next we're going to slide the end of the wire back through the crimp and take a minute
and kind of fiddle with this and get your 2 wires; they usually want to cross, so get
them so that they're parallel to each other.
Leave yourself a little bit of slack because we're going
to put a crimp cover over this to finish it off nicely. Now I found the crimp covers
I have are a little on the small side, so I'm going to make
sure and fold my crimp. So I'm going to use use the crimping pliers and I'm going to use
the notch that has a U shape and you can see when I squeeze that I should have 1 wire
on either side of the crimp. Now that's not going to be holding this wire.
What I'm going to do is take my chain nose pliers and grab that and give it a good squeeze
and always test to make sure it's nice and strong and then you can use flush cut pliers,
flush cut wire cutters that is, to trim this little wire end. Now that is too big for
my little crimp cover so I need to fold it. I was messing around and spending a lot of
time messing and fiddling with things and I found if I grab one side of that crimp
with a pair of pliers, if somebody out there knows a better way to do it let me know but
this is working for me. Grab the other side with another pair and bend them towards each
other. That gave me a good head start towards folding
that crimp. I like my bent nose, chain nose pliers, they just seem to get in
there better, and then just go in there. It can be tough to get a grip on it, and fold
it. I'm also going to, while I'm here, just close up the ends of that wire protector,
bend them next to each other.
And now, this is a crimp cover and it does
just what it says, it covers that flattened squashed crimp and looks like a little bead
there. It kind of looks like a doughnut with a hole bitten out of it. And the best way
I've found to manage these is to pick it up with chain nose pliers, again I like my bent
nose ones, gently, don't squeeze hard or you'll close it and then I just slide it over the
crimp bead and now you can squeeze it. And then it just looks like you've got a little
bead there. And now all you have to do is repeat the process
on the other end, attaching a jump ring instead of clasp and your bracelet is done.
So I hope you enjoyed this video and I hope you'll give this project a try. Thanks so
much for watching KeepsakeCrafts' videos. Here are a couple more that you might enjoy.
Be sure to check out KeepsakeCrafts.net blog for lots more crafting and sewing ideas and
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of my videos. Thank you so much for watching. Have a good
one. Bye bye.