DIY Jewelry: Create Your Own Beaded Bracelet

Created by Nancy

This is the beautiful Barbara Bush Bracelet that Nancy, our beads department manager, created recently. Creating your own jewelry can be therapeutic and it also makes great gifts. This would be a spectacular Mother's Day gift, or you may just want to keep this beauty for yourself.

Here at our Bonney Lake Ben Franklin store our goal is to help you create projects you love. We have many jewelry projects on display in our bead department and many of those have project sheets with complete instructions for you to take home. We want your beading to be fun and easy. If you have questions on your bead projects bring them in and our bead shop staff will be happy to help you!

Supplies Needed:
Fireline 6# Beading Thread
Big Eye Beading Needle
1 Strand 6mm Pearls (21-26 pearls approximately)
1 Tube Size 11 Seed Beads
1 Strand 4mm Bicone Crystal
1 Clasp (your choice of style)

Tools Needed:
Wire Cutters

Directions:

• Use 3 yards of thread. String 2 core beads (6mm), leaving a 12" tail. 
• Loop 1 and 2: string one section of side beads ( 4 size 11 seed beads, 1 4mm fire polish crystals and 4 size 11 seed beads)
• Pass the needle through the two core beads to form a loop.
• Repeat once again to form a loop on the opposite side of the core (figure 1).
• note: picture shows five size 11's. If beads are small, use 5.

• Loop 3 and on: String 1 core bead and one set of side beads.
• Slide the beads down to the work and pass the needle through the same two core beads to form a loop on the opposite side of the core, on top of the previous loop (figure 2)

 

Repeat until you have the desired length, stringing 1 new core bead for each pair of loops, and flipping one loop to each side of the core beads before starting the next loop.

Clasp:

• With needle exiting the size 6 fp, string 4 size 11 sb, one end of the toggle, and two more size 11 sb.
• Pass back through the first two 11's and the next two size 6 fp.
• Follow bead path through the loop beads on the side of the bracelet, out and around the clasp again.
• Repeat on the other loop and ending by tieing around one thread by the size 6.
• Pass the needle on through a couple of beads and clip.
• Repeat with the tail thread on the other end of the bracelet.

key:
sb - seed beads
fp - fire polish crystals

Visit our website for great projects and inspiration.
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Visit us on Pinterest for more great inspirational crafts.