Today I was feeling like I might be coming down with a case of the bird flu or something, which didn’t really make me all that happy, since I think I have about an hour of sick time left at work (thanks, stomach flu!). I also had to go to the post office, bank, and grocery store, which are three of my least favorite places in the world, so, to put it plainly, I was totally pumped about the awesome day I was having. But then I checked the mail, and noticed that hurrah! My pal SooZen had sent me a package! In the envelope were 10 mirage beads, which are cool because they change color and are activated by body temperature (so, sort of like a mood ring, but in bead form). In case you don’t know this, SooZen is a brilliant jewelry artist, and she’s definitely been an inspiration and an encouragement to me as I’ve gotten into beading.
Anyway, I decided that what I needed to do to lift my spirits was to make myself some jewelry, because getting something beautiful is an instant pick-me-up. Plus, beading is relaxing, because it’s hard to think about other stuff when you’re concentrating on making something. So I grabbed my camera and headed toward my beading table. And here we go. Jewelry lesson!
The first step in bracelet making is to cut some wire. I was planning to make a 7″ bracelet, so I cut 9″ of wire, which would leave me just enough room for the finishing. For stringing projects, I use a type of wire called Accuflex (or Beadalon, depending on what’s in the store), which consists of several strands of stainless steel wire coated with nylon. This wire is very strong and flexible, which makes it ideal for bracelets and necklaces.
Once I had my wire cut, I selected the beads I was going to use. This was pretty easy, because I already knew I would be using the mirage beads, but I needed some other beads to go with them.
For this project, I selected some Bali silver beads. I love Bali silver because the artistry is always amazing. For the center of the bracelet (which is what’s visible in the picture), I chose a fancy bead, and for the rest of the bracelet, I picked some granulated square spacers. You can kind of see the edge of one in the photo. Spacer beads are flat and their name is pretty self-explanatory: you use them to put space between two beads. I also decided to use some liquid silver tube beads. I know. That’s really exciting.
I also chose a simple sterling toggle for the clasp. I like toggles because they’re the easiest to fasten/unfasten, and they’re usually more interesting than a lobster claw or c-ring clasp (I don’t actually think I’ve ever used c-ring clasps).
I decided that I wanted to make a double-strand bracelet, because, you know, why not? I didn’t really feel like getting too fancy with it, though, so I strung both strands of wire through all the beads except the tube beads. Like so:
I suppose some people think of their pattern before they start stringing, but I find that a large portion of the fun is to play with a few different styles before sticking to one. Also, I like to let the beads surprise me. What I mean by that is that sometimes, I’ll start something and then realize that it’s not working or I don’t like it as much as I thought I would. In the case of this bracelet, I started by stringing the center on both strands (the two largest mirage beads and the big Bali bead, capped on each end with a spacer) and then decided that I would string the individual strands with three liquid silver tube beads each. I discovered, however, that the holes in the spacers and the mirage beads were too large — they kept swallowing my tube beads, which was totally ruining my pattern.
Whatever would I do? Oh, the suspense.
Well, I kind of already gave it away with the picture, so if you were paying attention, you’ll know that I decided to use some sterling silver ball beads between the tube beads and the spacers, because they have smaller holes and I knew that the tube beads wouldn’t disappear inside of them. Of course, since each of the ball beads are 4mm, I had to rearrange things a little so that my bracelet wouldn’t turn into a necklace. (These things happen, at least if you’re me, because I don’t believe in planning.) But I figured it out and it all worked just swell.
Anyway.
Once all the beads are strung to satisfaction, it’s time for the fun part — finishing it off and attaching the clasp. The first step of this is crimping.
The first picture is of crimp beads and the second picture is of crimping pliers. Crimping pliers are really handy and I love them. So much, in fact, that I have two — regular and micro. What crimping pliers do is smash the crimp bead onto the wire, which holds the wire in place. Really, it does. I know that crimping can be done with other kinds of pliers which smash the bead flat, but crimping pliers are cool (no, they are!) because they round off the bead so the crimp is smooth and rough-edge-free. Crimping is a two-step process, but it’s a little more complex with this particular bracelet because there are two strands of wire. If you look at the pliers, you’ll see that there are two, uh, loop-type things in them. The bottom one is kind of heart-shaped and the top one is more round. To finish a double-strand bracelet (that you’re not attaching to a double-strand clasp), the first step is to crimp both strands of wire. To start, use the bottom part of the pliers to get each strand of wire on its own side of the bead. Like so:
Then, you finish the crimp by putting the crimp bead into the top, round, part of the pliers and letting the pliers round off the edges. This may sound all wacky, but if you do it once, it’ll make sense forever. Once both strands have been crimped, cut one of the strands:
Now it’s time to attach the clasp. To do this, you need another crimp bead and, well, the clasp. String the crimp bead, then the clasp (I usually like to put another bead there because it will hide wire ends and takes some stress off the clasp, and I also usually double crimp, but today I decided to skip this step). Once everything is strung, run the wire back through the crimp bead:
Crimp it, cut the dangling end of the wire flush with the crimp bead, and there you go. Done!
I’m certain that this has been enlightening and thrilling for you, because everything I write is. And Soo, thanks a million times for the beads… I loooove them, and the bracelet turned out alright, huh?
