Make this dazzling bracelet in minutes!

I want to show you how to make either of these fabulous bracelets in just minutes! 

The foundation or base for these is Ultra Suede. If the Ultra Suede you buy at the local fabric store seems sort of thin and flimsy - you can try laminating two pieces together using some fusible interfacing.

Or you can just get it from us. ;-)

Accessories - Narrow Ultra Suede Cuff Strip - Jet Black (1)










Let's do the Black bracelet first. Once you see how the snap closure is done, you'll know how to do the Pink one too.  
The shiny crystals are hot fix - but here's the dirty little secret. They aren't applied one at a time - but all at once, by using the Crystal Tex Applique. I used 7 inches - which is about 18 cm.
Swarovski - Applique - Crystal Tex (62030) - Crystal (1 cm)

Watch this video to see how it is done. You can use a regular iron instead of the hot fix press. Remember - no steam, and lots of pressure - but no "ironing" - that is, no sliding the iron around. If your iron won't cover the entire piece to be hot-fixed

Here's the temperature chart again.

Now - to add the closure - which is a Swarovski Snap.

This is the top half of the snap - which is also called a "Decorative Button." (All the snaps, decorative buttons, and the applicator are on this page - Rhinestone Snaps.) The prongs on the back of the Top Front piece go through the fabric and into the groove on the back piece, and are bent into the groove - thus securing it securely - so that you are secure that it is secure.

The back of the snap is your everyday pop-snap doo-hickey. It is secured in much the same way. To close the snap - it snaps into the hole in the Top Back piece above.

Watch this video to see how to make it all come together and to assemble the dies that go into the applicator.

The pink bracelets - as shown above, is just a series of "Decorative Buttons" - plus one back - so that the end one functions as the closure. I just didn't think you wanted to watch me applying them!

It might take you a few tries to get the technique down pat - I ruined the first three by not having them lined up or in the machine straight - but once you get the hang of it - you'll be away to the races!

Wiring a Briolette

Running a bit late today - the drains stopped draining and getting that sorted out shot my morning all to heck and back.

Heather asked me about wiring up briolettes - so I thought I would show you that. In a nutshell - think of it as doing two wrapped loops, like making a link!

If you are hanging any bead with a vertical hole - you run your headpin or wire through the hole and make a wrapped loop at the top, but if you are hanging a bead with a horizontal hole - either side to side or front to back - you need to figure out how to deal with the other end of the wire.

Let's take a look. Remember - you can click on these images to see a larger version.

I'm going to ease you into this.

Start with a nice weight of wire that is easy to bend. I'm using 22 gauge Artistic brand wire for these pictures.

Slide your briolette or drop bead onto the wire, about 1.5 inch onto the wire, and fold the wire up on either side of the bead - so the bead is at the bottom of a U bend.


Next, you need to deal with that tail of wire, so you are going to wrap it around the long wire. To do this - continue to fold the wires together until they cross.






Now, wrap the short wire around the long one - keeping the wraps next to each other. Holding the wire with a pair of thin pliers at the loop, just at the top of the bead will help.






Slide a complementary bead onto the wire - and make a wrapped loop on the other end.


See a recap of wrapped loops here, and a video here.



There you go - one version of a wrapped loop.







But let's explore that "wrapped loop" idea a little further.

Make a the start of a wrapped loop and then add the bead, instead of bending the wire around the bead. This is good for fragile beads that might chip, or for a consistent look with consistently sized loops.

Then wrap the tail around the main wire.

Just do a couple of wraps, and then add a wrapped loop at the other end. This time, we'll skip the bead in the middle - as it may not work with your design.
















Finally - what if you want less round loop for the bead, more triangular, say?

Then simply form your initial "loop" around your chain nose pliers, instead of the round nose pliers. The angular shape of the chain nose pliers will give you a more angular "loop."

And ...

If you don't trim the tail from the first loop right away, and carry on and make your next loop, you can more easily judge when to trim the wires so that they fit down together nicely.

Wrap your second loop up to the last loop from the first half, then unwind each wire tail slightly and trim - now they bend down nicely and fit together for a near invisible seam. Use the round hole in your crimp pliers to bend them back down into place.

The end result can be near invisible - showing only on one side.








And there you have it - the painless way to wire wrap a briolette or drop bead.

Cheers!

Further thoughts of Wiring a Pendant

Once you get going on wiring up beads into pendants, it's hard to stop! You can soon have one for every day of the month! (See the previous two Monday posts.)

Sterling silver spacers are great, but sometimes, you might want to add a touch of sparkle! For that, a small crystal bicone is fabulous. Generally, 4 mm, 5 mm or 6 mm are about the sizes you will need for this.

Try different sizes and colours until you find the one you like the most. This 6 mm aqua bicone is striking, but perhaps a little large.

This 4 mm indicolite bicone seems to get lost.

This 5 mm Jet AB2X seems perfect!









You can put a crystal at just one end, or both! I also like the way the shape of them fits down into the bead hole.

Make a Wrapped Loop to finish. Be careful not to wrap the wire down too tight next to the crystal, as it make chip or crack off the headpin.

Wiring a Pendant - Transforming a Bead

You may have considered using a bead that you can see needs to hang vertically - but the hole seems to run in the other direction. What to do? Here's how you can simply use a headpin and a few spacer beads to wire up a handsome pendant. You can even keep a selection of these handy and swap them on and off a single chain.

You will need a headpin, some spacer beads, and, of course, your bead to hang vertically. Last week, we discussed using spacer beads to ensure that the headpin doesn't pull through the hole of the bead.

Make sure your headpin is generously long enough, and that is is not too light weight for the bead. Headpins with decorative ends are idea for this. (Note - the headpins on the far right of this first pic are too short for any of these beads shown.)

Try different combinations of headpins and spacers until you get a look that you think is pleasing and attractive.















The bigger a bead is, generally, the larger the hole, and so, your headpin may "slop" around inside the hole, making it hang slightly off-centre when done. To stop this, find some inexpensive beads - seedbeads or small metal beads - that will fit inside the hole, and stop the focal bead from tilting to one side. They just need to fill up that extra space.









At the other end of the bead - which will be the top, I like to select spacers/beads that complement the spacers/beads at the bottom, for a balanced look.

Then make a Wrapped Loop. We have a video tutorial here, but here's a quick recap as well.




Bend an angle (about 90 degrees) in the headpin. Leave a small gap before starting the bend.

Bend the headpin around the roundnose pliers to start the shape of the loop.

Reposition the pliers inside the loop and continue to make a round loop.

Finish by wrapping the tail of the wire around the headpin in the small gap you left earlier.


Sometimes the loop that you make is still not large enough to fit easily on and off the chain that you have chosen to hang the bead from, but you can easily add a larger jumpring to the loop to make it fit the chain you have in mind.



And there you go!

Actually - I'm not really happy with that wrap - I made the loop a little too large and consequently, ran out of headpin to make the wrap really tight, but you get the idea!

What to do - when the Headpin is too small for the hole

You're wiring up a pendant, and the only headpins you have have too small a head for the hole - they just slide right through the bead!

Use a spacer bead with a smaller hole to stop the headpin going through the hole in the bead!

Add one more more spacer beads - I find you can create a very nice look by stacking them - and you can handily stop the headpin from pulling through the hole.

I have a little bin that I put all the little left over spacers from projects into - so that I always have an interesting assortment of beads handy for just such use.

Dangly Earrings: Using up the Leftover

Some of the best stuff starts as a way to use up left-overs. Think jambalya, trifle, quilts. Well - these dramatic earrings started as a way to use up leftover ends of beading wire, and turned into earrings in their own right!

You'll need some smallish beads - crystals or what-have-you - leftovers are good here too, those left-over ends from when you cut off the Softflex or whatever beading wire you are using. We are going to be folding them in half - so 8 inch pieces will give us 4 inch earrings. If you want to make them shorter, you can trim, or use shorter pieces. And some crimps. Base metal crimps are ok here - you are just going to flatten, not roll them! (I did use sterling crimp tubes - 'cause that's what I had handy - but you could save some money with silvertone base metal crimps beads.) And a pair of earwires. And two sterling crimp tubes - as they are bigger than the base metal crimps.

• So - pieces of beading wire - 3 per earring
  
• 2 sterling crimp tubes (bigger)
• more crimps
• beads
• pair earwires.

To get all these dangly wires attached to the ear wires in a tidy way - we are going to start with the longest scrap, fold it in half, and slide the earwire onto it and to the centre.













Next, poke both ends through a bead -











and slide the bead up to the earwire. This will be your loop.


















Now - grab two more pieces of beading wire, fold them in half, and poke the ends through the bigger crimp - the sterling crimp tube.













And now take the two ends from the one you already threaded onto the earwire, and stuff them in there too - you should have a bundle of 3 pairs, 6 ends - sticking out of the crimp tube - and that's about all you can get in there!






Slide the crimp tube up towards the top, being careful not to pull the wires out of the crimp tube.














We're getting close here now.

















I find that in order to prevent from pulling they wires out while doing the final lining up - it is prudent to put something through the loops temporarily to prevent them pulling out of the tube. I used the other earwire, as it was handy - a piece of wire or a needle works too.
















Nice and neat! Slide out your aligning wire and ...






















And crimp that baby!

Now you have 6 sassy wires to string some beads on!


















Slide your beads on, I tend to go for random order ...




















Leave a gap of an inch or so, add a crimp, and squash it. That's where the beads will be - they will sit on top of the crimp when the earring is being worn.















Two beads together look nice too.



















When you get to the end of a strand, add a crimp, and a bead, ...













and double back up through the crimp.













Squash and trim. I do this because the ends of the wires are scratchy and irritate my neck - so I prefer a nice smooth loop instead.












Carry on and do the rest of the strands.
















Stagger the clusters of beads - so they don't all wind up in the same places.









Voila! Now make another!





And there you have it. I, of course, make them ridiculously long - so you might want to make them a little shorter!