Crafts Beautiful - Quick & Crafty - Let's Make Cards Magazine

Beading is one of the hottest craft techniques at the moment, offering the opportunity to create unique and personalised pieces that reflect the constantly changing styles and shades in fashion. Novices may find this a little daunting at first, but it needn’t be complicated; in fact you can create some truly amazing accessories with just the simplest of techniques. All this project requires is some cutters and pliers for the necklace and earrings, while the bracelet is threaded onto elastic cord for an instant result! We’ve used beautiful chunky glass beads in red, black and crystal for an eye-catching appearance, but you can select any colour scheme you like to go with a favourite outfit.

Chunky Necklace

Decide on the size, colours and sequencing of the necklace and lay the beads out in groups on felt or fleece, adding a silver crimp at the start and end of each selection. Cut 70cm of silver tiger tail wire. Starting with the middle cluster of gems, thread onto the wire and pass down to the mid-point, fastening securely in position by compressing the crimps on either side with flat-nosed pliers.

Work out from the centre along each side of the necklace, holding each group of beads in place by compressing the crimps. When the last 10cm of wire on each side is reached, thread on a crimp, three small gems and another two crimps. Add the toggle to one end of the wire, then pass 3cm back through the first two crimps and the three small beads.

Compress the top two crimps and snip the spare wire so that the cut end sits inside one of the gems and will be hidden when the necklace is finished. Push the third crimp upwards to stop the beads from falling downwards and firmly compress it. Repeat this on the other end of the wire to attach the clasp.

Earrings

To form the dropper, sandwich a large red gem between two small black facets and two silver ‘E’ beads on a long silver head pin. Bend the wire with the round-nosed pliers above the top bead to form a right-angle, and trim to 1cm with cutters. Holding the end with a pair of round-nosed pliers, turn your wrist to create a circle.

Join the dropper to the earwire by using two pairs of roundnosed pliers to gently twist open the loop (don’t pull the ends apart as this will make it impossible to re-form). Thread through the earwire and carefully close the dropper together.

Bracelet

Trim 25cm of elastic beading cord and thread with a sequence of gems, alternating the shades and sizes. Measure the finished length required carefully, and tie a double knot once this is reached. Repeat to produce a second bracelet, then tie the two together with lengths of white organza and red satin ribbon.