Whenever you make a piece of jewelry with a multitude of elements, like this bracelet with its 63 pearl dangles, there needs to be some kind of unifying factor. In this case it’s shape and finish, as they are all round pearls, plus they all have gunmetal plated bead caps.
Color is another great way to pull a piece together. If all the beads were different sizes, shapes and finishes, but were shades of a single color, that would also work.
So have fun going through your stash (or shopping!) for a variety of beads that will come together as a unified whole, and make a party for your wrist. 🙂
Enjoy the video and happy creating.
You can watch the Pearl Party Bracelet Video Tutorial over at YouTube.
Materials:
- 6.5 inches of 10mm link chain
- 6.5 inches of 5mm link chain
- 6.5 inches of 6mm link chain
- lobster clasp
- 23 6mm jump rings
- 63 glass pearls beads, 6mm-12mm
- 63 bead caps
- 63 head pins
Tools:
- chain nose pliers
- round nose pliers
- wire cutters
- ruler
- Open a jump ring and slide on lobster clasp and end link of each piece of chain. Open another jump ring and slide on remaining end links of chain.
- Onto each head pin slide a glass pearl bead and a bead cap. Cut wire to 3/8-inch above bead cap. Grasp end of wire with round nose pliers and wrap wire around pliers as far as possible to start to make a loop. Reposition pliers to finish loop so it just crosses over itself. Grasp loop with pliers to center over bead, making sure loop is closed securely.
- Repeat step 2 with all glass pearl beads, bead caps & head pins to make a total of 63 bead dangles.
- Open a jump ring and slide onto one 10mm link of chain, add loops of three of your bead dangles. Close jump ring securely.
- Repeat step 4 to add 3 bead dangles to each 10mm link of chain, occasionally catching a link of 5mm or 6mm chain in jump ring.
. I learned that if you coat the first half of the mold with Vaseline, then the second half won’t stick to it, so you can separate the two parts. Pretty cool! (You can see what I mean and how to do it for yourself in
patina. However, this bracelet uses a LOT of wire (about 21 feet) and when the time came to make it, I didn’t have enough silver filled. 🙁
is a tool I spotted in a magazine a while back, went online and watched the demo video and immediately said, “WANT!”