Grandmother Bracelet
You've heard of mothers' rings and mothers' bracelets, now here's a grandmother bracelet. Of course, you can use this same idea to create a mother bracelet, but my own mother has five grandchildren and I thought she'd enjoy a subtle reminder of them. While many mother's bracelets often have beads with the children's names or initials on them, this bracelet includes five birthstone-colored crystal beads for each grandchild. You can adjust the color and number of beads according to the number of children represented in the bracelet.
You'll need the following:
16 - 4mm hematite beads
5 birthstone-colored crystal beads
6 clear crystal square AB beads
22 sterling daisy spacers
1 sterling toggle clasp
2 sterling crimp beads
approx. 10 inches of beading wire
crimping pliers
round-nosed pliers
wire cutters
1. Begin by sliding one crimp bead onto the beading wire.
2. Slip one end of the toggle clasp onto the beading wire, and bring the end of the wire back down through the crimp bead.
3. Use crimping pliers to close the crimp bead. If you need instructions for closing a crimp bead, try my
crimp bead pictorial or my
crimping instructions.
4. Add three hematite beads to your beading wire and push them down to the end of your wire making sure the beads cover both the wire tail and the main beading wire.
5. Use wire cutters to trim off extra beading wire.
6. Now add beads in the following pattern: daisy spacer, square crystal, daisy spacer, hematite, daisy spacer, birthstone bead, daisy spacer, hematite bead.
7. Repeat this pattern until all but three hematite beads are added, and then finally, add on the three last hematite beads.
8. Slip on another crimp bead and the other part of the toggle clasp.
9. Then bring the end of the wire back down through the crimp bead and the last three hematite beads.
10. At this point, some jewelry makers find closing the second crimp a little tricky because you want to get the beads up against the crimp bead, but you don't want to make it too tight. One trick I do is to put the end of my round-nosed pliers into the loop of the beading wire, and then I either use my fingers or my bent-nosed pliers to pull the tail of the beading wire. This will cause the beads to push up against the crimp bead.
11. Now use your crimping pliers to close the last crimp bead.
12. Trim off excess beading wire with your wire cutters.
This makes a gorgeous bracelet that will sparkle proudly on your grandmother's wrist. Whenever she looks at it, she'll think proudly of her precious grandchildren. Ah, the power of jewelry!
All graphics created by Tammy Powley.
