Dainty Dangle Bracelet

I’ve seen those elastic bead bracelets every where now from the dollar store to the mall. I have to admit, I like the look of these, especially when worn together in groups of three or more. However, I’m still not sold on that elastic, and I often I see these bracelets made with cheapo beads on them. (I know. What do you expect for a dollar, right?) So, I decided to come up with my own version of these dainty little bracelets. My version also includes a dangle which helps the weight of the clasp shift, so it stays under your wrist rather than on the top.

You’ll need:

your choice of seed beads
your choice of accent beads in the 4mm range (crystals, stone, glass, pearls, etc.)
1 6mm round or tear drop shaped crystal bead
approx. 10 inches of bead wire (such as Soft Flex®)
2 crimp beads
1 head pin
1 spring ring clasp
1 jump ring
crimping pliers
round nosed pliers
bent or flat nosed pliers
wire cutters

1. Slip a crimp bead (I prefer the tube type) onto your beading wire, and insert the wire back through the crimp so you make a loop.

2. Use crimp pliers to close up the crimp bead. You’ll have a little extra wire sticking out, but that’s okay.

3. Slip on a 4mm bead from your accent beads, and push it up against the crimp bead so that it goes over the extra wire.

4. Thread on some of your seed beads, and push them down so that the beads cover up the rest of the extra wire.

5. Now just starting stringing on beads a little randomly: a crystal, a few seed beads, a size 6 glass bead, a few seed beads, a pearl….etc. You could chose to make your design symmetrical, but I like a more mixed design for these.

6. String on beads until you are about ½ inch away from the length you want your finished bracelet to be, and end with another 4mm bead as in step 3. If you want a 7 inch bracelet, then you will string until you have 6 ½ inches completed.

7. When you are finished with your beads, slip on the crimp beads, and insert the wire back down through the crimp bead and through about an inch of the beads at the end of the bracelet.

8. Pull the end until your loop is about the same size as the one made in step 1.

9. Use crimping pliers to close up the crimp bead.

10. Trim off excess beading wire.

11. Now start to make the dangle by inserting your 6mm crystal or tear drop onto a head pin, and bend the head pin over.

12. Loop and wrap the head pin to create the dangle.

13. Open the loop of the spring ring clasp, and add the dangle and one of the loops from the beaded piece.

14. Close up the loop of the spring ring. I used flat nosed pliers to make sure this closed tightly.

15. Open your jump ring, and close it around the other loop on your beaded piece to complete the bracelet.

So, if you are like me and like the look of those dainty little bracelets, now you can make some for yourself with some quality materials and beading wire that is sure to hold up to lots of wear.

Here's a printer friendly copy of this file.

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All graphics created by Tammy Powley.

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