Believe it or not, I regularly receive email requests for tiara instructions. Lately, the tiara craze is an important bridal accessory is more popular than ever and some jewelry artists and designers work exclusively in the business of making accessories for brides. This eventually urged me to get out my tools, wire, and beads and make a few tiara designs. This project is a basic design and is a good way to learn the basics of creating a tiara, whether you are a future bride or just want to be queen for the day.

You'll need the following:

Approximately 6 feet of 24 gauge copper wire
103 - 4mm light blue Czech crystal beads
15 - royal blue teardrop Czech crystal beads
1 gold colored head pin
round-nosed pliers
wire cutters
flat-nosed pliers
*nylon nosed pliers

*Nylon nosed pliers are really helpful with this project because you are working with long lengths of wire, which can become easily kinked. Thought it's not 100% necessary to have a pair of these, if you got them, use them.

1. Begin by cutting about 3 feet of copper wire, and folding it in half.

2. Place the nose of your round-nosed pliers in the center of your wire, and twist a few times so you have formed a loop in the middle.

3. Now, start threading on your beads onto the doubled wire and push the beads down so they are up against the loop created in the previous step. Use the following bead pattern: *one teardrop (large end threaded first), one 4mm bead, one teardrop (narrow end threaded first), 10 - 4mm beads, repeat from * and end with 10 - 4mm beads.

4. Connect the end of the copper wire to the loop you created in step 2, and wrap it a few times. You will be adding to this area later, so don't worry about making it too perfect at this point. You just want to connect the ends so that you have a circle of beads.

Important Note: I've made a few tiaras now, and once I have threaded on the beads to form the base of the tiara, I then connect the wire ends to form a circle. However, for the demonstration purposes and because I'm using a flatbed scanner to show you how to make this, you'll see that in the pictures the circle is not connected until the end. I did this so that I could lay the tiara flat against the scanner. Remember, you are making a 3-D piece here, so it is just about impossible to lay it flat.

Now that you have made the frame of the tiara, you are ready to decorate it.

All graphics created by Tammy Powley.

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