Beaded jewelry is a way of making jewelry as a craft. With a few necessary tools, a bit of imagination, and the beads and findings that you'll need to create your designs, in very short order, you will have beautiful, wearable art-jewelry.
First - what is a bead? Sounds simple, right? A bead can be any shape, size and color that also can be made from a variety of materials, such as metal, clay, ceramics, glass, paper, etc. The only real requirement is that to be a bead, it must have a hole bored through it to allow wire or string to pass through it.
Now, the tools and other necessary items to get started:
At its simplest, you will need beads and some sort of string or wire to go through the beads. For that simplest of designs, you merely would need to put as many beads as needed to reach the size of the jewelry you wish to design and then, you would just have to knot the ends.
However, to make jewelry that really looks professionally designed, you will need a few other things.
Pliers are really key to the process and you really should get two different kinds of pliers. They can be obtained through your local bead or craft stores, from bead and jewelry making catalogs or online shopping using those same sort of sources. The two kinds of pliers needed are the flat needle-nose and the wire cutter.
You should also consider obtaining a bead board. A bead board is generally a long, rectangular shaped board with some depth to it. It should have some insets in it to contain beads and findings, and it should have two to three troughs running in a u-shaped or oblong shape pattern along the board. The troughs usually are marked in both metric and English measurement increments (centimeters and inches, that is) and these troughs are used for laying out your designs and judging how long the piece of jewelry will actually be. There is a center point and the increments are counted off both to the left and the right of the center point, making for an evenly balanced piece of jewelry.
For purposes of jewelry making, standard sizing for bracelets is 7, 7 ½ or 8 inches long. Necklaces generally start at 16 inches and can get as long as you want them to be. However, considering that the jewelry you will be making is custom work, you can actually make your pieces any sizes you wish.
With those few tools, you can begin the actual designing of your jewelry.
For that, you will need, obviously, beads. Most beading stores have bead boards which help you to see how many beads you will need to fill out the length of your piece, and these stores also have small, compartmentalized trays (with prices marked visibly) so that you can track how much you spend on your project. You can also buy pre-packages beads at these stores, too. If you get your beads from a catalog or online, sometimes there is a minimum number of beads that you might be required to purchase. But remember - you can always save excess beads for future projects.
In addition to the beads, you will need findings. What are findings? These are the items that go into a bracelet or necklace or a pair of earrings which allow you to put it all together and make a finished project.
Findings include wire (sometimes known as bead wire or tiger's tail) which comes in varying thickness or weight. It all depends on what kind of project you are making as to what kind of wire you will need. Size of beads, size of hole bored through the bead, weight of the beads, etc.
If you don't wish to use wire, which by the way, is probably the easiest and most flexible of stringing materials to use, you can used string, colorful flat plastic beading and lanyard cord, stretch thread or mono-filament (better known as fishing line.)
Findings also include catches or clasps. These too run the gamut since you can get just about anything you can imagine for your jewelry. There are toggles clasps, hooks and eyes, lobster claws, and even more elaborate clasps with safety catches, gemstones and other embellishments. These clasps and catches typically have one, two or three small loops at each end. This will help you to determine how you want your bracelet or necklace to appear: with one, two or three strands to it.
Lastly, especially if you are using wire, you will need crush beads. Crush beads are very tiny metallic beads which are "crushed" with your pliers and are placed at either end of your jewelry near the clasp. They are used to help anchor and make permanent your piece of jewelry.
Okay, now that we have the basic supplies, let's make a single strand, wire-strung 7 ½ bracelet!
Take your bead board and lay out your design in one of the troughs. Don't forget that the center spot where the numbers count away from in either direction is the mid-point in your bracelet. You will need two crush beads at either end (before the clasp) to do the bracelet properly. Also, bear in mind that the crush beads and the clasp will make up some of the length of your bracelet, and therefore, you need to plan accordingly and place them in the trough at the ends of your design. If you are so inclined, you can place charms with loops on the top or side in between the beads too. When you are finished with your design, from beginning to end, including all of your beads, crush beads and clasp, the length should be 7 ½ inches (approximately.) How you design it is all up to you. The choices are unlimited!
Once you are satisfied with your design, it's time to cut your wire. A good rule of thumb is that you want to use twice (or nearly that) the length of your project for your wire length. In other words, you should probably use about 14 or 15 inches of wire.
Step 1: Take one end of your clasp and put your wire though the loop on the end of the clasp. Pull through approximately 1 ½ to 2 inches of wire.
Step 2: Slide two consecutive crush beads down the wire towards the clasp. As the crush beads get closer to the clasp, they will have to slide over the double wire from where you pulled the original wire through the clasp's loop ends. Push the crush beads as close to the clasp as you can easily accomplish.
Step 3: Take your flat needle-nose pliers and crush the two crush beads. They should flatten or crush pretty easily. Now, your clasp is now firmly anchored to the wire and should not come off of it.
Step 4: Start adding your beads in the order in which they appear on the bead board. Make sure that the beads closest to the crushed crush beads have both wires go through the holes in the beads. This makes your clasp even more sturdily anchored. Put on all of your beads, except the final two crush beads.
Step 5: It's time to finish off your bracelet! Slide the final two crush beads along the wire towards the last of the beads to have gone on your bracelet. Take the other end of your clasp (that hasn't been used yet) and bring the wire (coming out of the bracelet after the last two crush beads) through the loop in the clasp. Then, slide the end of the wire that has already been looped through your clasp back through your crush beads. Additionally, bring that wire through two or three beads from your bracelet, next to the crush beads.
Pull the wire as tight as you possibly can, making the beads touch the crush beads and making the crush beads touch (or nearly touch) the clasp. When it has been pulled as tight as possible, take your flat needle-nose pliers and crush those last two beads.
Now, you should have a completed bracelet - except for a wire sticking out from the second or third bead on the bracelet. That means, it is time for the very last step in making your bracelet.
Step 6: Take your wire cutters and, getting as close to the bead where the wire is coming out of as you can, cut the wire. Neatly tuck in the tiny remaining bit of wire into the very next bead. You might want to use your pliers (or possibly a household tweezers) to help push it all the way in, but if you are lucky, it might just go in easily on its own.
Congratulations! You now have created a beautiful, wearable work of art.
You can use the same directions for a necklace, the only difference being that necklaces are longer.
The nice thing about knowing how to do this basic form of beading is that you can design pieces to compliment your entire wardrobe. You can also make these lovely pieces of jewelry to be used as gifts, or you can build an inventory and sell them for profit. And, if you buy beads and findings in bulk, meaning large quantities, you can generally get a wholesale price instead of the retail price, which can be quite helpful if you do decide to sell your pieces!
Good luck and happy beading!
