Simple Seed Beads Bracelet

I'm a fan of multitasking; simply doing nothing while watching a movie annoys me (says something about my work ethic, I guess). I wanted to watch Wreck-It Ralph but had no projects to work on, and thus I set out to come up with something. My eyes glanced around and when I spotted the container of beads that a friend gave me for Christmas (I actually used them in my other project here), my imagination went into overdrive as I grabbed some wire and whipped up the eye candy that you see in front of you. ^^

• seed beads (I used size 6 beads.)
• wire (I used 20 gauge and thinner wire savaged from cut pieces of headpins.)
• pliers

You'll need to cut out wire in order to string beads onto them. Slide on two (or more; up to you) beads and add about 0.25" to either side of the beads. Cut off that length of wire and use a ruler to measure its length before making several more duplicates. The length for me was about 1".

To finish links, just grab one of the wire pieces that you cut in the previous step, string on two beads (or more, again) and use pliers to curl both ends into loops. Repeat until you have a good number of links, but don't make too many -- it's better to make too few so as not to waste later.

To connect links, just use pliers to open a loop on a link and slip on the loop of another link. Rinse and repeat until all your links are connected in the pattern you want.

Now try on your preliminary bracelet and determine approximately how many more (if any) links you'll need to complete it. Then go back and make those links before adding them to finish off the bracelet.

To make the clasp, first bend 5" of wire in half so that the the resulting length was 2.5". Then curl one end (the side without cut ends) of the bent wire into a little loop. A bit further down, make another bend (see picture 4). Cut the cut ends to even out the two parts of the wire before bending that end into a little loop too. Check picture 6 to make sure that your loops and bends are in the right direction.

Use your pliers to make a loop, and this will be the other half of your clasp.

I didn't have pre-made jump rings so I made my own using my wire. To do this, I just wrapped the wire around a cylindrical object (paintbrush, in my case) and cut off the cylinder of loops. Then I cut off jump rings whenever I needed one (I made plenty extra for future use.).

You'll need the jump rings to attach the clasps.

Grab two jump rings and loop them onto both parts of your clasp before using those same jump rings to attach the clasps to both ends of the bracelet.

Voilà: a project to keep your hands occupied during a movie (and decorate your hands afterward). ;)

It's simple to end at one chain of seed bead links, but you could additionally make two (or more) thinner chains and connect both of them to the same clasps. Instead of simply connecting them, you could braid the chains before adding links. You could even use store-bought chains (as in CHAIN chains) and add two, one on either side of the central beaded links.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless; it's up to you to set the limit.