Making a Vintage Style Beaded Bracelet

This beautiful bracelet (when finished) is 7" in length not including the clasp and toggle.  With the clasp and toggle it is approximately 8" in length.   You'll want to know the size of the wrist you'll be making this for and adjust the supplies you'll need accordingly.  Although this bracelet looks like a two strand bracelet, it is in fact, only one continuous strand.  For the 7" of bracelet we used a total of 25" of Soft Touch Beading Wire 21-14.  So you will need at least 3 1/2 times as much wire as your end piece needs to be.  We recommend using a few inches more since you can always trim away the excess at the end. To create this jewelry piece, start by attaching a 5mm gold filled open jump ring to your Antique Gold plated Pewter Square Art Deco Clasp. You may want to use 2 or 3 jump rings to give the clasp some distance from the actual strung piece of the bracelet.  If you decide you want to do this later, simply open the jump ring and attach another jump ring or two before attaching the clasp.  These jump rings are sturdy and thick so they should wear well.

 

Place the jump ring w/attached clasp on the beading wire and move it to the center of the beading wire.  Begin stringing the beads - (2) 4.5mm Antique Gold plated pewter heishi spacers, one 4mm Czech glass pearl bead, a 4mm bicone Swarovski™ crystal bead in one color (Olivine), a 4mm bicone Swarovski™ crystal bead in another color (Lt. peach), another bicone Swarovski™ crystal bead (Olivine), followed by another 4mm Czech glass pearl bead - all separated by (1) Antique Gold plated pewter heishi spacer - as shown in the photo.  Do the same to the other side of the beading wire.

Now, pick one side of the strand and grasp the strand with your thumb above the last pearl bead that you strung.  Place (2) Antique Gold plated Pewter heishi beads, (1) Czech Glass Polished Rectangle Bead and (2) more of the heishi beads on the strand.  With your free hand, grab the other side of the strand and weave it through these last 5 beads as shown on the picture on the right.  It's important that you weave both sides of the strand through the heishis and not just the rectangle bead.  This will give the bracelet a smooth finish and allow it to lie properly.

Continue beading in the same manner (just follow the steps above) so that your bracelet looks like the picture at the left. Once you reach your desired length, you want to place (2) gold filled crimp tubes at the ends of each side of the beading wire.

Weave each side of the beading wire through both crimp tubes and the last (2) heishe beads on each side.  Pull the remainder of the beading wire tight so that ends of the wire hang out between the last pearl bead and the heishe.  It should look like that on both sides.  With crimping pliers secure the beads by crimping both crimp beads.  Then, using a wire cutting pliers for SoftFlex, cut away the excess beading wire on both sides. You can then attach your toggle bar using a jump ring or a couple of jump rings.

 To create the design above you will need the following items

 Czech Glass Polished Rectangle Beads (1 package)

Czech Glass Pearl Beads - 4mm (1 strand) 

Swarovski Crystal Beads- 4mm bicones (32 of one color and 16 of another color)

Plated Pewter Heishe Spacers 4.5mm (10 packages)

Plated Square Art Deco Pewter Clasp & Toggle (1 clasp)