Saturday 13 April 2013

The 'Leftovers' bracelet

Hi guys, and welcome to my first tutorial on this blog.
 
Today I am showing you how to make a leftovers bracelet. It is called leftovers, because you can use any leftover beads and charms in your stash to make it.
 
Here is what my bracelet looked like when complete. Yours will look different, based on the materials you use to make it
 
To start off with you will need
-Jump rings. Choose a size that is at least 6mm. You will need enough of these to make a chain to go around your wrist.
-Head pins. The amount will depend on how many beads you have and how big your wrist is. I used about 20.
-Small section of chain.
-Mixed beads in your chosen colour theme.
-Random charms in your chosen colour theme. Try to keep them close to the same size.
-Toggle clasp (not pictured)
 
You will also need two pairs of flat nose pliers for manipulating the jump rings, and round nosed jewellery pliers for curling the end of the head pins

 
To begin, prepare your head pins. Add a couple of beads on to each one, and curl the end closed with the jewellery pliers.
 
Next, take one of your jump rings and open it sideways, as pictured. This is important to prevennt th ring from becoming out of shape.
 
Next, thread one of your charms on to this ring and close with your pliers. Then open the next ring and loop it though the first (pictured). Add a charm or head pin to this ring, then close.
 
 
Continue adding rings and head pins/charms until you have a chain long enough to go around your wrist. Set aside.
 
Take the receiving end of your toggle clasp (usually round) and add the small section of chain to it with a jump ring. Add another charm to the other end of the chain.
 
Open the jump ring closest to the toggle, and attach this to one end of your bracelet. Using a jump ring attach the other end of  the toggle (the bar) to the other end.
 
Ta da, a comnpleted bracelet :)
 
Thanks for looking.
 
As this  is my first tutorial here, I would appreciate any questions, comments or feedback below.
 
Happy crafting :)





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