Braided Bead Bracelets - Day 6 of the 10-Day Wire Bracelets to Make, Gift & Sell Challenge

Today we're making these beautiful braided bracelets with beads. I've added them to my collection and by the end of the challenge this rack is going to be full. Hello Live Wires, Heather Boyd Wire here. Welcome to day six of the 10-Day Wire Bracelets to Make, Gift and Sell Challenge. Be sure to share photos of your bracelets from the challenge in my 10-Day Wire Challenges Facebook group and be eligible to win all kinds of great prizes from Beadalon and from my Etsy shop. I will put all the details about the challenge in the description below the video. So without further ado, let's get wired! I'm using 22 gauge artistic wire and five and six millimeter pearl beads. I'm using the Beadalon tying station to hold my wires in place. My tools are the Beadalon slimline series chain nose and round nose pliers, their glimmer series nipper tool, their nylon jaw pliers and their bail making pliers. I'm starting with 12 inches of 22 gauge artistic wire. I'm bending it in the middle and with my bail making pliers I'm going to create the first loop, bending the wires to both sides, straightening them out and getting my smaller round nose pliers to bend the wires out. Straighten them out and add an eight inch piece of the same wire, holding it with your thumb and finger and winding the wire around just below the loop. We're going to clip it flush with our nipper tool and pinch in that little pokey end. I'm going to make sure the wires are separated, add a five millimeter pearl bead and bring one wire to the front and bringing the wire that comes through the bead over to the right, making sure there's no slack, bring the wire on the left towards the middle and we are going to put a bead on the middle wire. Push it right up and take the wire that's on the right around over and below that bead, hold it firmly, take the wire that's on the left towards the middle, put up another bead, hold it firmly and bring the wire on the right towards the middle, making sure the wire coming out of the bead is going to the right side and bring the wire on the left towards the middle and we put the bead on the middle wire. Take the wire on the right over towards the center and bring the other wire on the left towards the center, making sure that wire coming out of the bead is on the right side. Push up another bead, hold it firmly and bring the wire towards the middle, hold the bead, bring the other wire towards the middle and put a bead on the middle wire. This took a little while for me to get the hang of it but I will post a diagram in the 10 day challenges group and it will be in my templates book at the end of the challenge. Keep braiding in this fashion and when you get to the end we have to attach all those wires. There's different ways that you can do this. I experimented with twisting all the wires together. I'm going to bring the wire around, cut it flush so there's no little pokey ends, push down those ends and with the last wire we're going to make a loop similar to the one on the other side. Just bring it all the way around, make it the same size, hold it with the chain nose pliers and bring the wire around. Clip the end flush with the nipper tool and pinch in that little pokey end. Adjust it as you need. We're going to measure some chain. I ended up measuring about two inches. Same on the other side. One of the sides I've kept the hook so I didn't have to add an extra hook. I just recycled an old chain. Now I'm going to make some jump rings with a scrap of wire. We need to clip them flush. If you like to make your jump rings with a saw you can do that as well. You can use commercial jump rings if they match your wire. You want to curve this out a little bit and then we're going to add the chain. So grab your jump ring, get your chain, hook it in there. This is a nice fine chain. I just found it at my stuff. I have all kinds of bits and things from years past. We're going to put in the other side of the chain, close it up. This one's so pretty and quite simple. We're going to open up the last jump ring to use for the clasp. Close it up and it just attaches like that. I made a small and delicate one. Very pretty. And there's the finished bracelet. For the one that's beaded all around I'm using 24 inches of the 22 gauge wire and I will start it in the same way. Bending it in the center and forming a loop, bringing the wires out to both sides with our precision round nose pliers. I'll link up all my tools in the description below. Adding a 12 inch piece of wire, winding it around below the loop, clip the end flush, pinch in that little pokey end, adjust it as you need, bring that wire down to the middle. We're going to attach it to the bead along the tying station. This will hold it while we do our braid. This is a practical little device. I'm going to screw it so it holds firmly. I've used this device for wire weaving as well. Separate the wires. We're going to put a six millimeter pearl bead on the middle wire. Push it right up so it's firmly in place. Take the wire on the right, bring it over the middle wire and take the other wire and bring it over and to the center, making sure the wire that goes through the bead comes over to the right. Add another bead and bring the wire to the center, bring the other wire to the center and put another bead on the middle wire. Make sure you push the bead right up and take the wire on the right to the center over that wire and the wire to the left over and to the center. Another bead, wiggle it around so it's even. Continue with your braiding, making sure you hold the bead up when you bring the wire around. Continue adding your beads, hold it, bring the wire on the right to the center, hold the bead, bring the wire on the left to the center. And once you've finished, we're going to remove it from the beading station and we have to finish up the wires. So I did experiment with this. Originally I tried to do a triple loop, so I brought the wires around and it made a loop with the three wires. I ended up pulling it back, you'll see a little later in the video. I changed my mind. Don't worry if ever you change your mind, this wire is pretty flexible. Usually you can backtrack and redo what you've done without breaking the wire. So now I just pinched in all my poke ends, but you'll see we do have a triple loop there, which is fine, but you can always change your mind. I bought this ginormous bracelet mandrel on Amazon and it's useful because it's got lots of different sizes. So I'm happy to have this. There, we've curved it out a little bit and like I said, I changed my mind about this loop. So I backtracked a little bit, brought a wire around and clipped it, pinch in that little pokey end, and then I just had a single wire to make the loop with. Get your bail making pliers, bring the wire around, leave them the same size on both ends, hold that loop with the chain nose pliers, and push the little end around. Don't have much to work with, but that's okay, we can figure it out. We've got our two loops and then I made a simple hook. I used 18 gauge, but you can use 20 gauge. I love this rose gold wire. Bring it around and make a simple loop. I have lots of other tutorials for safety clasps and different kinds of clasps. I'll link up some in the description of the video. And for the other side of the clasp, we're just going to make a simple infinity sign. Bring it around and clip the end flush. You can hammer these bindings if you want as well to make them more firm. I'm just going to press them with my chain nose pliers and then attach them to the bracelet. So I'm going to add the hook and add the clasp. Open it up. The pearls are so pretty with the rose gold wire. Hook it in there. There's your beautiful braided beaded bracelet. Thanks so much for watching the video. Be sure to give it a big thumbs up and subscribe to my channel for lots more wire art and jewelry making tutorials. Join the private Facebook group for my 10-day challenges. You can share your photos of your bracelets for the duration of the challenge. Be sure to check out the description below the video for all the details about the challenge. Have fun with your bracelets and we'll see you the next time.