Boho Fabric Beads Tutorial Wire Wrapping DIY

So today I'm going to be teaching you guys how to make fabric beads. Here's a couple of samples of beads that I've made and turned into necklaces. So this this one is on the tiger tail and then this one is on a black cotton cord. So they're very easy to make. All you need is the bamboo skewer, piece of fabric, a 28 gauge wire, pliers, cutters, some fancy thread, wool, seed beads, and some white glue. So I'm going to start by cutting a strip of fabric. No real rules about how big. Three quarters of an inch about. Just tear it into a long piece. It could be thicker if you want a bigger bead or thinner if you want a thin bead. So I'm going to just take this strip of fabric and roll it around the skewer like that. So I'm going to go round and round. Try to keep the right side of the fabric out. This is a cotton fabric. You can use any kind of fabric that you like. This bead is going to end up being a little bit bigger than my other ones just because it's a little bit thicker. So we'll go round and round like that. And then you could just put a little tiny dab of white glue or hot glue to hold it in place. I'll put a little bit more and just rub it down. That's just to hold it down. Basically the wire is going to hold it together anyways. So we're going to go like that and then you're going to get some of your fancy cord and wrap it around like that any which way you like. Once you have enough you could just clip it off. I don't want too much because I want to be able to see the fabric. So we're going to go around like that and then you could glue the ends down a little bit if you like. It doesn't really matter because it's going to be kind of covered up anyways and the glue should dry clear. Okay so we've got that that much here and then you're going to get a piece of wire probably about two feet long. It's usually about right and then we're going to lay this bead on here and take the wire and just twist it around so it's kind of centered so you have big long ends on each side and then at this point you could just wind your wires around any which way you like and I'm going to add beads as I go. These are little seed beads. You could put larger beads if you like. I'll just pop a bunch on at once and then I can space them out as we go. So a whole bunch of different beads, different sizes if you like, or you could do all little ones. There's no real rules about it and then as I wind it around I'm going to space the beads out a little bit more. Sometimes I could put maybe two together. It doesn't really matter. So we go around and then to finish off when you have one end almost finished, you actually are going to put it through the bead like that and just like when you sew and you need to finish an end, you're going to put it through the bead a few times to secure it in place so it won't fray out and this is why I like the wires because once you've pinched it in place it's pretty secure and it'll just stay there. So we're just going to push it right through and then the end you can just cut with your wire cutter. Okay, same for the other end. You're just going to wind it around. If you find one of the ends is a little bunchy, you just twist it harder around that end and I'm going to add some more beads. So I'll grab some more of my seed beads here, just a few more and normally I might spend a little more time with it to do more detailed work but it's really, it's nice when it's very loose and abstract so it's fine if it's not even. So we're just going to wind it around a little bit more, round and round with the wire. This is a copper wire, a non-tarnished wire but you could use any kind of wire that you like. So we're going to just wind it around a little bit more a little bit more and then same thing when you get to the end you're just going to put it through one of the beads one time and another time and one more time to be sure just so it won't fray. Get your pliers, pull it tight and then pinch it and then at this point you can kind of squeeze it together a little bit and the wire is going to help it hold its shape. Okay and then you have your finished bead and it's very nice with the little fibers sticking out and when you're ready to make your necklace you'll just pull it right off the skewer and you'll run it on a necklace wire similar to this and there you go. Voila!