Jewelry Making For Beginners: Beading Techniques & Stitches #1

1. Course Introduction: Hey guys, welcome to the course. My name is Greta, a freelance jewelry designer. I'm here to teach you how to make beaded jewelry. At the beginning of the course, I'll introduce some popular types of beads, tools and materials. Then I'll demonstrate a range of basic beading techniques that will make it easy for you to get started. There are three types of beaded jewelry you will learn in this course. In the bead and wire section, you will learn how to work with jewelry wires, metal frames, chains, and findings to create these beautiful jewelry pieces. During the bead stringing section, I will show how to string beads with different stringing materials. You'll be able to make some bead stringing 00:00:50.555 --> 00:00:53.870 bracelets and floating bead necklaces. In the bead weaving section, I'll guide you through the process of how to make beaded jewelry with basic bead waving stitches. At the end of the course, you'll be able to use the fundamental techniques to design and create your own jewelry. I'll be adding more projects and lessons to keep you updated. Thank you so much for joining me. Let's start our jewelry making journey. 2. Tools and Materials: Beading Mat, Beads and Frames: Beading mat. A beading mat is a nice surface for designing and making beaded jewelry. The most commonly used beading mats have nap on the surface. So they prevent beads rolling around and hold beads in place. You can also use other fabric as a beading mat for a cheaper price, like a piece of fleece I'm using right now. Beads. Beads come in so many different types. I'll give a brief introduction about some popular beads on the market. First, let's talk about glass beads. The most commonly used glass beads are synthetic crystal beads, usually made of leaded glass. If you are a beginner with low budget, you can get affordable color mixed crystal beads that come in one package. So you'll have many colors to practice without paying too much. Popular shapes of crystal beads. The five groups of beads on the second row, are 4 mm bicone crystal beads. The bicone shape has kind of edgy Look. They go really well with round beads because of the shape contrast. Here are round and teardrop crystal beads. Most of the crystal beads have multiple facets which make them more sparkly. Well there are some crystal beads are not faceted. The surfaces are just smooth. Drills styles. When choosing beads, we need to check about drill styles to match with our designs. Let's take teardrop beads for example. These beads are drilled from top to bottom, called vertical-drilled These are drilled horizontally through the top of the bead, called top-drilled. If you put them on one string, the beads will be lying in different ways. Then let's talk about finishes of crystal beads, which can change or enhance the beads' appearance. I'll cover three popular finishes of crystal beads. First one is transparent. These three groups of bicone crystal beads are in different colors with the same finish, transparent finish. It means light can pass through the beads. Their colors sometimes look a bit different depending on the colors of backgrounds and lighting conditions. I put these crystal beads on a piece of white tissue paper and my skin. The others still stay on the gray fabric. You can see the difference. The color of the beads on white tissue paper look lighter and the ones on the gray fabric look a bit darker. Second one is metallic. It means there's a metal like coating on the beads surface. These are opaque crystal beads with metallic coating finish, which gives the beads a look of metal. The third one is color AB. AB stands for Aurora Borealis effect, which is a special coating on a part of crystal beads to create a rainbow-like appearance. When shop online, You'll see all the information you need on the listings. Let's take a crystal bead's listing on Amazon.com for example. We can see the shape, size, quantity, and color. When the color name followed by letters AB, it means the beads have this rainbow like coating. I've got these beads in my hand. This finish make the beads reflect many different colors and more sparkly. Let's see these 4 mm and 3 mm bicone beads in crystal AB, which means transparent colorless crystal beads with AB Coating. They are widely used in wedding jewelry to match with white or cream pearls. The top grade crystal AB bicone beads are always described as beautiful as diamonds. Another type of glass beads widely used in beaded jewelry are glass pearls. They are made to look like real pearls, but more uniform in colors and shapes, cheaper than real pearls. Gemstone beads. The beads made of semi-precious gemstone usually have some inclusions and veining inside. The colors are not even when you put the same gemstone beads together. But this is natural beauty. These are authentic oval shape freshwater pearls. They are not top grade pearls. Every pearl has a slightly different shape. They don't look that consistent when you put them together. There are many beads made of a variety of other materials, such as metal, wood, acrylic, plastic, clay, etc. What are spacer beads? Spacer beads are usually smaller in size and placed between bigger beads. They help to create a more interesting pattern. Any bead can be used as a spacer bead. Let's see some examples. If I put three white glass pearls on a piece of beading wire to make a necklace, it's a very plain, simple design. If I put 3 mm crystal AB bicone beads to separate the pearls, the design looks a bit dressy now. Placing gold metal beads between the white pearls will add color contrast to the design. If I use silver metal beads to space these black beads, the design gets some highlights with color contrast and more eye-catching. What are seed beads? They are small beads used in different types of beaded jewelry. Round and cylinder seed beads are more commonly used. They can be used as spacer beads and be placed between larger beads. Or they can help to create beautiful bead weaving patterns. Let's see a bead weaving pattern with white pearls. We can see clearly the thread bridge between the pearls. If we add seed beads between the pearls, the pattern looks a bit more interesting and the thread bridges are all covered by the seed beads. You can see the comparison. Sizes of seed beads are quite confusing. You always see the numbers like these, side 6, size 8, size 10, size 11, size 15. Just need to remember, the larger the number, the smaller the bead. Here I put 4 seed beads on one string. From left to right they are size 15, size 11, size 8, sides 6. Size 11 is the most commonly used seed beads size. Size 11 is about 2mm. It can be a bit smaller or bigger, depending on which manufacturer or brand you choose. You can also search on Google for each manufacturer's or brand's size chart before purchase. Frames. Here are some metal frames. They are very nice components we can add to our designs. We will use them soon in this course. 3. Tools and Materials: Jewelry Wire: Wire for jewelry making. There are so many types of jewelry wire and wire brands on the market. I'll talk about four things we need to consider before purchasing jewelry wire. They are mental types, wire thickness, hardness, and shape. Some popular metal types. Silver plated wire and gold plated wire are very popular for beginners to practice. They have the real silver or gold plated on base metal like brass or copper. But the plated layer is very thin. So eventually the plating is going to wear off. But they are quite affordable, nice for making costume jewelry. You may see the words tarnish resistat on the packages. It means the wire has got special permanent coating to protect the color. However, the coatings may prove off if the wire gets scratched. You can also get solid sterling silver wire and gold wire. They are more expensive, especially solid gold wire. Many times more expensive than gold plated wire. But you don't have to worry about the layers wearing off. There are also silver fiilled wire and gold filled wire on the market. They have a much thicker layer of silver or gold on the outside of the base metal. This layer is supposed to last a lifetime with proper care. For the price, they are more expensive than the pleated wire, cheaper than the solid silver or gold wire. There are also other types of metal wire on the market, like aluminum wire, stainless steel wire, et cetera. Wire thickness. Jewelry wire is measured in gauges or millimeters. The higher the gauge number, the thinner the wire. So the 18 gauge wire is obviously thicker than the 24 gauge wire. Now we can easily see both of the gauge number and the millimeter's information on shopping websites or on the packages. Hardness. There are three types of wire hardness. First, is dead soft. It's quite easy to manipulate dead soft wire. Most of the wire we get from craft stores is dead soft. It's commonly used to make dedicate wire jewelry with small beads and stones. It doesn't hold its shape when go with really heavy beads or stones. If there's no hardness information on the package, usually is dead soft. I'm going to use dead soft wire in this course. Second is half hard. It's harder than dead software wire. If you want your jewelry to be more long-lasting or go with heavy beads or gemstones, then you can choose half hard wire. Next is full hard. Full hard wire is the hardest wire you can get. You need proper tools to work with, not recommend for this course. Shape. The most commonly used wire shape for jewelry making is round, which means the cross-section is round. You can also get half round, square, flat or other variations to create different textures for your work. We are going to use round wire in this course. 4. Tools and Materials: Jewelry Pliers: Let's look at the pliers we can use to make beads and wire jewelry. These are round nose pliers. Both of the rounded jaws are in long tapered cone shape. We can use round nose pliers to make wire loops, coilsand curved bends. Let's make a wire loop together. Grab a piece of wire. First, decide the size of the loop. The jaws are graduated. So we make tiny loops on their tapered ends and make big loops at the wide part of the cone. Put the wire between the jaws, make sure the wire is perpendicular to the jaws and nothing sticking out. Then roll my wrist away from me. When I cannot go anymore, reposition the pliers and roll again until the end meets the wire, then the loop is totally closed. Now the loop is on one side of the wire. We need to center the loop, grab the wire like this, bend it and push with my fingers. Then we've got a centered loop. This is called eye pin. You'll learn how to use eye pins to make jewelry later in this course. The next are chain nose pliers, the jaws are pointy at the end. So it can fit into a tiny place. This surface on the inside of the jaws is smooth and flat. We use them to grip wire, make bends, open and close loops. These are flush cutters. We use them to cut wires and the narrow tip can get into tiny corners. When we cut a piece of wire, the backside of the cutters will give a flush cut. Let's have a look. I'll cut this piece of wire into two pieces. Put the wire in the middle of the blade. Make sure the wire is perpendicular to the blade. Always cut down into the mat. Otherwise the little ends are flying everywhere. It's better to wear eye protection when working with wire. As you can see. This edge is nice and flat, but the other piece has got a pointed edge. Another thing I would like to mention is the capacity of flush cutters. Before you buy a pair of flush cutters, please check their capacity in the product's information. I bought my flush cutters online. Here is the product's information on the website. It tells you what types of wire and the maximum size of wire you can work with. If you use flush cutters to cut anything heavier than their capacity, than the blaze could get damaged. Round nose pliers, chain nose pliers, and flush cutters are essential tools for making beads and wire jewelry. These are nylon jaw pliers. As you can see, there's a layer of nylon on the jaws. One of the main things we use this for is straightening out thinner wire. Wire might be bent out of shape from the package. Grab the wire with nylon jaw pliers, pull the wire through the jaws several times. Then we'll get smooth and straight wire to work with. If we need to redo a work, we'll have to straighten out the wire as much as we can with our hands. Then put a wire through the jaws to straighten out kinks. This process weakens your wire a little bit, especially when you using art wire with color coating on it, you'll see the coating peel off. Let's look at the flat nose pliers. See the jaws, both of the inside and outside are smooth, flat and in a rectangular shape. Flat nose pliers have similar functions like chain nose pliers. We can grip wire firmly. As you can see, a lot of surface area compared with chain nose pliers. These are bent nose pliers. They're just like chain nose pliers with bent jaws. Some people prefer this over the normal chain nose pliers. If you love your chain nose pliers, then you don't have to buy a pair of bent nose pliers. Another tool here is needle file We use them to smooth pointy end of wire. If any wire end on the jewelry may scratch our skin, then we can use needle file to smooth the edge. 5. Tools and Materials: Findings and Chain: Let's see some findings for jewelry making. These are jump rings. They are used for connecting different components together. We can use pliers to open and close jump rings. Because each jump ring has a small split, They come in different diameters. Because they are made of jewelry wire, so they have different thicknesses and metal types. Here are 20 gauge yellow gold plated, silver plated, and rose gold plated jump rings. Some jump rings are soldered closed. We call them closed jump rings. There's no split and we cannot open them. We're going to use both of normal jump rings and closed jump rings for this course. These are clasps. We see them a lot on necklaces and bracelets. There's a variety of clasps on the market. I'll introduce three popular types. These are lobster clasps. They usually go with lightweight jewelry pieces. Here is a pair of magnetic clasp. It's so easy to open and close it, but it's not that secure. It usually goes with inexpensive, lightweight jewelry pieces. This is a pair of toggle clasp. You can see them on some heavier jewelry pieces. Because the weight of heavier jewelry keeps the bar in place. These are some ear wires. They are used to fasten the earing part and go in through the ear lobe. Here are some head pins. These are flat head pins. These are called ball head pins. We use them to create bead links. We are going to use ball head pins to make a pearl cluster necklace in this course. Cable chains. These are some loose cable chains for jewelry making. We can buy them in bulk. Cable chain is made up of same-sized loops. We can easily attach bead links, jump rings, clasps, or other components on those loops. 6. Make Earrings with Jump Rings and Metal Frames: In this lesson, we will learn how to use jump rings, ear wires, and metal frames to make this pair of earrings. Materials and tools needed. I've got some rose gold plated jump rings. To open and close jump rings. We can choose any two sets of pliers from bent nose pliers, chain nose pliers or flat nose pliers. I'll be using two pairs of chain nose pliers in this lesson. These are some rose gold plated hexagon shape metal frames, 2x large and 4x small. And the pair of rose gold plated ear wires. Take one pair of chain nose pliers to grip the jump ring on one side with the split facing up. Grip the other side of the jump ring with the other pliers, twist the two sides in opposite directions to open the jump ring. As you can see, we didn't change the shape. It's still perfect round. Keep the jump ring gripped by one pliers. Then add a big frame, and a small frame through the jump ring. Grip the jump ring with the other pliers, twist the two sides back together till the ends meet. Now the jump ring is completely closed. So we've connected these two frames together. Same way to open another jump ring, slide on the small frame of the link we just made. Then add another small frame. Close the jump ring. We've got the body part of this earring. Next, open another jump ring. Slide the small frame of the body part, and one ear wire on the jump ring. Close the jump ring. We may have to do it several times to make sure the jump ring is totally closed. So we've finished the first half earring. Repeat the same steps to make the body part for the other earring. I've got it here. But this time slide big frame of the body part and the other ear wire on the jump ring. Close it. That's the other half earring. So we've finished these simple and stylish earrings. There's a common mistake we should avoid when using jump rings. When we open a jump ring, do not pull it apart. As this will change the shape of the jump ring. Then we are not able to close the jump ring completely. You see it will always have a small gap there. The components connected to this jump ring will easily slide off. 7. Bead and Wire: Make Bead Link with Open Loops: In this lesson, we are going to learn how to make a bead link. Materials and tools needed. We're going to use round nose pliers, chain nose pliers, flush cutters, nylon jaw pliers, and 22 gauge wire. The bead I'm using for this lesson is one 8mm white glass pearl. We also need a ruler. Once you get really experienced, you'll be able to make this bead link without a ruler. To make sure we get the same sized loops. We can make marks on round nose pliers with permanent marker pen or just a normal pen to mark across both of the jaws. I need small loops for this project. So the marks should be close to the pointy ends of the jaws. So I'll mark about here, just like that. Then grab nylon jaw pliers to straighten out the wire. Pull the wire through the jaws several times. So we'll get straight wire to work with. Take flush cutters to cut off a piece of wire, about 4cm long. Give a flush cut before we make a loop at this end, A flat end is easy to be gripped by round nose pliers. Use the ruler to get the exact length. It's 44mm. We'll make an eye pin first. Put the wire in line with the marks between the jaws. Make sure there's nothing sticking out and the wire is perpendicular to the jaws. The roll my wrist away from me until I cannot go anymore, reposition the pliers and roll again until the end meets the wire. We've got a loop. Put the tip of round nose pliers in the loop. Bend it and push with my fingers, so the loop is centered. We've made an eye pin. Then measure the length of the tail. That's 37mm. Original length of this wire was 44mm, So 7mm wire was used to make this loop. Put the pearl on this eye pin, measure the tail with the ruler. We need 7mm to make the other loop, but give about 1mm extra. So leave 8mm wire on this end and cut off the excess. Again, once you get really experienced, you'll be able to judge where to cut without a ruler. Let's make the other loop. I want both of the loops face the same direction. Turn the loop to get the side of the loop facing me. Then grip the end of the wire. In line with the marks. Roll my wrist away from me, reposition the pliers, roll again to finish the loop. Then center the loop. The loop was opened a little bit there. I can go back with the round nose pliers to roll it closed. Re-center the loop again. Now it's totally closed and centered. We can grip the two loops with chain nose pliers and nylon jaw pliers to adjust the directions of the loops and make them straight, So we've made a pearl link. Later, we can attach chains or other components to the loops. 8. Bead and Wire: Make a Simple Necklace with Pearl Link: Now let's learn how to make a simple necklace. with the pearl link we just made. We need a small sized jump ring, a medium-sized jump ring, a lobster clasp, and some loose silver plated cable chain. The size of each loop on the chain is about 1.5mm x 2mm I need 40cm chain. So this is 30cm Need another 10cm Cut off here with flush cutters. Take it off from the broken loop. Now we need to cut this chain into two halves. We can place a piece of wire through the loops on each end of the chain. Then find a loop in the center of the chain. So this loop, cut this loop. I'll take a pair of pliers to take off this loop. So we've got two pieces of 20cm chain. To connect to the chain with the pearl link, take chain nose pliers to twist open one loop. Just like jump rings, never pull it out of shape. Always twist open. Slide in one piece of chain, then twist it to close the loop. Just repeat the same steps with the other loop to connect the second half chain. To finish the necklace, open the smaller jump ring, slide in one end of the necklace and the clasp. Close the jump ring. Then open the medium sized jump ring, slide in the other end of the necklace. Close this jump ring. So we've finished the necklace. You can make bead links with different types of beads to make simple necklaces like this. 9. Bead and Wire: Make Earrings with Pearl Links and Frames: In this lesson, we'll make this pair of earrings. I've made 2 pearl links with 8mm pink glass pearls and 22 gauge gold plated wire. We'll need a pair of ear wires, 2 jump rings and 2 square frames. All of them are gold plated. I'm using flat nose pliers and chain nose pliers to open the jump ring. Then put a pearl link, a frame and one ear wire in this jump ring. Then close it. We've made one half earring. Repeat the same steps to make the other half earring. So we've finished. It's very easy to use jump rings to connect all different components together to make jewelry. We can buy finished components like these metal frames from the market. We also can make our own jewelry components like bead links with our favorite beads and put them on earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. 10. Bead and Wire: Pearl Cluster Necklace with Head Pins: In this lesson, we are going to learn how to make this pearl cluster necklace. The pearl links don't always stay at the same place. But it's nice to have that movement. We need 7 oval-shaped freshwater pearls and some loose silver plated cable chain, a clasp, a small sized jump ring, 2 medium-sized jump rings, and 7 ball head pins. You can also use other head pins or eye pins instead. First we'll make a pearl link with head pin. This time, we don't need a ruler. Put one pearl on the head pin. I will use the marks on round nose pliers to make a loop. Grip the wire above the pearl, in line with the marks. Keep the wire perpendicular to the pliers, just leave a bit of room to bend the wire. Then bend to about 90 degrees. Grab the wire just above the bend, in line with the marks. Take the wire tail up and over the top. Pull it down, reposition the pliers, and pull it back to finish the loop. Then take flush cutters to trim off the excess wire tail. Just recenter the loop a little bit with round nose pliers. So we've got a pearl link. Make another six pearl links I've finished all of them. I'll just get the chain and lay out my design for the cluster pendant to see how long the chain I need. So lay out all the pearl links. That's about 5 to 8mm space between every two pearl links I'll leave a bit of extra chain, just in case. Then take chain nose pliers to open the loop on one pearl link. And slide in one end of the chain, then close the loop. Next, just attach other pearl links one-by-one on the chain. We can leave the exact same space between every two pearl links by counting how many loops on the chain we should skip. It's okay to have inconsistent spaces like this necklace we are making now. So I will just add the other pearl links without counting the loops. Just leave about 5 to 8mm space from one another. I'm going to add to the other pearl links and skip this part. I've added all the links on the chain. There's a bit excess chain, so just trim the excess off with flush cutters. Open a medium-sized jump ring, put the finished part in it, then close it. We've finished the pendant part. Now let's get the chain to finish the necklace. I'll cut off about 40cm chain. Put this chain through the jump ring on the pendant. Attach a medium-sized jump ring on one end of the chain. And use the small jump ring to connect the clasp and the other end of the chain. So we've finished this pearl cluster necklace. 11. Bead and Wire: How to Make Wire Wrapped Bead Link: In this lesson, we are going to learn how to make a wire wrapped bead link. Compare with the other bead links we've made, this one has two wire wrapped loops instead of the open loops. I'll use 24 gauge silver plated wire and one 6mm bead to make the link. I've marked on my round nose pliers, get a piece of 10cm, 24 gauge wire. Grab the wire with round nose pliers, leave about 4cm wire from the end to make the first wire wrapped loop, the wire should be perpendicular to the pliers. Bend the wire to 90 degree angle. Grab the wire right in the corner with round nose pliers, in line with the marks. Take the wire tail up and over the top, pull it down until we cannot pull it anymore. Then take it off from the top jaw and move it to the bottom jaw, make sure it's in line with the marks. Then pull the wire tail back to 90 degree angle, so we've got a loop. Take chain nose pliers to hold the loop firmly. Make sure the long piece of wire is perpendicular to the pliers. Then use fingers or another pair of chain nose pliers to grab the end of the wire tail and wrap around the long wire, about three times. Make sure the coils sit tight to one another. The cut off the excess wire with the flush cutters facing down to get a flush cut. Take chain nose pliers to tuck in the wire tip. We've got a wire wrapped loop. There are three coils here. You can make more coils or just two coins for a wire wrapped loop. Slide on the bead. I'm going to make the other wire wrapped loop on this side. I want the other loop perpendicular to the first one, so keep the first loop facing me. Grab the wire with round nose pliers. here we need to leave the same distance above the bead to do the three coils. So just estimate the amount of space between the bead and the loop on this side. Bend the wire to 90 degree angle. Grab the wire above the bend, in line with the marks. Just repeat the same steps, take the wire tail up and over the top, pull it down as far as it can go, then move it to the bottom jaw, make sure it's in line with the marks. Then pull the wire tail back to 90 degree angle. Take chain nose pliers to hold the loop firmly. Use fingers or another pair of chain nose pliers to wrap three times, just like the other side. Then cut off the excess wire. Take chain nose pliers to tuck in the wire tip. So we've got a wire wrapped bead link. You can use different beads to make wire wrapped bead links or put several beads on one link. We've learned how to make bead links with simple open loops and wire wrapped loops. It takes less time and less wire to make bead links with open loops. And it's easy to attach components to them. Easy to remove or change components from them. Because we can open and close the loops like jump rings. But the components might slip off from the loops. So they are not that secure if we use thinner wire or soft wire. Wire wrapped loops are more secure. Once we finish wire wrapped loops, they are not supposed to be open again. So we need to attach components before wrapping the coils. It takes more time and more wire to make wire wrapped loops. Because they are quite secure, we can use thinner wire and soft wire to make them. And the components are not going to slip off. 12. Bead and Wire: Wire Wrapped Bracelet: In this lesson, I will show how to connect the wire wrapped bead links, then let's make this bracelet. As I showed in the last lesson, to make a wire wrapped bead link, first, make a loop on a piece of 10cm, 24 gauge wire with round nose pliers. Before wrapping coils, put a finished bead link in the loop. So slide it in from the short wire, then we're going to wrap the wire tail around the long wire. Take chain nose pliers, grab the loop firmly, just leave this link here, use fingers or take another pair of chain nose pliers to grab the tail and the wrap three times. Trim off the excess wire. Tuck in the end with chain nose pliers. We've attached the bead link to the wire wrapped loop. Then add a bead, grip the wire with round nose pliers, leave the same amount of space above the bead to do the three coils. Bent the wire to 90 degree angle. Grab the wire right in the corner, in line with the marks, take the wire tail up and around. Keep the other loop of this bead link facing me, so this loop will be perpendicular to the other loop. Then move it to the bottom jaw, in line with the marks, pull the wire tail back to 90 degree angle. If we have finished another bead link, slide the bead link in the loop, and finish the three coils. Always remember to put the link in the loop before wrapping the coils. Trim off the excess wire. Tuck in the wire tip with chain nose pliers. We've got three bead links connected together. Repeat the same steps to connect more bead links until get the desired length for the bracelet. I'll skip this part. I've got the right length for my wrist. A jump ring was attached to the bead link. at this end of the bracelet. A clasp was attached to the bead link from the other end. Again, always remember to slide component in the loop before wrapping coils. So we finished this bracelet. 13. Bead Stringing: Stringing Materials: In this section, we are going to learn how to make bead stringing jewelry. Let's see some stringing materials. These are some popular threads, cords and the beading wires for making bead stringing jewelry. I'll talk about size first. They come in different sizes. You can see their diameters information on the packages. There are two general rules for choosing which size of stringing material to use. First rule is using larger diameter stringing material for heavy beads, smaller diameter for lightweight beads. Second rule is make sure the diameter of stringing material is slightly smaller than the beads' holes, so it can go through the beads. Now, let's look at these materials. This is nylon monofilament which means a single strand of clear nylon fiber. This material is given different names from different brands or manufacturers. Here are the names. So all of these names refer to a single strand of clear nylon fiber. This material is really affordable. You can get it from some well-known companies, or you can just spend one or $2 to get these simple packs. Then let's see some stretch cord. This is a single strand of clear stretch cord. Another popular type of stretch chord is made up of several strands of stretchy material woven together. We usually use this stretch cord to make elastic bracelets. These are beading wires. Beading wire is made up of several strands of stainless steel wire woven together and coated with nylon. It's softer and more flexible than metal wires, stronger than nylon chord. It's supposed to be the most durable material for bead stringing. They come in different colors. Here I have both gold and silver colors. The number of wire strands is marked on the package. The more strands the beading wire, the more flexible it feels. But more strands are usually more expensive. 19 strands beading wire is highly recommended by many experienced designers. Considering flexibility and price, it works well for a variety of bead stringing projects. So if you're not sure which beading wire to use as a beginner, maybe go for the 19 strands beading wire. 14. Bead Stringing: Stringing Tools: Then let's look at some tools we use for bead stringing. These are knot cutters. They are like flush cutters, but are used for bead stringing materials. We can use them to flush cut thread or cord. Or we can use a pair of scissors with thin blades to cut thread or cord. We'll also need a pair of chain nose pliers and a pair of crimping pliers. I'll show how to use both of them to do crimping. These are bead stoppers. Before you start to put beads on a string, it's good to have a bead stopper on the other end of the stringing material, so the beads are not going to slide off from the other end. Then let's see crimp beads and crimp tubes. We use them to attach closed jump rings, clasps, or other components to the jewelry pieces. Or we can use them as big stoppers to keep beads in place. I'll talk about their sizes later in this course. Beading needles. I'll introduce two types of beading needles. These beading needles look like normal sewing needles, but thinner and have smaller eyes. We use this type of needles to do bead weaving projects. The other type of beading needles are big eye needles. Some people call them wide eye needles. Just open it and put the thread inside. I personally prefer big eye needles. It's easier to thread and we thread thicker cord like stretch cord. So we can use them to do both of bead stringing and bead weaving projects. I'll use big eye needles in this course. The big eye beading needles I'll be using in this course is about 2.1 inches. That's a manageable length I recommend for beginners. 15. Bead Stringing: Make a Bead Bracelet with Beading Wire: In this lesson, we'll learn how to string this bracelet with beading wire. I'll be using silver color beading wire. You can also use for nylon cord this project, the beads I'm using are 2mm silver color spacer beads and 6mm gemstone beads, a clasp, a closed jump ring, and two crimped tubes. I've cut off a piece of 30cm beading wire. I only need 16cm bracelet length for my wrist, but we need some extra beading wire to do crimping. Thread on one crimp tube, followed by either the clasp or the closed jump ring. Let's go with the clasp. Then take the end of the beading wire, thread it back through the crimp tube. Then move the crimp tube to the clasp. Leave a small gap here. So the clasp but still can move around in this loop. Use chain nose pliers to squish it flat. So the crimp tube will hold the beading wire firmly and the clasp is trapped in the loop. Here you can cut off the excess wire tail, or we can just leave it here and let some beads to cover it. It's considered to be more secure to keep the wire tail rather than cut it off right after crimping. I'll begin to put some beads on the wire. First one is a gemstone bead. Thread the wire tail through the bead. We need more beads to cover the wire tail. Let's begin to add more beads. I'll put one spacer bead between every two gemstone beads. The thread the wire tail through these beads. The wire tail is all covered by the beads. Then continue to add beads till get the desired length. I've got a good length for my wrist. Next, we need to trap the closed jump ring on the other end of the bracelet. Slide in a crimp tube, followed by the closed jump ring, take the wire tail back through the crimp tube, put the wire tail, then thread it through a couple of beads. Pull the wire tail, again, leave a bit of a room, So the jump ring can move around in the small loop. Take chain nose pliers to squish the crimp tube flat, trim off the excess wire. So we've finished this bracelet. If you make it long enough for your neck, this could be a necklace. So we've learned how to string beads with beading wire or nylon cord in this lesson. We can use crimp beads or crimp tubes to get clasps and closed jump rings attached. When string beads with beading wire or nylon cord, we always use closed jump rings because there's no split on the ring and the beading wire or nylon cord will not slip off. We were using chain those pliers to squish the crimp tubes flat, which is an easy and old-school technique. Later in this course, we will learn a different technique to do crimping with crimping pliers. 16. Bead Stringing: Make an Elastic Bracelet in Two Ways: In this lesson, we will make this elastic bracelet. I'll show two ways to finish this bracelet. We'll need stretch cord, 0.5mm thick, about 30cm long, a needle and some beads. These are pink color glass beads with silver coating inside. Put the needle on one end of the cord, and the bead stopper on the other end. So the beads are not going to come off from this end. Then keep adding beads on the cord through the needle till get the right length. I will skip this part. I've got enough beads on the cord. Take off the bead stopper and the beading needle. The first way to finish the bracelet is to make three or four overhand knots. The first knot should not be too tight because we don't want the beads crinkled together. The second knot should be quite tight. And the third knot needs to be tighter to secure the Finnish. I've made three knots. Just pull the cord to test if the knots are secure enough. We can also add a dab of jewelry glue on the knots to make the finish more secure. Cut the excess cord, leave a tiny bit of extra tail over the knots just in case. Then tuck the knots inside a bead. We've finished the bracelet. If we use beads with small holes, there's no way to hide the knots, but it's understandable. People know there are knots on an elastic bracelet. Stretch cord will break eventually if you wear them frequently. Once you see it frays or you feel your bracelet is losing elasticity, then it's better to restring them with new stretch cord before it breaks. These beads have quite big holes, so I can show you another way to finish this bracelet. We need longer stretch cord, about 50cm long. After thread all the beads we need on the cord, take the needle to go through all the beads again. In this way, we are using two strands of stretch cord to hold the beads, so the bracelet is going to last longer. We are almost there. Just take off the bead stopper. We don't need it anymore. Go through the rest of the beads. Then just pull the cord to tighten up. We don't want a gap here. Looks fine now. Take off the beading needle. Make two knots. Again, the first knot should not be too tight. The second knot should be tighter. You see the knots are only on the top chord. To link them together, grab one cord to wrap around the other cord. Then make another two tight knots. Make sure the knots are secure enough. Then trim off the excess cord. Tuck the knots inside a bead. Again, we can apply some glue on the knots. This is the second way to finish the bracelet. This can only work with beads that have large holes, so the normal sized stretch cord and needle can go through all the beads twice. 17. Bead Stringing: Floating Bead Necklace with Beading Wire: In this lesson, we will make this floating bead necklace with beading wire. I'm going to use a crimp tool. Or you can call them crimping pliers, I'll show a different way to crimp with this tool in this lesson. The materials for this project are 6mm round crystal beads in crystal AB color and 4mm white glass pearls, a clasp and a closed jump ring, crimp beads, 19 strands silver color beading wire. Cut a piece of 50cm beading wire. with knot cutters or flush cutters. Thread on a crimp bead at one end of the wire, followed by the clasp. Then take the end of the beading wire, thread it back through the crimp, move the crimp to the clasp, leave a bit of room here. Now make sure the beading wires are sitting next to each other, not one on top of the other. Then take the crimp tool to do crimping. There are two notches on the tool. The back notch has a nib in it. The front notch is a nice oval shape. We just need to follow two steps to crimp with this tool. First step, use the back notch to grab the crimp bead, squeeze it firmly. The crimp bead is squeezed flat and there's a crease in the middle to separate the two wires. Second step, place the crimp bead upright in the front notch, then squeeze it firmly to fold the crimp bead. So we've done. These are the two steps to crimp with a crimp tool. Compare with chain nose pliers, the crimp tool can fold a crimp bead in half, which makes the crimp bead unnoticeable and more polished. Then use knot cutters or flush cutters to trim off the excess wire. We don't want to leave the tail here because there will be no beads to cover it. I've cut a piece of straw to help me space out the beads evenly. It's about 3cm long. Put it on the beading wire, then thread on a crimp bead, move it close to the straw, grab the crimp bead with the back notch of the crimp tool, move it right next to the straw. You can see the other end of the straw covered half of the clasp. Squeeze it firmly. We can take off the straw now. Then finish the second step, place the crimp bead upright in the front notch to fold it. So the crimp bead is fastened on the wire. Then thread one pearl, one crystal bead, and another pearl. Let them drop down. The thread on a crimp bead. Let it stay right next to the pearl. Repeat the two steps to crimp it. So the crystal and the pearls are trapped by two crimp beads. We've finished the first unit. Here the crimp beads are like bead stoppers to secure the beads in place. Then let's do the second unit. Put the straw back on the wire, followed by a crimp bead. Grab the crimp bead with the back notch, move it next to the straw. The other end of the straw covered half of the first unit. Squeeze it firmly, then take off the straw and fold the crimp bead. Again, thread on one pearl, one crystal bead and another pearl, followed by another crimp bead. Let the crimp bead stay right next to the pearl. Repeat the two steps to crimp the bead. We've finished the second unit. Then just continue adding more units till get the desired length. I've got a good length for myself. To finish the necklace, We put the straw back again, then thread on a crimp bead and the jump ring. Take the wire tail back through the crimp. Pull the wire, move the crimp next to the straw. The other end of the straw just covers half of the last unit. Then crimp the bead, take off the straw and trim off the excess wire. So we've finished this floating bead necklace. Many designers make floating necklaces without a straw or anything like that. Once we get experienced, we can judge the space just by our eyes. 18. Bead Stringing: Size of Crimp Beads/Tubes: Let's talk about the sizes of crimp beads and crimp tubes. The general rule is to make sure the diameter of the crimp beads or tubes is large enough to allow our string materials to go through them twice, so we can attach clasps and jump rings. But the diameter should not be too large if we use chain nose pliers to crimp, because they will look too wide once squished flat by chain nose pliers. If we want to use crimp tool, no matter which brand of crimp tool, there will be product's information on the package or on their website that tells you the range of crimp sizes you should use. The one I'm using in this course is Beadalon standard crimp tool. You don't have to get the same one. I just use it as an example. There's a chart on the package to tell us the sizes of the crimp beads or tubes that can go with this crimp tool. We do need to use the correct size of crimp to go with this tool. So in the first step of crimping, the back notch can squeeze the crimp properly and create a crease in the middle. So we can fold it in half for the second step. So please make sure the sizes of the crimp beads or tubes you're going to buy can go with both of your stringing materials and your crimp tool. Should we use crimp beads or crimp tubes? It's more like a personal preference. Crimp tubes tend to be more secure because they have a larger area to hold the stringing materials. So many people prefer to use crimp tubes to connect clasps and jump rings. Well, crimp beads are shorter. Once we've folded them in half with crimp tool, they are really unnoticeable. So I prefer to use crimp beads as bead stoppers for making floating necklaces. 19. Bead Stringing: Two-Strand Floating Bead Necklace with Nylon Cord: In this lesson, we are going to learn how to make a floating bead necklace with clear nylon cord. The transparent nylon cord sometimes is invisible, which can create an illusion that the beads are floating on the skin. The clear nylon cord I'll be using is 0.25mm in thickness. The beads for this project are 6mm white glass pearls and 4mm round crystal beads in crystal AB color. Get a piece of nylon cord about 50cm. Attach the clasp on one end of the cord with a crimp tube and chain nose pliers, or we can use crimping pliers. Trim off the cord tail, thread on a crystal bead, move it down. Leave about 2.5cm space to the crimp tube. Then take the cord to go through the crystal bead again in the same direction. Pull the chord, so the crystal is trapped in this loop. Now I can still move the crystal to adjust its position. I'm happy with the space between the crystal and the crimp tube now, about 2.5cm. Pull the cord to close the loop. Give a little bit of tension. So the bead is locked in place. The thread on one pearl and another crystal bead. Move them down. Take the cord to go through the crystal bead again in the same direction. Pull the tail. Before close the loop, move the crystal bead right next to the pearl. Then pull the cord tight, so the crystal is locked here. We finished the first unit of this necklace Unlike the beading wire, we don't have to use crimp beads or tubes with thin nylon cord to lock the beads in place. Once you pull it tight, it pretty much will stay that way. Let's make the second unit, thread on a crystal bead, move it down, take the cord to go through the crystal bead again. Leave the same space from the first unit, about 2.5cm. I just judge it by my eyes. Then pull it tight. Give a bit of tension. Thread on one pearl and another crystal bead, take the cord to go through the crystal bead again. Before close the loop, position it right next to the pearl. Then give a tight pull. We've finished the second unit. Just to repeat the same steps to make more units till reach the desired length. I've got enough units for the necklace. Then place a crimp tube, followed by a closed jump ring, thread it back through the tube. Pull the cord to leave the same distance between the crimp bead and the last unit. We can double-check with the other side to make sure the space is about the same. Crimp the tube here. Cut off the extra cord. We've got a single strand floating necklace. We can add more strands on this design. I've made another strand with only crystal beads on this chord. It's slightly shorter. So just simply add this strand on the same clasp and closed jump ring. Put on a crimp tube through one end, then take this end to go through the same clasp. Take the cord to go back through the tube. I'll leave about 2cm between the tube and the first crystal. Then crimp it flat. Trim off the excess cord. Put a crimp tube on the other end, then thread it through the same closed jump ring. Go back through the tube, again leave about 2cm space between the tube and the last crystal. Crimp the tube, then cut off the extra cord. We've finished this two strand floating bead necklace. 20. Bead Weaving: Introduce FireLine: This is FireLine, FireLine is highly recommended by many bead weaving designers. It's a superior braided fishing line. It's very flexible and strong. It comes in different colors. The one I'll be using is Crystal color. The size of FireLine is based on their weight test. Six pound FireLine is 0.006 inch thick. This is the most widely used FireLine size. Another popular thread for bead weaving is WildFire. You can try both of FireLine and WildFire to see which one you prefer. 21. Bead Weaving: Right Angle Weave- Make Right Angle Weave Bracelet: Bead weaving can be done on a bead loom or by hands. From this section, we are going to learn off loom hand bead weaving, so we don't need to buy a bead loom device. There are many different bead weaving stitches that can create unique patterns, shapes, and textures. In this lesson, we are going to learn right angle weave stitch to make this bracelet. I'm going to use 4mm bicone crystal beads and some seed beads. These are size 11 seed beads, about 2mm in diameter, a closed jump ring and a clasp. There's a small closed ring attached to the clasp. One beading needle, 120cm FireLine for this project. Put the needle on one end of the thread. Place 8 seed beads on the needle, followed by the closed jump ring and one crystal bead, move them all the way down. Leave about 15cm tail on this end of the thread. Then take the needle to go through all the beads again. We're going to make a loop. Pull it tight. So we've got a loop. The closed jump ring is attached to the loop. Here, make two or three tight knots to secure the loop. Then take the needle to go through this crystal bead. Add 3 crystal beads, then go through the first crystal bead again. So we've got a four-bead unit. This is the first unit of this right angle weave bracelet. Let's see a diagram. It will be easier to understand. So this is the first unit we've made, It's like a square loop with 4 crystal beads. You can see the beads lie at right angles to one another. So that's why it's called right angle wave. To understand the structure better, I'll draw a line in the middle of this unit. You can see there are two beads on the line. One bead is on the top of the unit, and the other one is on the bottom. Then it has one bead on the left side and one on the right side. To make the second unit, we need to add three beads on top of the first unit, like that. So we need to take the needle to go to the top bead of the first unit, go through the bead on the side, then goes through the top bead. Add 3 crystal beads and go through the top bead of the first unit. We've made the second unit. Let's see the diagram. This bead here is the top bead of the first unit. It's also the bottom bead of the second unit. To make the third unit, just add 3 beads on top of the second unit, like that. So we need to take the needle to the top bead of the second unit. I need to flip it over to continue. Go through the bead on the side, then the top bead. Add 3 crystal beads, go through this bead again. We've made the third unit. Then take the needle to go to the top bead of the third unit. Now we are ready to add the new unit. So 3 crystal beads, then go through the top bead of the third unit. We've made the fourth unit. Repeat the same steps to continue adding more units till get the desired length. I've got a good length from our wrist. Then we'll add seed beads to make a loop and get the clasp attached to this end. Place 4 seed beads, the clasp and another 4 seed beads on the needle. Take the needle to go through the top crystal bead of the last unit. Then go through all the seed beads and the crystal bead on this loop again. By the way, the ring on the clasp is quite small, so it doesn't move around in the seed beads loop. It'll stay there. That's why I put it in the center of the seed beads. So 4 seed beads sit on each side of the clasp. Next, take the needle to go back through some beads and make knots to secure the work. We can either go back to the crystal beads or go back to the seed beads. I'll take the needle to go back through a couple of seed beads. Then take the needle to go under the thread bridge, pull the thread, take the needle to go into the loop and pull it tight. This is called half hitch knot. Then continue to go through the next couple of seed beads and make a half hitch knot. Go through the next few seed beads, make another knot. We can also take the needle to go into the loop twice to make the knot, pull it tight. Then go through the next two seed beads and the last crystal bead. We've made several knots on this end, so it should be secure enough. Trim off the excess thread with sissors. We've finished this end. Let's go back to the other end. Put the needle on the thread tail, then go back through the seed beads on the loop and make some knots to secure the work, just like the other side. We didn't use heavy beads for this bracelet, so several knots should be enough. If you're going to use bigger and heavier beads, then it's better to go back through more beads and make more knots to secure the project. Okay, We're almost there. Trim off the excess thread. We've finished this right angle weave bracelet. 22. Bead Weaving: Cross Weave (Two Needle Right Angle Weave): Right Angle Weave can be done with one needle or two needles. We've learned the one needle method in the last lesson. In this lesson, we are going to make a right angle weave bracelet with two needles. The two needle right angle weave is also called cross weave. Cut off 120cm fineline for this project, the beads are 4mm bicone crystal beads, size 11 seed beads, about 2mm in diameter, a jump ring, a clasp, I've attached a small jump ring to the clasp, and two beading needles. Put the beading needles on both ends of the thread. Place 9 seed beads on one needle. We are going to make a seed beads loop to attach the jump ring or the clasp later. You can add more seed beads to have a bigger loop or use less seed beads to get a smaller loop. Bring them all the way down to the center of the thread. Put a crystal bead on one needle, move it on the thread, take the other needle to go through the bead from the opposite direction to cross the crystal bead. Hold two needles together and slide it down. We've got a loop at the center of the thread. Take one needle to go through all the beads again, so we'll have two strands of thread inside the beads to secure the loop. This time we're going to use normal jump rings. So we can finish the loop first and attach the jump ring and the clasp later. Okay, we've finished the loop. To make the first unit of the bracelet, we just follow two steps. Step one, place a crystal bead on each needle, move them down. Step two, place a crystal bead on one needle, move it on the thread, take the other needle to go through the bead from the opposite direction to cross the bead, slide it down. So we finished the first unit, a square loop with four crystal beads. Beads lie at right angles to one another. This two needle method is considered to be easier for beginners. We just simply place the same bead on each side of the thread. Then cross a bead to finish each unit. That's why it's called cross weave. Let's see the diagram. We've made the first unit with 4 crystal beads. To make the second unit, just add 3 crystal beads on top of the first unit, same as I showed in the last lesson. We only need to repeat two steps. Place a crystal bead on each needle, move them down. That's the first step. Then place a crystal bead on one needle, move it on the thread, take the other needle to go through the bead from the opposite direction to cross the bead. That's the second step. So we've got the second unit. Place a crystal bead on each needle, move them down. That's the first step. Then place a crystal bead on one needle, move it on the thread, take the other needle to go through the bead from the opposite direction to cross the bead. That's the second step. We've made the third unit. Just repeat the same steps to continue adding more units till get the desired length. I've got a good length for my wrist. We're doing to make another seed beads loop on this end. Place 9 seed beads on one needle and take this needle to go through the last crystal bead. So we've got a loop on this end. Take one needle, no matter which one, to go through all the beads on this loop again to secure the loop. We've finished this loop. Now, let's secure the whole project. Go through all these 3 crystal beads to meet the other thread, so we can make knots with two threads. Now the two threads are at the same point. Here make two or three tight knots To secure the project better, take one needle to go back through some beads and make half hitch knots. We can go as far as the thread allows. If we got enough thread, we can go all the way back to the first unit to stiffen and secure the work. Just keep going. I'll skip this part. Then take sissors to trim off the excess thread. Just do exactly the same with the other thread. Go through some beads and make half hitch knots. Again, I'll skip this part. Trim off the excess thread. Then just use pliers to attach the jump ring and the clasp to each seed beads loop. So we've finished the bracelet. Many beginners found the two needle right angle weave is easier to understand. One needle method and two needle method are like two different thinking patterns. Even though they achieved the same finished look, some people prefer one method over the other. It's better to try out both of them to see which one you prefer. 23. Bead Weaving: Cross Weave-Make a Pearl and Crystal Beaded Bracelet: In this lesson, we are going to learn how to make this cross weave bracelet with multiple beads. I'm going to use to two beading needles, size 11 seed beads, they are transparent rainbow color, 4mm bicone crystal beads in crystal AB color, 4mm white glass pearls and a pair of magnetic clasp. It has two halves with a small closed ring on each half. Cut off 120cm fineline for this project. Put beading needles on both ends of the thread. Put 4 seed beads on one needle, followed by one half of the clasp. Then put another 4 seed beads on the same needle. The half clasp is placed at the center of the seed beads. Then take two needles to cross a pearl, move it down. We've finished a loop with one half clasp attached. Take one needle to go through all the beads, including the half clasp. So the loop will be more secure. We've finished the loop. Next, we are going to make the first unit. Just follow two steps. Step one, place one pearl on each side, move them down. Step two, take two needles to cross a pearl. So we've got a four-pearl unit. To make the second unit, I'll go with multiple beads. There are still two steps. Step one, place 2 seed beads, 1 crystal bead and another 2 seed beads on each needle, move them down. Step two, take two needles to cross a pearl, move it down. We've made the second unit. It's a bigger loop compare with the first unit, because we put more beads on each side for this unit. Then just repeat making these two units. Place one pearl on each side. Then take the two needles to cross a pearl to get a four-pearl unit. Then place 2 seed beads, 1 crystal bead and another 2 seed beads on each needle. Take two needles to cross a pearl to get a bigger loop unit. Just continue making more units like this till get the desired length. That's about the length I need. To finish the bracelet, place 4 seed beads on each needle, place the other half of the clasp on either of the two needles. Move them down. Now, make two or three knots with these two threads. Make sure the knots are tight and secure enough. Then take each needle to go back through the loop and make one or two half hitch knots. We've already made knots with two threads, so we don't have to make a lot of half hitch knots. I'll go with the other needle, go back through the other beads on the loop and make one or two knots. Here I'll take each needle to go back through one or two units on the bracelet and make knots to secure the project. I'll skip this part. Then trim off the excess thread. Do the same with the other thread. Again, I'll skip this part. Trim off the excess thread. We've finished this cross weave bracelet. 24. Bead Weaving: Ladder Stitch-How to Do Ladder Stitch: Ladder stitch is probably the easiest bead weaving stitch for beginners to learn. It's commonly used as the base for other bead weaving stitches But we still can use ladder stitch on its own to make beaded jewelry, like the ring we are going to make in the next lesson. Now, let's look at how to do ladder stitch. I've threaded my needle with a piece of fire line, about 30cm. I'm going to use cylinder shaped seed beads, because they'll sit together nicely for the stitch. First, we can slide one bead as our stop bead. It keeps other beads from falling off the end of the thread. Leave a short tail here, then go through the bead in the same direction again. Pull the thread, so the bead is trapped on the thread. Pick up one bead as the foundation bead of the ladder stitch. Then just follow two steps. Step one, pick up a new bead and go through the previous bead. So they sit next to each other. Step two, go through the new bead. Then just simply repeat these two steps. Step one, pick up a new bead and go through the previous bead. Step two, go through the new bead. Just repeat, pick up a new bead and go through the previous bead. Then go through the new bead. Continue adding beads like this. It's very easy to reach a desired length with ladder stitch. I'm going to add another couple of beads like this. Now I have 11 beads on this ladder stitch. At this stage, the finished part looks a bit loose and the beads may not sit straight next to each other. We can reinforce ladder stitch to make it stronger and look nicer. Just take the needle to go back through each bead, follow the existing thread paths. You can see it's getting straighter. Continue going through all the beads on this ladder stitch. Now the needle is back at the starting point. It looks nice and straight So that's the basic ladder stitch technique. 25. Bead Weaving: Ladder Stitch-Make a Classic Beaded Ring with Ladder Stitch: In this lesson, we are going to make this ladder stitch beaded ring. I'm going to use gold color cylinder shaped seed beads, about 1.6mm in diameter and a 100cm fire line. Like I showed in the last lesson, Put a stop bead on the thread, leave a short tail. Then go through the bead again, so the bead is trapped on the thread. This time pick up three beads as the foundation beads of the ladder stitch. Then still follow two steps. Step one, pick up 3 new beads and go through the previous 3 beads. Step two, go through the 3 new beads. Just to repeat these two steps, pick up 3 new beads and go through the previous 3 beads. Then go through the 3 new beads. Keep repeating these two steps. This time we are using 3 beads for each row. But the basic technique is the same. It's an easy, repetitive process. Continue adding beads like this to get a good length to wrap around your finger. This is a good length for my ring finger. It can wrap around my finger nicely. Then we are going to connect the two ends together to form a ring. Take the needle to go through the first row. Then go back through the last row to bring the two ends together. Then go through the first row and the last row again. This can secure the connection. We can take off the stop bead now. Then I'll take the needle to go through each row on this ring band to reinforce the work. This process will stiffen the work and keep the beads sit nicely together. I will skip this part. I'm back to the first row now. To secure the finnish, take the needle to go under the thread bridge to make a half hitch knot. Then go through the next row and pull the thread tight, so the knot is tightened. Then go through the next row. Make another knot. Go through the next couple of rows. It's quite secure now. Trim off the excess thread and the other thread tail. So we've made a ladder stitch beaded ring. 26. Bead Weaving: Beaded Flower-Make a Classic Daisy Chain Bracelet: In this lesson, I'm going to show how to make this classic daisy chain bracelet. The traditional daisy chain is always made with round seed beads, but you can use different types of beads. First, I will show how to make a daisy flower. I will use bigger beads to make a daisy flower, so you can see it clearly. These are 3mm glass pearls in two colors, blue and white. I've threaded my needle with a stop bead on the other end of the thread. Pick up 6 blue pearls. they are the petal beads of the daisy. Slide them down, then take the needle to go through the first pearl again. We've made a loop. Then pick up a white pearl. It'll be the center bead of this daisy. If I place it in the center of the loop now, we can see the thread as the center line of this loop. It divided the loop into two halves. There are 3 blue pearls on each half. So 3 blue pearls on the top of the loop and the other 3 blue pearls are at the bottom of the loop. The thread came out from the top of this bead. We count the next 3 beads. So 1, 2, 3, go into the third bead from the bottom. Pull the thread, so we've made a daisy. Next, let's make this classic daisy chain bracelet with seed beads. The colors of the seed beads I'm going to use are cream white, turquoise blue, and silver color. All of these three groups of seed beads are size 11, about 2mm in diameter. We also need size 15 silver color seed beads. They are about 1.5mm in diameter, a closed jump ring and a clasp, there's a small closed ring on this clasp. I've threaded my needle with 75cm fireline and added a stop bead on the other end. Leave about 13cm thread tail, so we can attach the clasp or the closed jumping later. Place 6 blue seed beads, they are the petal beads of the first daisy. Slide them down. Then go through the first blue seed bead to form a loop. Because this is the first Daisy on the thread, I'll take the needle to go through all the beads on this loop again to secure the loop. Then we are ready to add the center bead. Pick up one size 11 silver seed bead. We can place it in the center of the loop now. The thread came out from the top of this bead. We count the next 3 beads. So 1, 2, 3, go into the third bead from the bottom. So we've made the first daisy. Then pick up 3 sides 15 silver seed beads. I want them to be the spacer beads between the daisies. You can add more beads or less beads to be the spacer beads. Now we are ready to make the second daisy. This time I'll use 6 white seed beads as the petal beads, then go through the first white seed bead to form a loop. Then pull the loop as close to the spacer beads as you can. So there's no gap between this daisy and the spacer beads. Pick up one size 11 silver seed bead. This is the center bead. Again count the next 3 beads on the loop, go into the third bead from the bottom. We've made the second Daisy. Again pick up 3 size 15 silver seed beads. Then we're ready to make the third daisy with blue petal beads. So 6 blue seed beads, then go up through the first blue seed bead. Pull the loop close up to the spacer beads. Then pick up one size 11 silver seed bead and go into this bead from the bottom. This is the third daisy flower. Add 3 size 15 silver seed beads. I'm going to do one more daisy, then I'll show you how to finish off this bracelet. Now we are ready to make the next daisy with white petal beads. So 6 white seed beads, go up through the first white seed bead, pull the loop close up to the spacer bead, add one size 11 silver seed bead as the center bead. Go into this bead from the bottom. Just continue making more daisies and adding spacer beads like this till get the length you need. I've made a good length for my wrist. Then I'll attach the clasp on this end. Pick up 3 size 15 silver seed beads, just like the spacer beads we added between the daisies. Then pick up the clasp and go back through these 3 seed beads. So the clasp is attached to this end. Go through this petal bead to center the clasp. Then go through the other petal beads to secure this part. Unlike the bracelets we made in the right angle weave section. This time, I didn't make a seed beads loop to attach the clasp, because this bracelet is quite dainty, so I just used 3 size 15 seed beads to get the clasp attached to minimize the finnish. Continue to go through the petal beads on this daisy and make several knots to secure this part. Trim off the excess thread. We've finished this end. Let's do the other end. Take off the stop bead. Put the needle on the thread tail. Then just like the other side, pick up 3 size 15 silver seed beads, followed by the closed jump ring. Go back through these 3 beads Then go through this petal bead to center this part. Next, go through the other petal beads on this daisy, and make knots to secure the work. Trim off the excess thread. So we've finished this classic daisy chain bracelet. 27. Bead Weaving: Beaded Flower-Make a Daisy Ring and A Matching Bracelet: In this lesson, we are going to make this daisy ring and a matching bracelet. I'm going to use size 11 seed beads in red and pink color. You can use any other colors you like. I need about 50cm fireline. I've placed a stop bead with 13cm thread tail. We've learned how to make daisies in the last lesson. So pick up 6 pink beads as the petal beads, go up through the first bead to make a loop. This will be the first daisy on the thread. Right now, we don't have to run through all the beads again for security. I'll do that after we finish the band of this ring. So let's go ahead to finish this daisy. Pick up a red bead as the center bead. We can go through this bead now. Pull the thread and the red bead is centered in the loop. Then pick up 6 pink beads to make the next daisy. This time I'm not going to add spacer beads between the daisies. Go up through the first bead we just added to make a loop. Pull it close up to the first daisy. Make sure there's no gap between the loop and the first daisy. Then we can add the center bead. So the daisies just sit next to each other. Continue to make the next daisy. So pick up 6 petal beads to make a loop. Just remember to pull the loop close up to the previous daisy. Add the center bead. I'm going to make another two daisies and skip this part. I've made five daisies in total. Then let's make the band of the ring. We just simply pick up some pink seed beads and slide them on the thread. This is a very easy way to make the ring band. I'll show you a different way to make the band of a beaded bring in the next lesson. Just keep adding beads like this till get the right length. I've got a good length. It can wrap around my ring finger nicely. Then we are going to connect the two ends together to form a ring. Take the needle to go into the pink bead where the thread tail came out. We can remove the stop bead Then take the needle to go through all the other petal beads on this daisy to secure the connection. Then go back through all the pink beads on the ring band. We are going to the other end of the band to secure the connection there. Okay, we are here. Then go through this petal bead to center the band. Next, run through all the other petal beads on this daisy to secure this part. Then goes through the petal beads again and make half hitch knots to secure the finish, just like what we did in the last lesson. I'll skip this part. I've made several knots between the petal beads of this daisy. Here, I'll go through a couple of beads on the band. Then we can trim off the excess thread, Put the needle on the thread tail and just do the exact same thing to secure the finnish. Go through the petal beads again and make several knots. I'll skip this part. Trim off the excess thread. We've finished this daisy ring. To make a matching bracelet, I have used 80cm fireline. I've finished all the daisies on the thread without any spacer beads between them. To attach the clasp to this end, pick up 2 pink seed beads, followed by the clasp. Just like what we did in the last lesson, go back through the new beads we just added. And go through the next petal bead on this daisy to center the clasp. Then go through all the other petal beads. To secure this part, this time, I'll take the needle to run through these two beads and the clasp again. Then go back through these two beads. In the previous lesson, I didn't go through the added seed beads and the clasp twice to secure that part. That's because the seed beads connected with the clasp are size 15. Their holes are very small, it's really challenging to go back through them again. My needle and thread might get caught. And the bracelet is quite lightweight, the clasp does not hold too much weight. So it's fine not doing that. Next, just go through all the petal beads again on this daisy and make several knots. Again, I'll skip this part. Trim off the excess thread. We've finished this end. Just do the exact same thing on the other end to attach a closed jump ring. Then we've finished this matching bracelet. 28. Bead Weaving: Beaded Flower-Make a Pearl and Crystal Halo Ring: In this lesson, we are going to make this pearl and crystal halo ring. First, we'll make a loop with 10 bicone crystal beads, then add a pearl as the center bead, just like how we made a daisy flower in the previous lessons. But this time the pearl as the center bead is much bigger than the crystal beads. So the crystal beads' loop appears as a halo around the pearl. I'm going to use one 6mm glass pearl, 3mm bicone crystal beads in crystal AB and some silver cylinder shaped seed beads, about 1.6mm x 1.3mm. I've threaded my needle with 80cm fire line. Pick up 10 crystal beads, slide them on the thread, leave about 15cm tail. We don't need a stop bead this time. Here, I'll tie 3 overhand knots, so we can make a loop with the crystal beads. You can still go through the first crystal bead to form a loop, like we did in the previous lessons. But I just want to show you a different way to make this loop. Okay, we've got a loop. Next, instead of adding the center bead, I'll take the needle off from the long thread and put it on the thread tail. Then go through all the crystal beads and make several half hitch knots to secure the loop. The pearl we are going to use as the center bead is much bigger than the crystal beads, so we used 10 crystal beads to get a loop that's large enough for the pearl. It's better to secure the loop now to stiffen this part and keep its round shape. Keep going till the two threads meet. Now we can take the needle off and put it back on the long thread. We are ready to add the pearl in the center now. So pick up the pearl, this time, we count the next five beads on the loop. So 1,2,3,4,5. And take the needle to go into the fifth crystal bead from the bottom, so the pearl is centered in the loop. Take the needle to go through the next 7 crystal beads and make one or two knots to secure this part. Okay, We are almost there. Just stop here. If I hold this part like this, here is the thread came out of the pearl and here is the same thread. If we see this thread as the center line of the loop, then there are 5 crystal beads on each side of this loop. My needle just passed through the middle crystal bead on the right side. Now we can trim off the thread tail. Then we are ready to make the band of the ring. Pick up 4 seed beads, and loop back through this crystal bead, then run through the seed beads and the same crystal bead again for security. Then go through 3 seed beads again. Pick up 2 seed beads, loop back through the 2 seed beads in the middle, then go up through the 2 seed beads we just added. So we are doing ladder stitch to make the band of the ring. We just repeat two steps. Step one, pick up 2 seed beads and go back through the previous 2 seed beads. Step two, go through the two seed beads we just added. We've learned how to add beads like this in the ladder stitch section. It's quite easy to make the band with ladder stitch. Just keep adding beads like this, I'll skip this part. I've got enough beads on the band. It's a good size for my ring finger. Here we have 2 seed beads to connect the band, so we need 2 seed beads to link the other end of the band as well. First, pick up one seed bead. We'll go through this crystal bead. From the crystal bead connected to the band, we count the next five crystal beads. This is the fifth bead. Go through this bead, add another seed bead, loop back through the first row on this end Then go through all these beads again for security. Next, we will reinforce the band, so just simply go back through each row of this ladder stitch beaded band. We've learned this in the ladder stitch section. So I'll skip this part. I'm back to the other end of the band now. To secure the finish, this time, I will not make any half hitch knot. There is a different way to finish a bead weaving project. Just simply weave back the work again. Follow the existing thread paths. Some people don't like to make knots for security. If you don't like to make knots either, then you need to have enough thread left to go back far enough away from your finished point. We've already reinforced this ladder stitch. Now, I'm going through the seed beads for the third time. It should be secure enough. I'll finish here, trim off the excess thread. So we've finished this pearl and crystal halo ring. 29. Bead Weaving: Beaded Flower-Make a Flower Pendant with Necklace: In this lesson, you'll learn how to make this flower pendant with necklace. This beaded flower has one pearl as the center bead and silver seed beads as the halo around the pearl. Then we'll add 8 bicone crystal beads as the petal beads. Let's make this flower pendant first, then I'll show you how to make the necklace. I'm going to use one 6mm white glass pearl, 4mm bule bicone crystal beads and size 11 silver seed beads. We need about 50cm fire line. I've placed a stop bead with 13cm thread tail. In the previous lesson, I made a loop first with small bicone crystal beads as the halo, then added a pearl in the center. But this time, I'll show you a different way to make the halo. Pick up the 6mm pearl and six silver seed beads, then go up through the pearl. So I just wrapped the seed beads around on one side. Then I'm going to wrap the other side of the pearl. Again, pick up 6 seed beads, go up through the pearl. We've finished this side as well. You can see there's a gap on the top and the bottom. I need to take my needle to the bottom to add seed beads there to fill the gap. So go through all the seed beads on this side. We are ready to add seed beads now. Pick up 2 seed beads, run through the seed beads on the other side of the pearl, So the 2 seed beads are placed there. Then go through the rest of the seed beads on the same side, so we can add seed beads to fill this gap. Pick up 2 seed beads, just go through the next seed bead on the other side. So we finished the halo. Let's begin to add petals. Pick up 1 seed bead, 1 crystal, and another seed bead. Then loop back through the previous 2 seed beads on the halo. We've made the first petal of this flower. This crystal bead is our petal bead. The seed beads on each side of the crystal will be our spacer beads between the petals. Then let's make the second petal. From now on, just follow three steps to make a new petal. Step one, go through the next 2 seed beads on the halo. Step two, pick up 1 seed bead, 1 crystal bead and go through the seed bead next to the first crystal. So this seed bead is now a spacer bead between the two petals. It links the two petals together. Step three, loop back through the previous 2 seed beads on the halo. So we've finished the second petal. Just repeat these three steps to add the third petal. Step one, Go through the next 2 seed beads on the halo. Step two, pick up 1 seed bead, 1 crystal bead, and go through the seed bead next to the previous crystal. Step three, loop back through the previous 2 seed beads on the halo. You can give a pull to your working thread and thread tail. So we've finished the third petal. Let's do one more petal together. Still repeat the three steps. Step one, go through the next 2 seed beads. Step two, pick up 1 seed bead, 1 crystal bead and go back through the seed bead next to the previous crystal. Step three, loop back through the previous 2 seed beads on the halo. So we've made the fourth petal, continue making another three petals like this Then we'll make the last petal together. I've finished three petals. Let's make the last one. Take the needle to go through the last 2 seed beads on the halo. Then go through this seed bead that is next to our first crystal. This time we only need to pick up 1 crystal bead then go through the seed bead next to our previous crystal. We didn't add any seed bead this time because we've already got one seed bead on each side. Then loop back through the last 2 seed beads. We've finished all the 8 petals. Then just take the needle to go through the seed beads on the loop and make several half hitch knots to secure this part. You can also go up through the spacer beads and crystal beads to reinforce the petals. Okay, I'll skip this part. Trim off the excess thread. I've removed the stop bead. Now put the needle on the thread tail. Just go through some beads on the loop. Follow the existing threat paths. Make a couple knots to secure the work. We can also go through the spacer beads and crystal beads to reinforce the petals. I'll skip this part. Trim off the excess thread. So we've finished the beaded flower pendant. Let's make the necklace. I'll use about 55cm clear nylon cord. It's 0.3mm in diameter. I've attached a clasp to this end with a crimp bead and crimping pliers. You've learned how to crimp, so I just skipped this part. Let's begin to add beads on the nylon cord. The beads l'll be using to make the necklace are size 15 silver seed beads which are smaller than size 11 seed beads I used for the flower pendant. You can still use size 11 seed beads. I just personally prefer a super fine necklace. Grab the other end of the nylon cord. It's quite stiff. We can pick up the seed beads by scooping through them. Just hold the cord parallel to the beading mat, then scoop through the seed beads. They are so small and we need quite a lot of them to make the necklace. It's an easy way to pick up small seed beads like this. Just continue adding seed beads till get half of the necklace length you need. I've got half of the necklace length, about 20cm. Grab the end of the cord and go through one crystal bead on the flower pendant. Just like that. Slide the pendant close up to the seed beads. Then continue to add seed beads on the cord to make the other half of the necklace. I've added enough beads. It got similar length to the first half. Then thread a crimp bead, followed by a closed jump ring. Take the cord back through the crimp bead, pull the cord tail, leave a bit of room for the closed jump ring. Then take crimping pliers to crimp. I'll skip this part. Trim off the cord tail. So we've finished this flower pendant with necklace 30. Conclusion: Congratulations, you've completed the course. Now you have the skills to make many different beads jewelry styles. I hope you are happy with what you've learned in this course. Again, I'll be adding new lessons to keep this course updated. Thank you so much for taking this course. Let's keep in touch.