Jewelry Club, Part 2 - Beaded Bracelets

The finished product.

Next up in our overview of Jewelry Club projects: beaded bracelets!  Double-strand beaded bracelets, to be exact.  What makes them a double-strand? As you can see here, there are two strands of little beads (seed beads), connected by larger beads.  I found the idea for these in a book, where they were called "kandi bracelets," but looking up that phrase online tells you that kandi bracelets are beaded bracelets that you make and trade with your friends, and don't have to be this specific kind of bracelet, so here are the instructions to make the ones we made in Jewelry Club.

First, make a plain old beaded bracelet.  You'll want to cut a piece of jewelry cord (or string, or wire) that's long enough to wrap very loosely around your wrist twice - remember, too long of a string is better than not enough, since you can always cut the end off!  Start by tying one large bead (the "anchor bead") to the end of the cord, and then start adding beads.  The pattern is easy: one large bead, six small (seed) beads.  Repeat this to make a bracelet that wraps comfortably around your wrist.  Here's mine:

That looks very long, but it fit me perfectly.

When you have your bracelet the right size, thread your jewelry cord back through the first bead (the anchor bead).  It should make a completely closed circle.

Make sure it fits before moving on to the next step!

Then, start your pattern again.  Thread six seed beads onto your cord, but instead of adding a large bead, thread your string back through the first large bead on your bracelet, like this:

Big beads are shared by both strands of little beads, because sharing is caring.

Continue this pattern as before, threading 6 seed beads onto your cord before putting the cord through the next big bead in line.  This pattern should continue all the way around the bracelet, until it has two strings of beads all the way around, like this:

I love the purple band-aid, don't you?  Don't worry; it was just a paper cut.

Once you've gotten all the way around the bracelet,  thread your cord through the anchor bead one more time and tie it off as tightly as you can.  And you're done!

Beautiful!