Spiral bound

 Psst!

Over here.

No, not there. Here! Yeah, hi. I feel that we've grown very close over the last few weeks, so I want to let you in on a little secret. But first, you have to verify your identity with our secret handshake.

What do you mean we don't have a secret handshake? We should definitely have a secret handshake. Oh well, I'll just add it to my to do list. Which means I should be able to get to it in, oh, I don't know, 4 or 5 years!

I'll share with you anyway.

 This bracelet is ridiculously easy to create.

Now, I wish I could take credit for this technique because it's such an incredible method for creating this complicated look, without the complications of... stuff.

Sorry, school holidays really take their toll on my brain function.

Anyway, I learned this technique from a great book called "Simple Glass Beading" by Dorothy Wood. It has a lot of fabulous projects in it, and has been an invaluable reference tool for me over the years.

To begin, pick out your beads. You'll need 3 colors. In the bracelet pictured above, I used seed beads in 3 colors, but all the same size. This time, I'm using seed beads in purple and turquoise with miracle beads in a light blue-green.

 I love miracle beads!

First, string 4 of your interior beads (in my case purple), 1 exterior seed bead (turquoise), 1 miracle bead (LOVE MIRACLE BEADS!), and 1 more exterior seed bead.

Let the whole lot drop down your thread, but be sure to leave an extra long tail. You'll use it to attach your fastener later on.

 Now, take your needle back through the interior beads (purple).

Kinda looks like 2 rows. Or a loop depending on the sizes of beads you're using.

 Now, thread on 1 interior (purple), 1 exterior (turquoise), 1 miracle, and 1 more exterior.

Let the beads drop to the cluster towards the bottom of the thread.

 Now, thread your needle through the last 3 interior (purple) beads from the cluster AND the 4th bead you just added. Pull the thread firmly.

And repeat.

Over and over. (Like crimson and clover.)

Always threading your needle through the last 3 interior (purple) beads on your work, AND the 4th bead just added.

Very soon it starts to look like this.

What appears to be a spiral is actually just a series of loops arranged together.

Have I mentioned that I love miracle beads? Yes? Good. Because I really love miracle beads! And here's why. That's NOT trick photography or weird lighting. That's actually how they look! Stunning.

 This technique goes super fast! After about 2 hours (including countless interruptions), I had this. One of the things you have to keep in mind with this method is to keep measuring the length. Because it's so quick to do, it's very easy to make the piece too big. Not that it's hard to remove some beads, but that is a pain.

Not in method, just in principle.

And this is where I had to stop since I couldn't locate the fastener I wanted.


So, in the midst of my outings with my son yesterday, I stopped at the craft store and got some more toggle clasps since someone must have taken all mine since my organizational standards are so high there's no way that it could have been misplaced.

Right.

Ahem. Moving on.








Using the tails of thread, sew on the fastener of choice.

I tend to over do it a bit since I want to make it as strong as possible. I'm pretty hard on bracelets, so I make them strong enough to deal with me.

I'm hoping no one is harder on them than I am!

And here's the finished bracelet.

Sorry to disappoint, but this one's not going up on Etsy. (Collective sigh received and appreciated.) But dry your eyes, I will be doing more (since I now have more toggles), and will list them asap.