Dominique's Wares: Breezy Boho Bracelet

Breezy Boho Bracelet

Hi everyone! It's Dominique here, coming to you with my very first blog post for Just Bead It!
Today, I am excited to share with you a breezy boho bracelet design, with silky white seed beads, ceramic starfish statement beads, and accented with silver spacer beads. I hope you enjoy!

Just Bead It products used:

JBZ28 - Ceramic Starfish Beads
JBI18 - White Glass Seed Beads
JBI93 - Alloy Spacer Beads

Additional products:

Silver beading wire
Silver crimp beads
Silver crimp covers
Silver 5-strand filigree bar ends
Silver extender chain
Silver lobster-claw clasp
Jewellery pliers (wire-cutters, crimping pliers, bent-nose pliers)

Firstly, start by cutting five equal lengths of beading wire. To decide what length you need for each strand, measure your wrist, and then add about 10cm of overhang (5 cm each side). For this project, I cut 25cm of wire for each strand.

Materials you'll need for this project

To begin making the bracelet, thread a crimp bead onto one of the lengths of wire, through the
middle-hole of the bar-end, and back through the crimp, forming a loop. Gently pull the beads close to the end of the wire, and use the crimping pliers to make an indent on the crimp, being gentle but firm. Then, fold the crimp over itself by using the rounded part of the crimping pliers. Lastly, gently close a silver crimp cover over the top of the crimp bead, and use the rounded edge of the crimping pliers to round the bead into a sphere.

Threading the crimp onto the wire and forming a loop

Next, crimp the bead and fold it over onto itself for extra security

The addition of a crimp cover adds a stylish touch which flows with the rest of the design

You can now begin to thread the JBZ28 ceramic starfish beads from Just Bead It, onto the length of wire you just prepared. This will be the middle, focal strand of the bracelet. Also, make sure to thread the extra wire that was poking out from the crimp through one of the starfish so that it is tucked out of sight.

The beginning stages of the bracelet... make sure to tuck the excess wire into a couple of the beads!

Secondly, begin threading the second wire onto the bar-end as before.

Beginning the second strand

Next, thread the JBI18 white seed beads along the length of the wire, making sure to spirodically dot certain parts of the wire with the JBI93 alloy spacer beads. This breaks up the design and adds a bit of interest to an otherwise purely white strand of beads. Repeat these steps for the remaining strands of beads. Make sure to align each beaded strand with the others, in order to mark out where you will need to place the spacer beads. They should be fairly random, but close any large block of white left by a previous strand of seed beads. Refer to pictures below to see what I mean.

* When working with multiple strands, I find it easier to use some sort of clip or clamping tool to hold the strands in place as I work on each one individually.

Second strand finished!

Align the strands next to eachother so that you can mark out where the spacers should be

Third strand done! I love my handy-dandy reindeer clamping tool!

Just keep beading... (channel your inner Dory!) The design is coming together!

To begin attaching the other sides of the wires to the clasp, start with the furthermost strand, and once again, place a crimp bead on one end of the wire, and thread the wire through the respective loop on the silver bar end, and again through the crimp bead, forming a loop. Again, pull the strand tight, and use the crimping pliers to crimp the bead and slightly round the edges. Lastly, add a crimp cover over the top of the crimp bead, and use crimping pliers again to close the gap and round the bead. To summarise more clearly,

thread crimp onto wire
thread wire through loop on bar-end
thread wire back through crimp
use crimping pliers to crimp the bead and round slightly
add crimp cover on top of bead and use crimping pliers to close the gap and round the bead

Repeat this step with the remaining four strands of beads, making sure to arrange the strands so that the alloy spacers aren't directly on top of one another, but clearly spaced apart. This is a breezy boho bracelet afterall, and should look effortless and slightly random. :)

Remember to tuck a couple of centimetres of overhanging wire through some of the beads, and trim any excess wire.

The bracelet is almost finished! After tucking a little bit of wire through a few of the beads, you will need to trim the excess.

Finally, once all the bead strands have been attached, and the excess has been trimmed, we need to add the lobster clasp and extender chain. Remove one link of the extender chain with a pair of jewellery pliers and place the lobster clasp onto the link. Attach to the outer loop of the bar end, and gently close the link. Attach the rest of the extender chain to the other side of the bracelet, and again, gently close the link. You want to open and close the loop in an "S" shape, do not open like a "U", or this will be difficult to close and won't look as refined.

Attach one link from the chain onto the lobster clasp. Open in an "S" shape, not a "U"!

Attach the lobster clasp onto the outer loop on the bar-end

It's as simple as that!

Likewise, open a link on the extender chain and attach onto the outer loop of the other bar-end

I love these silver extender chains! They add an elegant touch, as well as practicality to the finished design!

* Alternatively, feel free to use a series of jumprings to create your own extender chain, but I had already bought these ones and would prefer to use them instead because I like the look of the added teardrop on the end of the chain. I just think it looks more refined and sophisticated.

And, voila! I love the finished design... It just exudes relaxed beach vibes.

And there you have it! A beautiful, handmade boho bracelet, perfect for vacation-wear or a day at the beach. I hope you have enjoyed my first blog post for Just Bead It, and I can't wait to share more of my designs with you in the future. I'm so glad to be a part of the team :)