"One for the guys": Men's Bracelet

 Black and Silver-toned Men's Bracelet

Hi again! It's Dominique here with another jewellery design for Just Bead It. Today, I have created a triple-strand men's bracelet, with black and silver beads from Just Bead It.

Just Bead It products used:

• JBI32 - Black seed beads
• JBI86 - Alloy beads

Additional products:

• Beading wire
• Three-hole metal connector findings
• Three-strand metal bar end findings
• Toggle clasp
• Crimp beads
• Silver crimp covers
• Jumprings
• jewellery pliers

Materials you'll need for this project ( + jumprings not shown)

JBI32 black seed beads, and JBI86 alloy beads from Just Bead It

Firstly, attach the first length of beading wire to the middle loop in the bar end finding, and secure
one side with a crimp bead and crimp cover. As always, gently crimp the crimp bead with pliers, and neatly encase with a crimp cover.

Adding a crimp and crimp cover to secure the wire loop

You can now begin to thread a solid length of the JBI86 alloy beads onto the wire, remembering to add a couple of three-hole connector findings evenly throughout the length of wire. Make sure to thread the wire through the middle hole, and continue threading the beads. Keep in mind that the length of the bracelet should include the added length of the clasps on both ends. For this reason, I strung 15cm of beads, so that - with the added length of the clasps - the total length of the bracelet ended up being about 17.5cm.

Remember to tuck the excess wire into a few of the beads

Secondly, you can now go ahead and work on the last two strands. Again, secure the strands to the remaining loops on the bar end with crimps and crimp covers. As you're threading the black seed beads, make sure you thread the wires through the connector findings when you come to them. You can be a bit finnicky with measurements at this stage, to be certain that you have the right amount of beads before and after each connector. To check before fastening the design, tug on the end and make sure all the beads remain tight, and no little gaps appear. You can remedy this by simply adding or removing some beads until the design remains solid when pulled tight.

Thirdly, once all the beads are strung, and you are confident with the length of the bracelet, you can begin to secure the other end of the bracelet to the second bar end.

Securing the final wire to the bar end finding

Finally, attach a jumpring to the outer loop on both ends of the bracelet (when opening a link or jumpring, always use two pairs of pliers and twist into an "S" shape. Pulling into a "U" shape will make it much harder to close the jumpring easily and smoothly). On both jumprings, slide on both pieces of the toggle clasp to their respective sides, and gently close the jumprings back up (likewise, use two pairs of pliers to twist and close the jumpring back into its original shape).

And there you have it; a masculine, men's bracelet, handmade with the versatile beads from the Just Bead It range :)

I decided to go with a toggle clasp because it isn't as fussy as some of the other ones... Simple and easy is best :)

I decided to make this bracelet for my brother. It took some convincing to get him to be my model for the day, but I think he liked the end result :)

I hope you enjoyed this post - if you would like to view more of my designs, I also have an Etsy store called DominiquesWares which features more beaded jewellery. This particular men's bracelet will soon be uploaded to my store, so stay tuned for that :)

If interested, you can follow me on Twitter @DominiquesWares

or Instagram: dominiques_wares

You can also follow my Dominique'sWares blog

Thanks so much for reading - happy beading!