Christmas Dangle Bracelet
by Melanie Ellis
Use red and green for a Christmas bracelet, or substitute pastels for spring, brilliant primary colors for summer, or graceful golds and browns for autumn.
Level: Medium
Materials
24 3" silver head pins
9 7mm faceted oblong crystal beads
18 White shell heishi beads
18 Clear "E" beads
2 Crimp beads
Clasp
White seed beads
Assorted red and green beads of varying sizes and shades
Make 3 styles of dangles, 4 of each kind, in both colors. (12 red and 12 green)
Style #1: String a series of red beads on a head pin, with no other colors mixed in. The total length of the beads should be around 1 inch. Make sure that your bottom-most bead will not fall off the head pin.
Complete your dangle with a wrapped loop. Make 4 of these in red; 4 in green.
Style #2: String a white seed bead onto a head pin, followed by a red bead of your choice, then a white seed bead, another red bead, etc. Continue until your total bead length is around 1 inch. Depending on the sizes of the large beads, you may be doing 2 large beads and 3 seed beads, or 3 large beads and 4 seed beads. Complete the dangle with a wrapped loop. Make 4 red and 4 green.
Style #3: String a white shell heishi bead on a head pin. Make sure the outer texture of the shell faces the head end of the pin, to be seen. Follow the shell bead with 1-4 red beads, topped off with a white seed bead if desired. Complete the dangle with a wrapped loop. Make 4 red and 4 green.
After completing the dangles, you are ready to complete the bracelet. Before stringing, sort out the dangles into the arrangement that is visually most pleasing. Make 8 sets of 3 dangles - in each set, you should have one dangle of each of the styles, and each set should be red/green/red or green/red/green.
On your beading wire, string one clear "E" bead followed by a crimp bead and one end of your clasp; crimp it into place. Then string in the following order (Don't forget to tuck the end of your wire into the first few beads):
Shell heishi bead
Faceted oblong crystal
Shell heishi bead
Dangle
Crystal "E" bead"
Dangle
Crystal "E" bead"
Dangle
Continue in this order until you have reached the end of your dangles, and your last set of beads will be a shell heishi, a faceted oblong crystal and a shell heishi. Then string a crimp bead, a crystal "E" bead and the second half of your clasp. Crimp, then trim the end of your wire and tuck it into the beads.
