Glad to be back with a new tutorial this month. I've made a change in the format, to make it easier to print. It just never occurred to me that people might be trying to print these things, so I never checked to see if it would fit on a page. This should take care of any problems you might have had.

This tutorial is for a very simple bracelet using the cane beads that you can buy at  The Beading Emporium. I even tried to use the bare minimum of tools.

For this bracelet, I'm going to be very basic, and assume that you don't have a lot of jewelry-making skills.

One tip that I try to give people, expecially people just starting out, is that almost every time you try a new technique, you're going to have to do it 3 times before you can do it well. So that means you can just plan on making a bead unit 3 times before you have one that you're ready to use it. And you'll probably make 3 clasps, and 3 of the loops at the end. That's why it's a good idea to try a new technique with practice wire until you're consistently making it well. So, don't get discouraged.

Tools you'll have to have:

• flush wire cutters
• needle-nose pliers

• chain-nose pliers
• permanent marker
• safety goggles

Supplies you'll need:

• 10 cane beads
• 20 bead caps
• 20 guage wire

Make sure that the bead caps you use don't have large holes. The cap on the right has a hole that is just too large. We want one that isn't much bigger than the wire. For sure it should not be twice as wide.

Take your permanent marker and mark a place about half way down your needle nosed pliers. If you've got chain-nosed pliers, make the mark a little less than ½ the way down from the top. We'll talk about this later.

I usually just work off of the spool when I'm working with wire, so at this point thread a bead cap, bead, and another bead cap onto your wire.

Then make a sharp bend using the tip of your needle nosed pliers (or chain-nosed pliers if you have them) about an 1½" from the end of the wire.

Take the bend in your needle nosed pliers, and pull the wire tightly around the tip to make a small loop.

Now we're going to use that mark you made on your pliers. Put the pliers right up against the bead cap with things tight, and make another bend in your wire. What the mark does is make it easy for you to make the same sized space here every time. It makes for a more uniform bracelet.

After you've made your bend, make another loop and cut off the wire leaving about a 1½" tail. This is what you should have. The bead caps will be loose, at this point.

Now you'll start wrapping the wire around the shaft, as shown. Hold the loop with your needle nosed pliers (not show) and use your fingers to pull the wire around. Pull it around the shaft about ½ a turn and then do the other side the same amount, going back and forth each time until the two sides are evenly wrapped.

Here's a picture of the bead with both sides evenly wrapped - on this one each side goes around about 2&fac12; times each, but the important thing is that both sides are fairly even, and that all of the beads are about the same.

I've shown a close up of the cutters here. There is a sharp side on them, as shown here, and this side makes a flush cut. Always make this cut on the jewelry you're making. If you don't understand, make a cut now on the end of your spool of wire, and look at the two sides of the cut you made. One side is really pointy, and the other fairly flat. You don't want to have a point anywhere on your jewelry.

Now with the information you've learned from the step above, make a very close cut on both sides of your bead, leaving as small a tail as possible.

No matter how close you cut, you'll leave a little bit of a tail sticking out. And no matter how flush you've cut it, it will scratch you or catch your clothing if you don't "tuck" that end in. Take your pliers (chain nosed if you have them) and gently press that end down. This make take a little trial and error - don't be discouraged.

Now make another bead unit until it's to the point that you've made your two loops, but haven't wrapped them around. Hook this wire through the bead that you've already made.

Now hold the loop of this second bead with the first bead to the right side and the place you're going to be making your wrap again. Wrap the same as the first bead, except that there will be a bead already made on one of the loops.

Continue in this fashion until you have your bracelet about 2" shorter than you need.

Now you're going to make the link that will have the loop that you hook into to close it. It will be made exactly as the previous beads, except instead of wrapping the end loop around your needle nosed pliers, wrap it around something larger - I've used a ballpoint pen.

Here's what your larger loop will look like. There's not an exact size for this loop, just large enough to hook into.

Work from your wire spool now, beginning by threading the bead you saved for your clasp onto the spool. Because the holes are too small to go through twice, we won't use bead caps on this clasp.

Now bend the wire into a hairpin about 3 inches from the end. Put this end into your pliers right at the base, between the "flat" area of your pliers. Very slowly and gently close this wire on itself so it looks like the picture below.

At 1" from the end, take your pliers and grasp the wire, then take the end of the wire and wrap it about 2 times as shown here.

Now thread the bead back up to the wrap as shown here.

Now wrap the end about 4 times around the shaft and tuck in the end as you did above.

Make another loop very close to the wrapping that you did, and THEN cut the wire, leaving about 4" to work with.

THREAD THE BRACELET ON and then wrap the wire around the previous wrapping. This makes a very stable bracelet

This is what the end of the clasp should look like after a second wrapping and clipping and tucking the end.

Make a very small hook in the very end of your clasp "point" there at the bend you made first.

Now take hold of the wire so that your pliers are closer to the bead than to the end, and bit by bit make the hook. Make sure that your hook is going the the right way so that the tip you did in the previous step will curve away from the bead.

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