by Judy Markwell These instructions are to help you figure out what to do with a variety bead mix. This can be a mix you've purchased or a mix of left overs from your collection. The Beading Emporium often offers variety mixes that can be used for this purpose. For this Tutorial, I have used a ¼ pound mix, and have a lot of jewelry to show for it. I'm going to give detailed directions for the multi-strand necklace, and then there's a bracelet that uses the same instructions, and a couple of pair of earrings that are pretty self-explanatory. The necklace I've made is adjustable from 14 to 19 inches long. I must admit that the necklace doesn't fit me in the 14" length, but I save beads by starting the extender chain early. To start off, lets go over the list of tools you'll need for this project. flat-nose pliers wire cutters needle-nose pliers beading needles (these beads have fairly large holes) emery board or metal file work surface (a folded bath towel works fine) scissors ruler safety goggles a tray for laying out and planning your necklace The tray pictured above is optional, but they're cheap and if you plan on making more than one or two necklaces in your lifetime, very well worth the price. They sell them just about anywhere you can buy beads. If you decide to NOT purchase one, you'll need to lay your beads in lines on your work surface. It will be harder to move your beads around to make changes. At least you'll need to use a towel to lay them on so they won't roll around. Here's the list of materials you'll need: 4 ounces of a bead mix beading cord - I used an inexpensive "bead thread" Super Glue™ a pair of bullet tips a hook (clasp) a head pin for the "weight" bead some 20 gauge wire - a foot should do the necklace AND bracelet about 6 inches of curb chain (this is a great place to use that broken necklace you've been keeping - just make sure it's large enough your clasp will fit into it easily) And if you're doing the earrings and bracelet, you'll want: a pair of cone tips a clasp 2 ear wires and 2 head pins for each pair of earrings And now it's time to look at the beads. What you need to do now is spread them out a little bit like the picture above. Decide what beads "stand out" to you. You have two choices when you find these, you can either use them for some other piece of jewelry, or you can make them the focal point of your necklace. In this bag of beads, there are two beads that immediately stand out, and I've pointed to them above. The one with the red has to go. There's no other red anywhere in the beads, and the style is a little too different. The tube bead is going to be my focal for the necklace
	You'll need to choose a bead to use as the "weight" at the end of your curb chain. This bead will hang by itself at the end of the fastening chain in the back of the necklace, so it should be something heavy and attractive. This bag had a pendant bead included, so it was the obvious choice. It was even already wired, so I didn't have to use the head pin to attach it.
	If you're going to make earrings, you need to decide on the beads you want for them now, also. In this set I found two pair of earrings that I wanted. I don't even think that the floral earrings will go especially well with my necklace, but they made such a pretty pair of earrings, I pulled them right out.
I decided on a four strand necklace. Only three of them will lay out on the tray, but the fourth strand will be smaller beads, so I don't need to put it on the bead tray. Begin by putting your focal bead right in the center of the first strand. Next, find some simple beads to put in the center of the other two strands. Lay out the rest of the beads. Don't put the small ones in there at this point, start working with the larger beads, and get smaller as you go. Here are the things to keep in mind while you're laying out your beads: don't have a really large bead in one row next to a really large bead in another row find two of a kind, and put them opposite each other on the same strand keep things balanced make sure you keep things even. Okay I know I was redundant there, but this is the most important part of the design. It's what prevents you from having "clumps" of large beads. Look at the finished product at the beginning of the tutorial- notice how even the whole necklace looks. There's some really large beads in this necklace, not what you think of in this style, but they look great because they are evenly spaced through out the whole piece. Now is the time to get this right, before you start stringing is when you play with the beads to get a look that you like. And is EVEN. For this length of necklace, make the strands go to about 7" on either side of your board. The center strands will need to go just a bit higher than the outside strands because the board has them higher. Another thing to remember, is that as you go further up. those beads will be at the side or back. If you especially like a bead, put it closer to the front. And you can always add small beads at the end to make the necklace the right length. In fact, it's really hard to get all three the same length at this point, you'll adjust things when you're finished. After you get the large and medium sized beads in place, fill in with the small beads. You can see how I've done this. I've still tried to keep things even on both sides. You don't have to be exact, but try to not put dark beads next to dark beads, that kind of thing. And to make it easy, put the beads on one side, and then put the same beads on the other side (in the corresponding spot. For example, go up a picture and look at the focal bead, and the two blue beads on either side. Then scroll back down and notice that I've filled in with basically same beads on either side of the focal. I've tried to do that everywhere. They don't have to be exact, but going from side to side adding the same beads on each side will be an easy way to keep your necklace symmetrical.
	After you get things the way you want them, you can string your beads. Cut a piece of cord about 12 inches longer than the necklace, for this one about 2 feet of cord for each strand. Don't tie a knot in the end of the thread, but be sure not to pull the cord all the way through. It's really helpful if you can just string the beads with them still on the tray. It keeps things straight.
	After I've strung the three strands on the board, I cut another 2 foot piece of cord and thread this cord with small beads. String about 14 inches worth of beads on here. When you have all 4 strands ready, remove the bead board and lay the strands side by side on your work surface. Check the length of the strands, and add beads on both ends until all 4 are the same. (they will be a fraction of an inch off - that's fine)
	Here's a really unfocused picture that still shows what the next step is. You're going to make a wire loop and tie the thread onto it using a square knot. If you know what that means, just follow the next instruction and then skip on down. If you haven't done this before, have no fear there are pictures and diagrams aplenty to make it a breeze for you.
	Wearing your safety glasses, cut off about 5" of wire, and make a very small loop in the end using your needle nosed pliers. It is important to NOT wrap the wire around the shaft of the wire more than 2 times, as this will make the loop too low, and it will show later. You'll understand this better as you go along. And if you're one of those people who refuses to wear safety glasses, at the very least get your cutters in place where you're going to cut and CLOSE YOUR EYES while you're actually making the cut. That wire really flies.
	If you've never made a loop, here are the instructions. First make a right angle bend around the tip of your needle nosed pliers. This should be about 1½" from the end of the wire.
	Wrap the wire around the very tip of the needle-nosed pliers making a small loop. You may need to move the pliers as you go around.
	Here's what it should look like after that step.
	Grasp the loop with your needle nosed pliers. Using your fingers or the needle nosed pliers grasp the tail of the wire as shown and wrap it around the base of the loop you just made.
	Continue until you have a loop that looks like this.
	Use your wire cutters and cut the wire so that you make a flat cut on the wire, as shown. If you don't know what this means, make two cuts on the end of your spool of wire, with a different side of the cutters facing away each time. One side leaves a point, one a flat cut. The flat cut is the one you always want to leave on your jewelry. The pointy cut catches on everything. Little hint: I make sure to cut the end of my spool of wire so that I leave a flat cut on the spool, too. After you get poked a few times with the sharp end of that wire, you learn.
	The difference between a professional wrap and an amateur one is how well the ends are tucked. After I squeeze the end in tight I run my finger over it. If there's still a rough edge, take an emery board to it, (or needle file if you have one) and get that sharp edge off there. Okay, truthfully on the first loops, this won't matter because the loops will be up in the bullet tips, but later you won't want ends that will catch on your clothes. Consider this practice.
	And we're back to a picture of the finished product. This is the most common bit of wire work you will do. It's used at the end of head pins to make earrings, it's used to attach charms to bracelets, everything. If yours doesn't look quite right, remember this little rule of thumb that seems to always be true. You'll have to do every new wire technique three times before you can do it well. So always use practice wire until you get it right. Now it's time to tie your thread onto this loop.
	These pictures for making a square knot are pretty self-explanatory. If you've never tied one before, it's much easier if you'll practice using yarn or rope tied around a chair leg or something - anything large scale that you can see a little better. Just make sure you are going over and under in the right places. That's what gives the knot it's strength. When you are making your first knot on the necklace, tie your knot with all the threads at once and tie it towards the end of the cord instead of close to the beads. This will give you room to make a mistake. If your first try doesn't go as hoped, you can just cut it off and make another one.
	Don't tighten anything until you're sure that your knot looks like this. Then tighten the knot.
	Double check that the knot is very tight by pulling on it from the direction of the beads (hold the end of the wire and hold the cords that the beads are on, leaving the tail of the cord loose). Pull the necklace toward you away from the wire loop. In other words, pull from the direction that the weight of the necklace will pull on the knot. If the knot loses it's shape, pull the other cord to get it correct. Now put a tiny drop of Super Glue™ on the knot. The knot SHOULD hold without it, but I don't know any beaders who don't add this little drop of insurance. Leave it to dry before cutting the end off.
	At this point make your other wire loop so you can finish the other side of the necklace. When you tie the knot on the second side, you may need to use a pin or needle to help you get it tight. This picture isn't of a knot being tied on this necklace, but it shows how I get in there and get the knot tight. Again, when you're through with the knot, put a drop of Super Glue™ on it. And you don't need to twist the beads (it does seem like a logical time to do this, but don't bother - it makes things hard to deal with, and it probably won't hold. We'll get to that, too)
	After you have your necklace tied to a wire loop in each side and the glue is dry, go ahead and cut the thread close to the knot. Thread a bullet tip onto the wire (this picture shows a cone tip, but everything else is the same) as shown here. (Oh, just ignore that there are three different strands tied on the ring. OOPS.)
	The next step is to make a loop at the top of the bullet cap. Here's the drawing of a loop at the top of a cone (you're using a bullet cap, but it's the same principle).
	After the loop, use your flat nose and needle nosed pliers (actually, chain nosed are better if you have them) twist the end of the hook (your necklace clasp) to the side, and attach it to the loop, then twist it back. Don't just pull it open, because that weakens the end of the hook and it will break very easily.
	This is a picture of the bullet end with the hook attached. Very clean looking...
	On the other side of the necklace you do the same thing but you attach your curb chain to it. The loose end of the chain is where you attach the "weight" bead you chose earlier. Run the head pin through it and make a loop at the top, fastening it to the chain as you make your loop.
	Okay, the threading and wiring of the bracelet is finished, but each strand is separate, and that's not the look we want. I'm going to show you how to "braid" something when the ends are fastened. For the pictures of how to do this, I'm going to use some fake pearls. They're much bigger and easier to show what I'm doing. There's a lot of pictures here, don't let that scare you. This is really VERY fast, and easy to learn, it's just harder to describe than to show you. Oh, and this is something you don't even need to practice before you do it with your bracelet. Just go slowly and if you DO think you've made a mess, untangle it before it gets too tight. But it's really easy (my non-beading husband was able to follow the instructions easily and fast his first time through).
	Just so I can give you instructions easily, I'm going to have you lay things the way I have. Lay your necklace in front of you horizontally with the end of the necklace that has the chain heading to the right (so you don't have to deal with that chain while you're braiding). Straighten out the strands, laying the necklace flat. Now, throughout all the rest of the steps, you must keep your right hand on the strands, holding them flat and in order up there close to the end with the chain attached.. The first step is to put the left end between the top and second strands, close to the right end. If this were your necklace, the end in my hand would have a hook on it. Remember to keep your right hand in place.
	After you lay the end down let go with your left hand, (hold the right end in place) and reach your left hand under the bottom three strands, grab the left end and pull it through. What you're doing is turning the necklace on itself - kind of inside out.
	After the first step, there is very little change in the strands. Still, don't pick the right end up, and keep the strands at that end straight.
	The next step is to put the end between the second strand down and the third strand down. Then reach under the bottom two strands, grasp the end and pull it through. Remember - keep your right hand on the right end.
	And the next step, you guessed it, is to put the strand between the third and fourth strands. Reach under the lowest strand, grab the end and pull it through. You should still have your right hand holding those strands in place.
	Start again with the opening between the top and second to the top strands up close to the clasp. Your weaving will all be to the left. Continue these steps until the necklace is woven to your satisfaction.
Here's our finished necklace. I just kept weaving until it looks tight, and the way I like. And this little trick is handy for all kinds of things. And if you do pick up the necklace and then decide that you need to braid it some more, well you've ruined everything and have to throw it out. Just kidding, you can stick the end through the strands right beside the loose place. (that sounds complicated, but it really isn't) and you can play around with the strands, pulling them this way and that until it looks even My strictness with the order earlier is really just to get you started. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be turning it "inside out" all over the place. Just don't overdo or it won't lay nicely. Try it on occasionally to see how it hangs.
	I didn't forget - here's the matching earring dangles that we talked about earlier (they're not on ear wires yet). Aren't they nice? They're made with head pins, making the top into a loop as described above.
	Remember that red and blue bead that I said "Had to go?" I didn't mean there was anything wrong with it, only that it wasn't going in this necklace. There are a lot of great uses for a bead this unique. You could wear it on a chain or piece of silk cord all by itself or with a couple of beads on either side. Or you can make a fancy pendant with it. Sometime we might do a "wire pendant" tutorial, and include this one. Everybody who buys beads needs projects to use great beads that you only have one of.
Now here's a picture of all the things we got from just one 4 ounce bag of beads. There were even a few beads left over. If you want to make the bracelet it's made just like the necklace except with cone ends that were smaller than the bullet tips and it's only 3 strands. Oh, and of course it's shorter. So, I got five pieces of jewelry from one "mixed bag"!!   Well, that's it for this month. We'd love to hear from you. Please email us to let us know if this tutorial was helpful to you, or what you'd like to see here in the future. Also, we'd love to see anything you made using the tutorials.