Glad to be back with a new tutorial after being gone for the summer. I usually make my jewelry using wireworking techniques, so for a change this bracelet uses beading thread and a needle - you don't need to know any wire techniques at all. And in honor of the holidays, I've made this out of red beads - feel free to use some green ones in there, too. Also, you can use all different shades of red beads to make your red bracelet even more varied, and make sure that it will go with whatever color red holiday dress you choose.

This tutorial uses these Clear Beads for both the base and some of the charms, and these Red Beads for the bulk of the charms. I added some really handy little 2.5mm silver-plated metal beads that can be found at The Beading Emporium to the end of every charm for the "turn around" bead (see the instructions later) and then you can add your own choices of silver beads as you wish. This kind of bracelet is a great piece for using up all those odd silver beads and bead caps that you have left over from other pieces.

Remember to vary the order and sizes of your beads to make an interesting bracelet. The instructions will just give you the basics for putting it together, it'll be up to you to determine the exact design.

Here's a list of the tools and materials you'll need, but remember to use your own judgement in choosing the beads, and use up any misc. beads you have lying around, too.

• Small Crystal Beads
• Large Crystal Beads (if you buy the pkg above, they're both in the pkg.
• Large Red Glass Beads
• Small Red Faceted Beads (not shown above)
• Very Small Silver Colored Beads
• An Assortment of Silver Beads
• Lobster Clasp and Tag or End Ring (or any clasp you choose)
• Fine Beading Thread
• Beading Needle
• Toothpick (not shown)
• Optional:2 Crimp beads and 2 Crimp bead covers
• Some kind of glue - Super Glue, White Glue or Jewelry Making Glue

Start with a couple of feet of your beading thread, tie your thread onto your lobster clasp using a square knot. Below are some diagrams of a square knot being tied onto a ring. After I tied my knot I fastened a crimp bead on it and added a crimp bead cover, but you can feel free to leave the knot showing.

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 using a toothpick. 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.

Here's a picture of the first "charm" added to the bracelet. when I use the term "charm" in this tutorial, what I'm referring to is the combination of beads used for each fringe. I'm showing the photo before I begin with diagrams showing how these are put together.

For your first charm, use a small bead, a large bead, and another tiny bead. This will help you follow the diagrams below.

Run your thread through all the beads you want to use for your charm, starting at the top. You MUST use a very small bead at the bottom of the charm, such as the 2.5mm silver beads listed in the tutorial. A seed bead would also work, but you have to have some kind of very small bead for the thread to "change directions". If you use a very large bead for this, your thread will show.

After you've gone through the bottom bead of your charm, start back through the bottom of the second to last bead, continuing back up through all the beads you're using for this charm.

After you've added your charm, tighen the thread to get your charm right next to the crystal bead "base" as shown in the photo above.

TIPS: Try to not run your needle through the thread already in the bead. Also, when you're tightening your bead, it helps if you'll hold the "turn around bead" in one hand, push the other beads up next to the bracelet with the other hand, and then pull the needle through the bracelet.

After you've gone through the charm, run your needle through the next crystal bead, and add another charm. That's pretty much the idea for the whole bracelet. You can make your charms any way you choose - refer to my picture at the top if you run out of ideas. I've used a crystal bead every 3rd, and added some charms that are basically silver colored in there randomly. Just look at your bracelet every so often to make sure that you're alternating large and small charm.

You'll need to add some thread at times as you're working. Just make a square knot as shown above, and then run your needle through the knot a couple of times to strengthen it. A little dot of glue added with a toothpick will hold it tight. Do this as often as you need to, but make sure you don't wait too long - you'll need 4" or so of thread to be able to tie a good knot.

Also, the hardest thing about making this bracelet is keeping the thread from tangling around the charms as you're working. Just lay the bracelet on a surface and hold your needle in one hand and use the other hand to guide the thread where it should be, working slowly. Trust me, working slowly is a lot faster than getting the thread tangled.

That's it - just keep adding adding a charm in all the openings on your crystal base. On this bracelet, after I'd put one charm between every bead, when I got to the end the bracelet wasn't full enough to suit me, so I went BACK through the bracelet and added another charm between each bead. In theory, you could even add a third charm to each opening if you wanted. Anyway, now the bracelet is nice and full, the way that I like it.

Here's a picture of the bracelet on my wrist - see how full it is? I just love it.

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