All about jewellery making

Despite their strikingly complicated appearance beaded spiral ropes are in fact really quite easy to produce.  Not only do they offer the opportunity for experimenting with the most glorious colour schemes but they are very satisfying to make, especially since there is so much scope for variation by altering the sizes of the beads involved in the project.

For simplicity’s sake I am going to show you how to make the basic beaded spiral.  You can see from the examples of beaded spiral ropes that I have previously posted that alternative sizes of beads have indeed been used.

N.B.  Before you begin you need to make a brief assessment of your materials since the thread used will need to pass through the core beads more than once.  Sometimes, depending on the beads and the thickness of the thread used (I usually use Nymo), I pass the thread through each section of the spiral rope twice (meaning that the core beads contain three thicknesses of thread whilst the beads that ‘climb’ the rope only contain two) as this provides extra stability.  You need to judge what is best for your particular piece.

For the purposes of this tutorial I am going to use two colours of beads to make the process of adding beads to the spiral rope as clear as possible.  If this is your first attempt at a beaded spiral rope I suggest using size 8/0 seed beads as these are a reasonable size to handle and will comfortably take multiple strands of thread.

Step 1 - the ’stop’ bead
The purpose of the ’stop’ bead is to prevent beads sliding off the end of the thread.  Here’s how its done:

Step 2 - starting the beaded spiral rope
Add three colour A beads (beads 1, 2 & 3) to your thread.  These are your ‘core’ beads.  Please see diagram below.

Step 3 - adding the first set of ‘climbing’ beads
Now add one more colour A bead (4) and three colour B ‘climbing’ beads (5,6 & 7) like so:

Step 4 - beginning the beaded spiral
Now take your thread back up beads 1, 2, 3 and 4 (so that bead 4 now joins the rest of the core beads and 5, 6 and 7 ‘climb’ along the edge) as shown in the diagram below:

You have now completed the first row of the beaded spiral rope.

Step 5 - ‘cimbing the rope’

In order to continue ‘climbing’ the beaded rope you need to add the next set of ‘climbing’ beads.  This is done just as in step 3 and the additional beads are numbered 8, 9, 10 and 11 in my diagram.  Once you have threaded them on take your needle through bead 2 and draw the thread up core beads 3, 4 and 8 (Please see my diagram as this can get a bit confusing!  The technique is really simple when explained visually!)

So following the logic of the beaded spiral rope the next row will add beads 12, 13, 14 and 15.  The thread will be taken through core beads 3, 4, 5 and 12.  For each row you take the thread through the next three core beads numerically plus the first bead of the ‘climbing’ set you have just added.

Keep going until you have your desired length of beaded spiral rope!

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Recently I have been working on this necklace.  It was to be a new piece to wear for the University concert last night but I did not finish it in time.  This was my first attempt at creating a necklace from the St Petersburg chain beadweaving stitch featured in the April 2007 edition of Bead and Button.  My version of this beadwoven chain is made up of fire-polished faceted beads and size 11/0 seed beads.  Although Bead and Button suggested using 3mm faceted beads I only had enough 4mm so I used those instead.  This worked out fine although the final beadwoven fabric might lay slightly flatter by using the smaller size.  The heart bead is Murano style foiled lined glass (from my shop) and completes the piece which was inspired by the rich golds that can be found incorporated in Venetian glass designs.  Ultimately I am pleased with the result and I will probably wear it for the next concert instead!

Having become rather fascinated by the use of tiny macrame knots to make jewellery I decided to incorporate some colour in order to make pattern the main feature of the work.  Many of you will recognise this technique as that of the ‘friendship bracelet’, a South American inspired method sometimes also known as the ‘Brazilian bracelet’ (although its true origin is much broader than that and would probably be more accurately described as Guatamalan or Peruvian).

I used to make these brightly coloured bracelets many years ago and enjoyed wearing them en masse up my arms loving the bright jewelled colours and stained glass like patterns.  During my younger years the finishing techniques that I used (simply plaiting each end) were fairly basic and with my subsequent knowledge of jewellery making and macrame I felt ready to take the humble friendship bracelet to a new level.  My knotting is much neater and I incorporate a tightly wrapped loop at one end to secure the bracelet.

There are various different threads that you can use for making friendship bracelets but I favour the stranded cotton usually used for embroidery and cross stitch.  I have recently added skeins of this cotton to my craft shop in a wide range of colours where my completed friendship bands are also for sale.  Very little equipment is needed to make these little gems.  I find a thick cakeboard and macrame pins (also known as ‘T’ pins) very useful for pinning my work while knotting.

This kind of jewellery is great for everyday, casual wear and has a wide appeal.  I love the way that Sylvie Gauche and Jacques Kammerer describe the legend of the friendship bracelet in their book:

‘Legend attributes to the “Brazilian bracelet” a lucky quality.  The person to whom it is given makes a wish at the moment it is tied to her wrist.  It should never be taken off for any reason.  Worn out by time, the threads will tear, until one day the bracelet will fall off by itself.  It is at that precise moment that the wish that was expressed should be realised.

Whether you believe or not in the legend is up to you.  But what is certain is that making yourself a true little “jewel”, whether to be given to a friend or to be worn by you, already creates a lot of pleasure.

Now just imagine for a moment, it won’t require any effor, the streets of some large city at rush hour, that kind of haze where grey and black blend, all the anonymous faces that pass each other all those gazes unaware of each other.  You can now close your eyes; approach, approach… closer still, and… on with the show.

With little brush strokes, we add some sky blue here, a touch of prairie green there…, finally a dash of mauve.  Bright and lively colors [sic] appear on the arms of the passers-by, one hundred thousand rainbows which gradually lighten up that weary gloom.

The picture starts to move, to live.  Already the first smile appears, the first mask falls, it’s a victory.

Perhaps this is it, the magic power of the “lucky charm” bracelet.’

Quoted from ‘Brazilian Bracelets’ by Sylvie Gauche and Jacques Kammerer, DMC 1988 (ISBN 2-283-58078-1)

There are a number of good resources for making friendship bracelets on the internet.  Here are my favourites*:

Heather’s friendship bracelet forum
Stefan’s friendship bracelet site
Polish friendship bracelet site with over 500 patterns (text is available in English)

*Don’t forget to check out their links pages, you will find more friendship bracelet sites there.

It is amazing how relaxing tying so many knots can be, at least to me!  To some I suppose it could be seen as pure madness.  Without question it can be frustrating when threads become tangled or you make a mistake but there is something so satisfying about neatly placing and tightening the knots to create something beautiful from what are, after all, fairly basic materials. 

With a craft such as macrame the materials used are fundamental to the result achieved.  Many will remember the hairy plant pot holders and owl wall hanging of the 60s and 70s most usually created from common household string.  Not only was such thread appealing to the thrifty-minded ‘make do and mend’ culture but it was also readily available.  Another material inexorably linked with macrame is hemp and this is one that I decided to try out in combination with wooden beads and thrifted peach buttons. 

A particular property of the hemp is its slight roughness and undulating profile reminding us that this is indeed a very natural material.  The hemp I used for this bracelet was undyed but Anchor now produce a medium thickness hemp in a range of colours called ‘Anchor Nativa’.

Following this experiemnt I tried out a size 20 crochet cotton (Anchor Fioretta) in a gloriously rich, Cadbury-esque, velvety purple.  The resultant tiny knots in combination with size 11/0 seed beads created a very fine lace-like fabric.

This is much more my cup of tea but I tend to favour more delicate work. 

Just these two micro macrame bracelets illustrate that very different effects can be achieved by experimenting with the materials used. 

Now, what to knot with next!…

I have been interested and fascinated by some of the micro macrame techniques that I have seen on the web.  A while ago I experiemented with this technique and yesterday I came across Knotgypsy’s blog where patterns for micro macrame jewellery are available.  I thought it would be fun to give it another go and so ordered a couple of patterns.  The micro macrame beaded bracelet that I am showing here is based on the micro macrame spiral bracelet/anklet pattern.  I chose a colour palette that reminded me of the sea.

Full view showing the lovely blue glass beads I found in my ‘oddments’ bead pot and the grey shiny button incorporated as the clasp.

A portion of the main part of the macrame work.

A close up of the button clasp with beaded tassel.

The days of hairy plant pot holders have truly gone!  (Although there is nothing wrong with them if that is what you like, lol!).

I thought I would add here some good macrame sites for your interest:

http://www.micromacrame.com/ - online micro macrame beading classes, member’s gallery and discussion board.

http://www.elainecraft.com/ - good resource for learning macrame.

http://www.knotgypsy.blogspot.com/ - Knotgypsy sells patterns for micromacrame jewellery in her Etsy shop.