Thursday 10 September 2009

Wire Wrapped Daisy Chain Bracelet Tutorial

At the beginning of August, I discovered the new Exchange Program over at Totally Tutorials. The Exchange Program puts suppliers of crafting materials in touch with crafters (like you and me) who receive free supplies in return for sharing their skills and creating tutorials. What's not to like about the idea of free supplies?

So, I applied to take part and was lucky enough to be chosen by Pam who runs Etsy store, blacksheepbeads. I was able to choose my own supplies and decided to use some vintage glass beads in a gorgeous teal colour, along with some copper daisy shaped bead caps and a few of my own supplies to make a beautiful bracelet.

Daisy Chain Bracelet Tutorial

You'll need:

Round Glass Beads - I chose mine from a massive selection of colours.
Copper Daisy Shaped Bead Caps - These could be substituted with these beautiful Copper Snowflake Filigree Rounds for another great look.
18" Copper Wire - Choose a suitable gauge for wire wrapping. For this project, you need to make sure that the wire is thin enough to fit through the centre hole in the bead caps six times. If you can comfortably cut the wire with normal kitchen scissors, you should be okay.
Seed Beads - You won't need a lot of these, I used some seed beads leftover from another project. (Mine were Gutermann's Colour 6855 and they matched the teal coloured rounds perfectly.)
Wire Cutters/Kitchen Scissors
A Small Hand Towel - To work on, it stops the beads rolling around.

If at any point you need larger photographs, please check my Daisy Chain Bracelet Tutorial set on Flickr, where you can see individual photographs of each step.

1. Thread a seed bead and a glass bead onto the wire, leaving about 3" at the end.
2. Bend the wire around the seed bead and take the end of the wire back through the glass bead forming a loop.
3. Pull tight.

Tutorial 1

4. You should now have one long tail of wire and one short tail of wire. Thread on three seed beads, a glass bead, three seed beads, a glass bead and ten seed beads. At some point, you will cover the end of the small tail of wire.
5. Take two of the copper daisy shaped bead caps and hold them together with the smooth, finished sides facing outwards.
6. String onto the wire and push up until the central hole is right next to the seed beads.

Tutorial 2

7. Bend the wire across the front of the daisy and pass it between two petals on the right. Take it around the back of the daisy and out through the central hole until the wire is once again at the front of the daisy. Repeat this step once.
8. Bend the wire across the front of the daisy, this time passing it between two petals on the left. Take it around the back of the daisy and out through the central hole until the wire is once again at the front of the daisy. Repeat this step once.
9. Now bend the wire across the front of the daisy, passing it between the bottom two petals. Again take it around the back of the daisy and bring it out through the central hole until the wire is at the front of the daisy. Repeat this step once.

Tutorial 3

10. Now take the wire around to the back of the daisy (the two photographs on the left below, show the back) and pull the tail of the wire through the loops at the bottom of the daisy. This secures the wire to the daisy to stop it moving.
11. Add ten seed beads and then repeat from Step 5 until you have five sets of copper daisies threaded onto the wire.

Tutorial 4

12. When you have threaded on the five sets of copper daisies, thread twenty five seed beads onto the wire.
13. Loop the wire around and take the end through the first seed bead of the twenty five.
14. Pull tight to form a loop at the end of the daisy chain.

Tutorial 5

15. Take the tail end of the wire and thread it through the loops at the bottom of the last daisy several times until secured.
16. Using wire cutters or kitchen scissors, trim the excess wire close to daisy.
17. To fasten the bracelet, take the end glass bead and carefully pull through the seed bead loop.

Tutorial 6

The finished bracelet measures 7" and fits snugly around the wrist. If you need a bracelet that's a bit longer just add an extra few seed beads between each of the daisies.

So, that's it. All that's left to say is a big thank you to Pam from blacksheepbeads and Dotty from Totally Tutorials for giving me the chance to have a play around with these lovely supplies. If you have a go, please leave me a link in the comments section below so that I can come and have a peek.

15 comments:

  1. so pretty!
    xoxo
    ps the pictures are wonderful, what camera do you use?

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  2. Thanks ladies x

    Katherine - My camera's a Nikon D40 DSLR. I took all of these at f4.5 to blur the backgrounds and let in light. A tripod helps if you have one :)

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  3. thanks for sharing, that's a beautiful bracelet!

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  4. wow, what a beautiful bracelet!!

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  5. Woot! Great tutorial! I am going to run off now and see if I have something I can use to make one of these!

    Any tips for wrapping the wire without it looking kinda funky and scrunchy? You know, that wonky look? Maybe it's just me who runs into this trouble.

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  6. love the bracelet. I think I might try this with blue beads and some bigger silver beads, I wear jeans a lot so the silver always works well. Thanks for sharing....

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  7. Skebba - Guessing that the funky, wonky look might be because you get kinks in the wire that you're using. Sometimes this is because your wire is too thick and doesn't bend easily - you need quite a thin, easily bendable wire for this project. Otherwise my best advice is to wrap the wire slowly, don't pull it into place too quickly and that way, if the wire starts to twist on itself, you'll be able to straighten it out very gently.

    If all else fails, you could substitute the wire for some beading thread - coloured might be nice - and a needle small enough to fit through your seed/smallest beads.

    Hope that helps :)

    PS Thanks for the lovely comments ladies x

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  8. Gorgeous and very unique - I love copper paired with teal! :)

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  9. It's not just for kids! Great tutorial and thanks for sharing. Will tweet!

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  10. What a beautiful gift idea! You make it look so easy! Thanks for linking :)

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  11. Aww Clair this is lovely! So simple but beautiful! I'm a real fan of this bracelet! Hollie x

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