Seed bead bracelets not only look really cool, but personally I think that they are are a really comfy form of jewellery to wear as all the tiny beads almost form a fabric when they are weaved together. Lastly you can make these bracelets as small or as wide as you want, and once you have got competent with the weaving patterns, you can experiment and even weave names, words, and pictures into your bracelet, pretty cool huh?

To start with the basics on how to make a seed bead bracelet I’m going to introduce you to the ladder stitch. There are other stitches which can be used, but the beaded ladder stitch is probably the best stitch to use to get the most out of your beaded bracelet. Sometimes people make seed bead bracelets, or something similar at least, but they use bugle beads, however, bugle beads are for another post another day.

Back to how to make a beaded ladder stitch. Firstly you need to get a beading thread, I normally use nymo thread, but other people swear by silamide. Now get your beads. At this stage its vital to decide exactly how wide you want your seed bead bracelet to be, as once you’ve started building the ladder of beads, you can’t really go back and change it without having to start from scratch again.

For ease, I’ll say we’re going to build a bracelet which will be 5 seed beads wide. Take the first ten beads and put them on a needle with your beading thread attached. Slide the beads all the way down the needle until you have ten beads in the middle of your thread. Now put these beads on a flat surface and separate them slightly on the thread into 2 groups of 5. Fold the thread in between these 2 groups of 5 beads, so that you have both sets of beads sitting beside each other. Now post the needle back through one of the groups of 5 beads from the opposite side, giving you a small loop of the two sets of beads side by side.

Now you want to bring the needle back down through the second set of beads (sorry that’s not very clear, but you should have one set of 5 beads with thread going through it twice from where you have posted the needle through it from both sides, and one set of 5 beads with the thread going through it once – it is the set of 5 beads with the thread going through it once which I am referring to as the “second set of beads”) and once its through you can add another set of 5 beads to your needle.

The idea is to repeat the process, adding 5 beads at a time, and looping them through the set of beads right next to them, and slowly but surely a ladder of beads will form. Its difficult when you first try this to keep the ladder really tight, but ultimately you don’t want a loose bracelet as it won’t look nearly as good, and its far more likely to come off your wrist! If you are having difficulty in keeping your bead ladder tight, then you should go back through all the sets of beads in the bracelet with your needle and thread once more at the end, pulling it tight as you go. This should ensure that you have a beautiful bead bracelet.

I would also advice for beginners looking to make a seed bead bracelet for the first time that they choose beads which are slightly larger. This is just practical as seed beads are small and fiddly, and it can be very frustrating if you are not used to making your own jewellery. Using larger beads will help ensure that you get good practice at forming a bead ladder as it is much easier to string the bigger beads together. If I’m making a seed bead bracelet, however, I really like to use tiny seed beads as I think the overall effect works better, and otherwise its difficult to create that effect that the beads are like a fabric.

Lots of people make bead bracelets, or use thread as the basis to hang charms on to make up a charm bracelet.  I don’t think there is one definitive type of thread to use on your bead or charm bracelet, it really depends on what you are using it for, how much you are wanting to spend on it, how long it is meant to last etc…

Silk is an expensive thread to use, and sometimes its more tricky to get hold of, but you can normally buy silk thread by the spool in most craft shops or online.  It is commonly used for pearls, although I’m not altogether sure why other than that its a luxury thread and pearls are clearly an expensive and luxurious type of jewellery.  In my experience silk can fray quite easily, making it less reliable than some other types of beading thread, although on the positive side, it does look good which is important if you have large sections of a bracelet in which the thread is on show, and if you are looking for jewellery thread for a necklace then silk is soft on the skin.

For seed beads, and probably for bugle beads and other small beads, nymo or silamide come very highly recommended.  Nymo needs to be waxed, either using bees wax, or you can sometimes buy specialist jewellery wax (watch out you don’t pay too much for this, as bees wax is cheap and works perfectly) for example Thread Heaven.  Silamide comes ready waxes, and comes as a few strands which have been pleated together to form a thread.  This means it is less ideal for beads with a really tiny hole, and it can be difficult to thread through a threading needle.  Both threads come in a whole range of colours and are relatively easy to get hold of from craft shops and online.

Monofilament is probably the first type of thread I used when I started to make my own bead jewellery and charm bracelets.  It is, however, far from ideal.  One of the biggest problems I have with it, is its quite stubborn to shape, and if its stored badly in a jewellery or craft box it can quite often misshapen, and then its almost impossible to get the kinks out.  It is also almost always clear and colourless, which is great if that’s what you want for a bead or charm bracelet, but its not very versatile.

Nylon is a synthetic material (its man made and doesn’t occur naturally like wool for example!).  The big advantage of this of course is it is one of the most resilient forms of jewellery thread, and shouldn’t fray or stretch.  One of the other reasons why I sometimes use Nylon thread when making jewellery is it is readily available in a whole pile of different sizes meaning you can use it with small beads, but if you want something a little more substantial, if say you’re wanting a bead bracelet you can hang some charms off, then you can use a larger thread size no probs!

I think one of the most attractive threads to use when making your own jewellery is leather.  Leather can be weaved and thus can form part of the design of the bracelet itself.  One of the coolest charm bracelets I have seen have a thick leather thread which was pleated, with small charms imbedded in the middle pleat every inch or so, all the way around the bracelet, genius!  Some people are funny about using leather products, which I can kind of understand, but if you want the look then faux leather is the same price, and just as easy to get hold of.  Most craft shops will sell leather thread in different sizes by the metre, but you have to look online if you want a really big selection of colours.

Hemp is another old classic for making bracelets from.  It has a slightly rough potato-sack type texture which is actually quite pleasant, and an “organic” look to it.  I wouldn’t really use hemp alongside modern charms, but it looks great with wooden beads or charms.

Lastly, if you are looking for a really sturdy thread to make a bracelet from, for example if you have big stones or large heavy charms which you want to hang on it, or if you want the bracelet to take on a fixed shape for example, then tiger-tale or coated wire are ideal.  Tiger-tale is essentially coated wire made from a series of tiny wires which are woven together before being covered with wire, sometimes the individual strands are prone to breaking, so its not something I would use for a bracelet.  Coated wire, however, is exactly that, a piece of wire which has been coated in a material.  Depending on the suppleness and thickness of the wire, it may be possible to bend or contort this, and build your bead or charm bracelet design around a wacky shaped bracelet.

So, there is a brief outline, if you are looking to make your own bead or charm bracelet, and not sure what materials will work best as a thread.  There are of course, hundreds of designs of plain bracelets designed specifically for charms, beads, crystals, rhinestones and the like to be hung on them, and hopefully in another post I’ll get a chance to discuss the various merits of them too…