Citrus Splash
Bracelet
Designed by Kristin Burgess

Yummy glass mixes are in!  Easy and fun to design with, you'll want a tube of each and every color!  
Choose from these two types of mixes: Czech glass mixes and our NEWLY added seed bead mixes.  Pink, purple, blue, green, brown, turquoise, red and white.  This is a bead stringer's dream gift so be sure to stash a tube or two as a fabulous gift for your bead-loving friends! 





 




This project is great for all levels!  Stringing and crimping are involved with this project.   The bracelet has a total length of 7&1/2".  Four crimp beads as well as four crimp covers, are needed to attach both beaded strands to the gold fill toggle clasp.   By omitting beads evenly you can decrease the length of the bracelet without altering the look.    I find it helpful to strand the bracelet directly onto the softflex spool and then crimp once the final length is achieved.  The seed beads are necessary as they help with the curvature of the bracelet and allow the larger glass beads to sit comfortably next to each other.  This is a great bead project that frees you from the traditional patterened bead projects.  Really picking up any of the color schemed bead mixes makes a neat effect.  You won't have to worry about a pattern so it's a great project for kids too!

Step 1:

Prepare a clutter free workspace to lay out piles of your beads and components on.    Start by stringing this pattern onto the Soft Flex spool...3 seed bead, Czech glass bead, 3 seed, 1 different Czech glass bead, 3 seed beads, and so on until you have reached 1/2 short of your final desired length.  The gold fill toggle clasp will add about 1/2" to the finished length of the bracelet.

Step 2: 

Crimp this strand to the ring part of the toggle clasp.  If you choose to use a different clasp be sure to measure and consider its length along with the beaded Soft Flex length.  If you want a shorter style decrease evenly on either ends of the bracelet.  I find it helpful to carefully hold the bracelet around my wrist.  This way you can really see how the bracelet is going to look and at what length it looks best!  Crimp this finished strand to the other side (bar) of the toggle clasp.  Trim any remaining softflex away using the flush cutters.   The standard crimper tool works perfectly with the 2x2mm tube crimp beads.




Step 3: 

String the second strand by following step 1 and step 2 and repeating.  I find it helpful to have the single strand (that is already crimped to the toggle clasp) laying out in front of my work area so that I can see what has already been used and where.  For example:  If I had a large yellow leave 1/2" into the bracelet on the first strand then I may want the same leaf (or some bead that is similar in size) on the second strand about 2 or 3 inches into the second strand to help balance the bracelet.  Even though there really is no wrong way to string this type of "random" stringing project, it is nice to have it be balanced.  These tube go a LONG way so you may get 2-3 bracelets out of the materials featured.  Consider a random necklace or earrings to match!

As always... enjoy!