Bead queen

One of the best pieces of advice Emma gave us in the bead jewellery class was to practice what we'd learned sharpish, before we forgot it all, and so I had earmarked yesterday (Sunday 5 September) as my day for beading.

After the class I had bought everything I needed to make a 12-strand bracelet - hundreds of little beads, some thread and all the sterling silver fixings required. I gathered this all together, along with the pliers and clippers I'd bought from Buffy's Beads, and sat down at the kitchen table ready to start stringing.

First came the maths; I had to figure out how long the strands should be and many beads I needed for each strand. The first bit was easy: measure the circumference of my wrist. It's 5.5"; obviously I didn't want a skin-tight bracelet so decided the strands should be 7". To work out how many beads I'd need I strung an inch-long strand and counted. There were 14 beads, giving me 98 per 7" strand. So I counted 100 into little pots.

Everything you need to start beading!

To string each strand you need to cut a length of thread, tie a knot in one end and start sliding the beads on. The strands should be several inches longer than you want them to end up. It will become clear why next ...

It was all going swimmingly well until I got to the tying up bit. I tied all six strands together. And then realised I should have put the calotte on first. I had to cut the knot off; lucky my thread was so long. Mistakes aren't the only reason for extra thread, it makes all the knots easier. Crisis averted.

First six done, on to the next set.

But things were to get worse. The bracelet is made in two sets of six strands, each set is attached to a soldered ring and the rings are then attached to split rings, one of which is also attached to the clasp. The first set was perfect, not withstanding the knot problem. Then it happened. While tying the first knot on the second set, I let go of the ends. Beads went everywhere. I picked them up, threaded them back on and tied my knot. Phew.

Can you guess what comes next? That's right, things got even worse. When tying the second knot it's important to get the beads tightly packed, otherwise you can see the thread. I worked the beads down, pulled the thread tight, worked the beads down, and so on. It looked great. I tied my knot. But somehow it ended up in the wrong place - there was spare thread on three of my strands!

I tried undoing the knot. No joy. I tried easing it further down the thread. I had some success with this, but not enough. Three of my strands were just too long. But there was nothing more I could do, other than cut it all off, waste those sterling silver fixings and start again. In the end I decided to finish it off. This was my first ever solo attempt after all. In fact it looks OK. With all 12 strands afixed you can't actually see the three that went wrong.

It gets worse though: despite my careful measuring the bracelet is too long for me. The various rings and clasps added at least another inch to the bracelet and it just slides over my hand and falls off. Bugger. So if you know anyone with a 6.5" inch wrist and a liking for shiny purple things, let me know.

It's not all bad, though. I learned some important lessons, practised bracelet-making techniques and I've got plenty of beads left for another go.

The finished article. So who wants it? You can't see the mistake, honest.

A close-up of the beads.