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Beekeeper

Project Info:

Level: 4-5 hours

Estimated time: intermediate

Project and Sample by Karen Marshall

There’s a lot of buzz around this style of beading…just go with the flow, and see where your wings take you. Just bead! Macramé, laddering, even a bit of Tahoe! Sure, why not?! It all looks incredible together, and it’s all what comes from the heart. Create your own masterpiece or follow along with Karen’s design using our Project Map below.

Additional Learning:
Ingredients list is to the left and easy shopping can be done with the Shop Tab above!
Please join us as our worldwide community gathers on Facebook at 10:30am Pacific Time on June 13th, 2018. It’s so much fun to go live with us and bead together! After the live broadcast the video will be available above.

Beekeeper

Juniper Surfer Cord- 1.0mm

Surfer Cord

$3.00 USD

Teal- Micro C-Lon

C-Lon: Micro

$3.15 USD

5mm Rondelles- Amber and Pacific Blue Picasso

Czech Rondelles- 5mm

$3.25 USD

Aged Wampum- Multi Lavender Mix

Aged Czech Picasso

$5.35 USD

8-457 Metallic Dark Bronze

Miyuki Seed Beads- 8/0

$8.75 USD

Transitions Crimp Beads- Gold (4 pieces)

Metal Beads

$4.25 USD

Textured Tube- Gold

Metal Beads

$1.40 USD

3mm Crimp Covers- Gold

Soft Flex Findings

$6.75 USD

Beadalon Collapsible Eye Needles, Heavy- 4 Pack

Needles

$4.25 USD

Project Tray Inserts

Design Boards & Storage

$10.25 USD

Popcorn Padres- Chalk

Tribal and Trade

$11.75 USD

GS Hypo Cement

Tools

$6.75 USD

Thread Snips

Tools

$3.35 USD

Clampers (1 pair)

Tools

$1.75 USD

Eurotool Chain Nose Plier

Tools

$12.95 USD

Project Map

Karen cut a long length of 1mm Surfer Cord in Lagoon and fed it through the shank of her button. A simple overhand knot holds the button in place. These two “legs” will be the base of the entire bracelet, and we’ll add more Surfer Cord in two of the wraps later. She used GS Hypo Cement to secure her knots and the first beads in laddering sections with padres, just to reinforce and keep the beads in place.
To start, Karen used Infinity Stitch with a Flexible Eye Needle and Micro C-Lon in Teal to ladder 5mm Czech Rondelles. This first wrap uses 1 full strand and part of a second strand of Capri Amber rondelles. You’ll use more of the second strand in the final wrap.

The first wrap transitions into the second with a Transitions bead. Before crimping the bead into place, add a third strand of 1mm Surfer Cord, much like we do in Tahoe. To ensure her Padres would fit, Karen separates a few strands of the Surfer Cord to make it thinner, much like you would when using embroidery floss to embroider or cross stitch. Karen added White Padres, a Trio of Gold Textured Tubes, and a sprinkling of Gold Crimp Covers encasing the Surfer Cord…great idea! Karen used her Flexible Eye Needle to help string her Padres onto the Surfer Cord. She purposely chose Padre beads with larger holes for this. Crimp another Transitions bead to secure the middle strand of 1mm Surfer Cord, and trim the tail…be sure you are not trimming one of your two “base” legs of Surfer Cord!
The third wrap goes back to Infinity Stitch. Padres are uneven in size, and Karen lets the organic nature of these beads dictate hoe many she uses in each row of laddering. Again, she uses gold crimp covers to embellish the Surfer Cord itself.

Again, use a Transitions Bead to begin the fourth wrap with a third strand of Surfer Cord, in another Tahoe style wrap. Here, Karen used only the Padres and Crimp Covers, no Textured Tubes. End with another crimped Transitions bead.

The fifth wrap returns to laddering. Using Infinity Stitch, Karen ladders with White padres and Aged Czech Wampum, creating a wide and colorful wrap! She tapers this wrap down using Padres and starts right into her sixth and final wrap, more laddering, this time using her 5mm Capri Amber rondelles again. She patterns this wrap, using 8/0 seed beads to break up the rondelles. Her pattern is below, using “O” for rondelles and “:” for the pairs of seed beads…

O:OOO:O:OOO:O:OOO:O:OOO:O

A charm is added at the end of this wrap, and a pair of overhand knots creates a button loop. More Aged Czech Wampum and Crimp covers decorate the tails. So cute!