Some interesting beaded cuff bracelets popped up on my Pinterest feed last week. Long story short, I wound up on Youtube watching videos about bead looming. I've had a couple of bead looms over the years since I was a child. I remember being so confused by the included instructions as a child that I just used the beads and thread that came with the kit and occasionally would string some beads whenever I felt in the mood. I became inspired again, years ago, and happened to stumble upon a child's plastic loom kit for a discounted price. I THOUGHT I had it all figured out. But for some reason some of the beads would dangle loosely away from the warp threads. I decided to stick with off-loom bead-weaving. Peyote has been my primary go to, especially since the free-form possibilities are endless!
While watching the videos, I realized that I had been bead weaving on the loom all WRONG! Smart little me thought "It's a bead loom, I'm bead weaving, therefore I must literally weave the beads through the warp threads." I mean, that's what you do when you weave on a loom in general, amirite? Then I'd take the needle and go back through the opposite way, alternating whether I did it from the top side of the beads or bottom side, each row. Turns out, you don't literally weave at all! You line the beads up on the underside of the loom, and then pass the needle back through on the upper side! *head->desk*
Anywho, here's my attempt at using the bead loom with the correct technique! Woo!
Btw, I used crochet thread as the warp threads and plain ole sewing thread for the weft. I've actually been using cheap sewing thread a lot in my bead projects over the past several years and haven't experienced any quality problems yet...
Just finished weaving the end threads and then glued up the threaded weaving to secure if for the finishing touches. Scotch tape is my bff when creating tension on this thing, which is why I moved the scraps to the base, lulz.
Finished the bracelet with ribbon clasp and lobster claw clasp.
I wish the camera could pick up all the real life sparkle of this beauty!
Stay tuned for more DIY projects, y'all!
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