The Bead Chest Partnership: Free Tutorials enclosed!

I have loved all types of ethnic beads for the past 10+ years I've been making jewelry. Glass, seeds, wood, bone, stones all have a very earthy quality that lends itself to my jewelry style. So it was no surprise that I jumped at the recent opportunity to become a bit of an ambassador for TheBeadChest!
They allowed me to pick out some of my favorite beads and I had a blast gravitating to my favorite colors- Teal, ivory, grey, blue. 

live links below:

Amazonite Moroccan Pottery Beads (Round - 12mm) × 1 Black Stripe Java Gooseberry Beads × 1 Antiqued Copper Triangle Heishi Beads × 1 Teal Java French Cross Beads × 1 Grey Natural Wood Beads (6mm) × 1 Green Pastel Java Gooseberry Beads × 1 Grey Round Bone Beads (12mm) × 1 White Carved Disk Bone Mala Beads (13mm) × 1 Dark Aqua Ashanti Glass Saucer Beads × 1

Trio of Bracelets 

Materials needed:

Stretch Magic cording

Waxed Cotton Cording

Brass wire for toggle

Amazonite Moroccan Pottery Beads

White Carved Disk Bone Mala Beads

Grey Round Bone Beads

Antiqued Copper Triangle Heishi Beads

Dark Aqua Ashanti Glass Saucer Beads

Green Pastel Java Gooseberry Beads

Tools needed:

flush cutters

round nose pliers

Hammer and bench block

Stretch bracelets can be easily made by stringing your beads onto each length of stretch cord in the sequence that you like.  Form a double knot and dot the knot with a strong adhesive craft glue.

I embellished this stretch bracelet with a wire wrapped Carved jade Buddha head focal bead. I used a 2 inch brass head pin. String the bead onto the headpin and using round nose pliers, formed a simple wrapped loop. I strung it in between the two sets of Gooseberry beads as the bracelet focal, and finished the bracelet like previously mentioned.

To create the beaded bracelet with the Ashanti Glass Saucer Beads, I cut a long length of waxed cotton cording.  Doubled the cord in half, and tied an overhand knot just about 1 inch from the end of the folded end. 

Take one glass saucer and pass one end of cording through from right to left, and the second cording through the house from left to right so that the two cords cross in the center of the saucer hole. Pull the bead up to the knot.

Pull the two ends together and string 3 saucer beads.   Repeat these two steps until you have about 3 inches left of each cord. String the Copper Triangle Heishi Beads onto each cording for about 1.5 -2 inches.  

To create the brass toggle bar, I took a 2 inch long piece of 18 gauge wire. Using my round nose pliers, I bend the two ends of wire around one leg of the pliers and crossed them.  I hammered the toggle to help harden the wire and hammered each wire end flat for a decorative element.

String the toggle bar onto one cord and tie both cords into an overhand knot. Trim excess ends.

I also added a drilled beach stone using a small piece of waxed cotton cording. I attached it at the faceted metal beaded section.

I also created a long necklace to match these bracelets!  I love how it turned out- it was so simple. Here's how I did it!

Materials needed:

Amazonite Moroccan Pottery Beads

Black Stripe Java Gooseberry Beads

Antiqued Copper Triangle Heishi Beads

Teal Java French Cross Beads

Grey Natural Wood Beads

Green Pastel Java Gooseberry Beads 

Grey Round Bone Beads

White Carved Disk Bone Mala Beads

Dark Aqua Ashanti Glass Saucer Beads 

5 Burgundy Polymer clay Disc beads by Artist Heather Powers (Humblebeads)

Beading wire

Dark chocolate brown deerskin leather lace 5mm

Vintaj brass 20mm 15g Jump rings- 10

Vintaj Brass 15mm Jump rings- 2

Brass headpins

Long Carved Ceramic tube focal- Marsha Neal Studios

Tools needed:

Crimping pliers

Flush cutters

chain nose and flat nose pliers

1. link 2 20mm jump rings together.  Cut a length of beading wire. String one crimp tube. Pass the wire end through one of the linked rings, and back down through the crimp. Crimp with crimping pliers.

2. String beads in your chosen sequence.  Link two more 20mm jump rings. String one crimp tube. Pass the wire end through one of the linked rings, and back down through the crimp. Crimp with crimping pliers.

3. Repeat these steps 3 more times, ending with 20mm jump ring. 

4. Cut a length of leather lace about 20 inches long. Pass one end through one end of the beaded necklace and through the  opposite ring at the other end. Tie the two ends together in an overhand knot. 

5. Embellish the rings by adding the wire wrapped polymer clay disc beads. String each onto a headpin, form a wrapped loop and attach to one of each of the ring sets along the necklace.

6. I also added some carved stones onto 15mm jump rings and attached them to 2 of the rings on one side of the necklace.

This is a sponsored blog post  - TheBeadChest sent me beads to create these pieces, for online tutorials here on my blog.