Wire Wrapped Turquoise Bracelet Tutorial

Sep 26

Written By

I love big chunky bracelets. I found these big chunky turquoise beads on Happy Mango Beads and knew I wanted them for a bracelet.I considered stringing them, but these are substantial beads, so I wanted to make something more secure and stable. Bracelets can easily get caught on things and before you know it, the bracelet is in pieces if you have strung it. When you use wire, this is much less likely to happen. Even if you do pull it apart somehow, you won't lose all of your beads.I also love this big chunky clasp, also from Happy Mango Beads. This clasp is perfect for this bracelet for ease of putting on such a chunky bracelet.If you learn better via video, the above video shows you how to make the bead links and how to interlock them. I'll also show you via the photos below.Materials and Tools:

Turquoise Magnesite Oval Tabular Beads 30mm
Pewter Toggle 30mm (at the time of this post, it seems to be sold out, but any big clasp would work)
20 gauge wire
Wire cutters
Round nose pliers
2 Pairs of pliers - I used chain nose pliers and bent nose pliers

Step #1Cut a piece of 20 gauge wire that is a couple inches longer on each side of the bead.Step #2Hold the wire with round nose pliers a couple of inches from the end of the wire.Step #3 Bend the wire down around the barrel of the pliers.Step #4 Take the wire off the pliers. Then hold the loop in chain nose pliers and twist around while straightening the loop so it's centered.Step # 5 Continue wrapping around the wire. Wrap a few times trying to keep the wraps even and tight.Step #6Slide a bead on the wire.For the first bead for the bracelet, you'll just finish the link by completing a wire wrapped link following steps #2 - 5 again.For the rest of the beads, you'll be linking the beads together following the instructions below.Step #7 Hold the wire in the round nose pliers and wrap around one barrel of the pliers like in step #3, but do not finish the wrap.Step #8Slide one loop of the first bead link into the started loop of the 2nd bead link.Step #9Hold the loop in chain nose pliers and complete the wrap just like in step #5.Step #10Continue until your bracelet is the desired length.Step #11Open 2 jump rings and attach one part of the clasp to each end.Then I also made a necklace!