Hello Beaders! Leah here with another quickie project brought to you by Eureka Crystal Beads! If you’ve never used Memory Wire, you truly are missing out. This EASY to use stringing medium helps you whip up a fast bracelet in no time and you can create it with as many wrist-wraps as you want! Today I’ll show you some of the ins and outs of using Memory Wire paired with the Exclusive Coordinated Mixes we now offer on our website to create a super fun bracelet to wear with your favorite spring or summer outfit!
If you haven’t checked out our new Coordinated Mixes from our Color Lab, you really must! We offer various color-ways beautifully put together for you to take the stress out of matching and picking your colors. We offer our Coordinated Mixes in Size 11 Toho seed beads, 4mm Swarovski Crystal Bicone beads, and Czech Glass beads – and they all carry with them truly inspirational names. In the project pictured, I used the seed bead mix, crystal mix, and Czech mix – all in the color scheme “Nighttime Lagoon” – to make this fun bracelet! Here’s how it was made:
Materials:
- Toho Size 11 Seed Bead Coordinated Mix
- 4mm Swarovski Crystal Bicone Bead Coordinated Mix
- Czech Glass Beads Coordinated Mix
- (Regarding the above 3 items, you’re meant to pick the SAME color name for each of them for this project. i.e. You’ll find “Nighttime Lagoon” for each of those mixes.)
- Memory Wire (We offer 2 different wrist diameters)
- Memory Wire Cutter (Very important!! Do NOT use your regular wire cutters to cut Memory Wire!)
- Round Nose Pliers
- Begin by using your Memory Wire Cutters to snip off a piece of Memory Wire however many coils long you’d like – it’s up to you!
- Next, use your Round Nose Pliers to roll a loop at one end of the Memory Wire. This will keep your beads from coming off. *TIP: You can use a head pin and dangle a bead(s) off of this loop when you’re finished with the project if you’d like!
3. Lay out all of your beads to use! Pictured are the “Nighttime Lagoon” Crystal Mix, Czech Mix, and Seed Bead Mix. (The Seed Bead mixes don’t come with the beads mixed together, the colors will be separate in their tubes)
4. Start stringing on your beads! You can create as much or little of a pattern as you like. I chose to keep things simple and used no pattern – that’s the beauty of these mixes, no matter what beads you load when, the project will look amazing since you know the colors are already going to coordinate beautifully!!
This is a GREAT project for any skill level, but it’s particularly a great project for a beginning jewelry maker – or even as a fun project for child!
I hope you give Memory Wire a try! If you make something stunning, make sure to share it – we’d love to see!!
Until next time!!
-Leah
