Chain & Cord Citrine Bracelet Tutorial

Why We Love This Tutorial:

What a cool (but simple) little technique! This tutorial uses cord and chain to create a design that almost looks like crochet – and yet it’s super fast and easy to make. You can use any smallish beads (ours are mostly within 4mm to 6mm wide), so it’s once again bead soup time! We’ve threaded the beads on in an (almost) random fashion… it’s good to get a fairly balanced arrangement of colours though 🙂 We’ve used a mixture of Citrine, Crystal Beads and Glass beads.

The tutorial below is the bracelet version of the same tutorial we did to make a necklace, click here to see it! But the technique is 100% the same. The only difference of course for the necklace was we added one of the new Lapis Lazuli Pendants. All the quantities and measurements below are for the bracelet version. This is a 20cm bracelet (including clasp).

Beads and Materials You’ll Need:

• 30x Mixture of 4mm to 6mm wide beads, we’ve used:
  • 4mm Citrine Round Beads
  • 6mm Crystal Cube beads
  • 6mm Glass Round Beads
  • 5mm Gold Toned Spacer Beads (we’ve used these ones, but any will do!)
• Clamshells (we’ve used gold clamshells)
• 1x 8mm jump ring
• Clasp of your choice (we’ve used a gold lobster clasp)
• approx 50cm 0.65mm polyester macrame cord (we’ve used camel)
• Cable Chain (the chain we have used is this 5mm gold toned cable chain, but you could use any cable chain – just use slightly less or more cord, and perhaps use smaller beads if using a finer chain).

Tools You’ll Need:

• Flat Nose pliers (2 pairs)
• Round Nose Pliers
• Scissors

Method:

1. Cut your chain to the desired length. Ours is 18cm. You will use approximately 2.5x the amount of cord than the chain, so for our 18cm chain we have used approx. 45cm. However! I’d definitely recommend always cutting off a little extra, so perhaps cut your cord to about 50cm.
2. Tie a knot in the end of your cord, and slide on a clamshell.
3. Trim the cord close to the knot, and close the clamshell around the knot. If you like you can add a little glue inside the clamshell before closing it, to make it extra secure.
4. Take your chain and thread the cord through the last loop on the chain. Then, tie a knot to secure the chain in place. Tighten the knot closed:
5. Now it’s time to start adding beads. Thread a bead onto the cord. Then, thread that cord through the second link on the chain.
6. Pull the cord tight, then add another bead. For each bead, you are skipping one link in the chain, weaving from one side to the other. Pull it tight and continue:
7. Continue in this manner adding more beads. Add some more: And even more:
8. Once you have reached the end of your chain, tie the cord to the last link (just as you did at the beginning). Then, slide on a clamshell. Tie a knot inside the clamshell and using round or needle nose pliers, push the knot as fare inside the clamshell as you can. Trim the excess cord and close the clamshell around the knot.
9. Attach a lobster clasp to one clamshell, closing the loop on the clamshell around the loop on the clasp. If your clamshells are the type with a close loop, simply use a small jump ring to attach your clasp. Also add a 8mm jump ring (or split ring) on the other side for your lobster clasp to hook into.
10. And you’re finished!