LL Roden Jewelry: Successful Experiment

I've been running an idea around in my head for a while and finally gave it a shot. I bought a new bead loom almost a year ago and it was still in the box. I put the loom together and warped it a little different than usual for a bead loom.

I knew I wanted to make a bracelet so I started with a ladder stitch 12 cube beads long and 2 beads high for each end of the bracelet. The length of the loom is 7" so that is just about the right size for a bracelet. I attached the ladder stitched ends to the loom. By doing the ends like this I didn't have a bunch of warp thread to deal with when I was finished.

I warped the loom with a very long piece of 8 pound smoke fire line. I attached the line to the loom in the usual way by attaching it to the body of the loom. With a #12 needle on one end of the line I ran the line through the first row of cube beads. Then I broke out the container of mixed beads that has grown with every project I've done in the past.

I strung random beads on the line until it was long enough to attach to the other set of ladder stitched cube beads. I ran the line through the corresponding set of cube beads on the far end of the loom. I tied a knot around the line running through the cube beads and ran it back down through the next set of cubes. Again I strung random beads until I reached the other end, knotting each time and pulling the line snug. That was repeated until I had a line for each set of 2 cubes.

Since I started with a very long length of line I knotted the line next to the last set of cube beads and was able to continue stringing beads for the weft of the loom. This time I used only seed beads on the line and kept stringing beads until I had enough to go back and forth across the bracelet several times. Instead of the usual beaded loom work of beads fitted between each line I decided to weave over and under the warp line like I was weaving material.

I worked each weft line as close to previous row as I could. The warp lines had big, little and tube beads that made the texture very random. I really like the look of the weave.

Once I finished the weaving I cut the cube beads loose from the loom. Goofed a little there and managed to cut a couple of the warp lines. Had to do a quick repair and restring a few beads and tie them off.

I hadn't really thought this all the way through since it was an experiment. It was time to figure out the clasp. The first clasp I tried was sterling silver wire worked through the last two cubes on both sides of the bracelet. To anchor them I made a swirl on the ends and wire wrapped the wires together for strength. The clasp was a piece of hammered sterling bent into a hook. I hated it when it was finished.

The "well duh" moment came when I walked away for a while. Time to fall back on the very versatile peyote stitch. On one end of the bracelet I attached seed beads two at a time across the end of the cubes by running the line back and forth through the cubes. From there I worked in peyote stitch to make a tab with an opening for a button. On the other end of the bracelet I again attached beads and stitched a plain tab. I ran the line back through the beads on the tab for strength and attached a button I found in my button stash that is almost as bad as my bead stash. Viola!!!! A closure I liked.