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PURCHASE KITS AND INSTRUCTIONS:

Kit with Instructions on CD or CD Instructions Only
Instructions Digital Download

DESCRIPTION:

Capture an aspiring, spiritual essence! Learn to create an expressive fringe bracelet using a very large palette of colors and shapes.

In this project, we use a Simple or Straight Fringing technique. But there are many types of fringing techniques, and you can also create your own fringing strategies. 

Perhaps one of the most widely used types of fringe is adding a Picot Edge. Here you would add some beads (typically, but not necessarily, 3 beads) between each bead on your edging, or add 3 beads at the end of a line of beads. NOTE: In our project, we add what is called a “stop bead” to each fringe, and this is the same as adding a “1-bead picot”.

Other types of fringe include Netting, Branching, Looping, Creating Leaves or Petals, Twisting or Spiraling, or Kinky.

Fringes can be the same length, or different lengths, or graduated lengths. They can be composed of the same beads, or different beads.

How you do your fringe will depend on the piece to which are you attaching it. 

There may be odds/evens issues with your fringe, such as when graduating your fringe so that there is a clear middle-point. You may have to coordinate the numbers of your fringes with the numbers of rows in your piece. 

The technique is easy to do, and offers many possibilities, only limited by your imagination.

Fringe projects are good projects for using up your bead stash.

In the Caterpillar Espiritu Bracelet, the fringe pattern and colors are supposed to capture the essence of the image on the button – the focal point of the bracelet -- , without overwhelming that image. 

There is an unfortunately tendency of many bead artists to overdo their fringe and thus, over-embellish their pieces.

This bracelet involves creating a line of beads, called a “Train”, and then adding fringe between each of the beads in this Train.

The button is the focal point, so its choice is critical. Begin by choosing your button, and then find colors that coordinate well with the button.

I wanted to use a mix of sizes and shapes of glass beads, including sizes 8/0, 11/0 and 15/0 seed beads, berry beads, peanut beads, and 4mm round crystal pearls and druks, as well as 4mm crystal bicone beads.

I decided to use over 40 colors/shapes/sizes of beads to create a high level of interest and wonder. It’s very exciting for a viewer to interact with so many well-coordinated colors – and much unexpected. I wanted to pick up on the stronger colors in the button, but not in a “strong” way – “subtlety” was my mantra. The stronger colors in the button needed to be present and repeated and well-distributed throughout the entire bracelet. – but not necessarily call your attention to them. I didn’t want any of the 4mm size beads to be in one of the stronger colors – the 4mm area of these beads would take up too much area and volume, and if in a stronger color, would divert the viewer’s attention away from the button. 

SKILL LEVEL REQUIRED:

Beginner Level

PREREQUISITES:

ORIENTATION TO BEADS AND JEWELRY FINDINGS
(All students are required to begin our curriculum with this ORIENTATION CLASS.    The Orientation Class is offered once a month.)

BEAD WEAVING BASICS (or equivalent)

GOALS:

LearnToBead Goals:
What You Will Learn:
- Basic Fringing Technique for embellishment
- Managing Thread Tension
- Reading simple diagrams
- Attaching a button clasp
- Embellishing a button loop
- Working with a very large palette of colors, shapes and sizes

PROJECT/TASKS:

Manage a large color palette.
Create "train" off of which to fringe.
Work three passes of fringe along the train.
Attach a button on one end, and create an embellished loop on the other.

SKILLS LEARNED:

SUPPLIES REQUIRED:

8/0 seed beads (4 grams)
8/0 seed beads (10 grams)
8-12 colors of 11/0 seed beads (8 grams)
8-12 colors of 15/0 seed beads (3 grams)
4-5 colors of berry beads, peanut beads (5.5 grams)
8-12 colors of 4mm size beads (290 beads), including 4mm crystal bicones, 4mm crystal pearls, 4mm round druks
23mm button with shank on back
ONE-G thread