Loom Bands Tutorial: Fishtail Bracelet

I have had a go at making a few bracelets today using the loom and loom bands and I'm kind of hooked now. My favorite bracelet so far has been the fishtail bracelet so I have put together a tutorial to show you how to make one. Out of the few colour combinations I tried out today I love the black and white one so that's the one I'm going to show you. 

What You Need:

A Loom
A Loom Hook
About 60 Loom Bands (in two colours)
An S Hook

Take the first loom band in your first colour and loop it like shown in the photo making sure to twist the band.

Now add a band in your second colour. this should be put straight onto the loom and now crossed in the middle.

Add another loop of the first colour straight onto the loom.

Using the loom hook, take the bottom band from the left side over the loom pin and into the middle.

Now to the same with the bottom loop on the right hand side.

Add another band of the second colour straight onto the loom.

And continue the pattern along adding a new band each time.

After a while the pattern will begin to emerge. Keep going until you reach the length you need.








To finish the Bracelet remove it from the loom and remove the 2 unused bands.

Add an S hook linking either end together and your bracelet is now ready to wear.

     I have also put together a video tutorial that you can watch by clicking here. 

Shine Magazine

I opened my email today to see the latest issue of Shine Magazine which is an online issue by Beads Direct. And there's my Kumihimo wrap bracelet on the Lets Be Social Page. Thanks for featuring my bracelet I was so happy to see it.

And don't forget to vote for my necklace click here. There are only a few days left to vote. Thanks everyone who has voted so far.

A Little Bit Black And White

I decided it was time to go through some boxes of beads and organise everything and see exactly what I have. About 10 minutes in I had come across black and white glass pearls and some wire and a new toggle clasp I had bought a while ago but hadnt used yet so I gave up on organising the boxes and started to make this bracelet. Im blaming the lack of colour on the horrible windy wet weather when I was making it. Had I had some grey beads Im sure they would have gone in too.

I used my wire coiler to make the black wire coils and silver plated wire to attach all the beads. I love the black toggle clasp. I ordered a few of these in all available colours from Beads Direct a while ago but havent tried using any until now. Im going to have to get more. I love the chunky-ness of them.

A Simple Little Bangle

I ordered some Preciosa Twin Hole Beads from Beads Direct recently and wasn't too sure what I was going to do with them. I haven't worked with twin hole beads much in the past so finally I decided to make this little bangle.

I used memory wire and clear seed beads that I already had in the box and I love how it turned out. It's just a simple little bangle that doesn't need a catch or anything fussy. I have the Twin Hole beads in clear as well so I'm thinking of making another using a bright coloured seed bead. I may end up with a lot of these with the endless colour combinations I have in mind.

Triple Wrap Kumihimo Bracelet

I had been wanting to make this bracelet for a while and finally got around to it this week. I used black and metallic silver embroidery thread and silver findings and worked a 16 strand Kumihimo weave on a round Kumihimo disc.

I'm going to try working the same design in a gold colouring next, I think it will be just as nice as the silver. There are so many colour options to try and I can't wait to try a  few more.

Tassel Bracelet

I picked up the April issue of Make Jewellery Magazine yesterday and was having a look through it today when I came across Fiona Eastmond's Tassel Set Tutorial.

It calls for bead cones, a clasp and different sizes and colours of chain. I have all of these sitting in boxes so decided it was a great way to use up all those bits of chain I pick up but am never to sure what to do with! Also I'm trying to force myself into making things that are different from my usual pieces so mixing chains and colours like this is very unusual for me. So I went through all of my stash and pulled out all the bits and pieces I needed and 20 minutes later I have this lovely bracelet on my arm!

Fiona uses black and silver chain for her piece but I had a beautiful piece of purple aluminium chain I picked up at the Creative Crafts show in Belfast last November that I love the colour of but had no idea when I would use it. This seemed like the perfect piece to put it into! The black aluminium chain I used is recycled from a broken necklace my sister gave me to use up. All of the silver chain and findings are silver plated.

I used slightly different sized bead cones to Fiona's directions because its what I have here and I used a toggle clasp that I thought went well with the bead cones rather than a lobster clasp. I'm really happy with the end result and I can already see myself making a few different bracelets on the same style using different coloured chains and findings!

Competition Entry

Ive entered this piece into the "Design of the Week" competition on Cookson Gold Facebook page today. This week the prize is a texture hammer that could come in very handy in the workshop!! There are some fantastic pieces entered already so fingers crossed!!

See the album of entries here:          Design of the Week