Friday, January 8, 2021

Tutorial: Toggle Clasp #5 (Hearts)

This tutorial is for a very small toggle clasp combined with a narrow bracelet end of size 15 seed beads and was developed for hearts.  It could be used with wider pieces of beadwork but the loop that  holds the ring part of the clasp would need to remain with a narrow gap between the two anchor points or it would risk curling the beadwork.  I don't know that it would work with size 11 beads.

The toggle clasp is a small silver heart set with a toggle about 1.5cm wide and the heart is less than 1 cm from top to bottom.  This makes it quite a tight fiddly clasp to do up but the style and scale match the bracelet.  As well as the clasp you will need three small jump rings, I think mine are about 4mm.  The bracelet is odd count peyote.

Begin at the top of the bracelet with the ring (heart) part of the clasp.  Add two jump rings to the attachment ring of the clasp to create a short piece of chain.  Use pliers to bend the ring open.  Move the ends to the side to create a gap rather than altering the curve of the ring.  This means that to close the ring, you just need to squeeze it flat with a pair of pliers.

Make sure the bracelet is finished so that the last row does not add a bead to the outside edges but does add a bead to the middle column as shown in the diagram below.  Then finish the thread in your normal way.

Add a new thread which exits the outer edge of the beadwork.

Pick up a size 15 bead and go into the high bead highlighted in blue.

Pull tight and then pick up another bead and go in to the bead just added, now highlighted green.

In this way, keep adding beads until you have a peyote stalk, two beads wide with eight beads on the outer edge and seven on the inner edge.  (The beads shown in the diagram are an approximation of the size 15 seed beads)

Pass the needle through the end of the short chain attached to the ring of toggle clasp, then thread the peyote stalk through the last jump ring of the chain as well.

Now bend the stalk over to the other side of the beadwork making sure it isn't twisted but it won't sit completely flat.  Stitch into the bead highlighted red which is part of the bracelet.

Stitch into the last bead of the stalk, highlighted light blue and then into the yellow highlighted bead on the bracelet.

The stalk is now a loop attached to the bracelet, attaching the ring part of the clasp to the bracelet.  I like to stitch through all the beads of the loop again to reinforce it.  Stitch through to the other side as shown, anchoring the thread through several rows of the beadwork.  This will bring you back to the starting point to stitch through the loop as before.  Then you can finish off your thread in your usual way.

Take the other end of the bracelet, the bottom.  Make sure the last row adds beads to the outer columns but not the middle column as shown below.  Finish the thread in your usual way.  Add a new thread and stitch through to the bead highlighted red, close to the middle of the last row.

Pick up twenty size 15 beads.

Add a jump ring to the attachment loop of the toggle part of the clasp.  Thread the needle throw the jump ring and bring the clasp down so the beads also thread through the attachment loop.

Stitch through the bead highlighted yellow.

I like to stitch through again, so stitch through to the other side of the beadwork, anchoring the clasp by stitching through a number of rows.  Make sure you exit at the same point as before, so that you can stitch through the loop as before.

Once you have stitched through the loop again, finish your thread in your usual way.



No comments:

Post a Comment

Inspiration: Eggs

When it comes to Easter, chocolate eggs are the first thing many think of.  Certainly I love them!  Eggs are a symbol of fertility and acros...