Palette 1: Turquoise Luster

DRAGON BACK BRACELET
About the Kit...

I have made a lot of crochet ropes using different sizes of seed beads. I was wondering what would happening if I used a different shape and size of bead -- especially in terms of wearability. Judith Bertoglio-Giffin who has written extensively on "bead crochet" has a pattern for a reversible crochet bracelet. I adapted this pattern as the solution, both to using different shapes, as well as preserving wearability.

II had seen some creative use of dagger beads in ropes done with crochet or peyote or other stitches. I liked the drama. The resulting texture was very appealling. But time after time, I found that many of these designs did not sit well on the wrist. Often, the daggers would not sit straight up, but would slump or spread out from each other, diminishing the effect of tightly arranged daggers pointing upwards. So, too, these bracelets would turn around on the wrist, the rows of daggers pushing sideways or twisting.

I came across a pattern for a reversible bead crochet rope by Judith Bertoglio-Giffin. The design allowed one color to remain positioned facing the wrist, and the other color facing outward. I wondered what would happen if I incorporated the dagger beads in this 3-3-3-4 pattern. This worked.

Another dilemma I wanted to confront in this project, is how to attach the two ends together. In the Introductory class in this series, we make a bead crochet rope and slip on a beaded bead to hide the normally messy attached ends.[There is another technique to attach both ends with an invisible join, and I save this technique for another project.] In this class, I wanted to attach a clasp assembly, to each end, and disguise this clasp assembly as a beaded bead. This meant starting the rope using a ladder stitch. The ladder gives us something to anchor the clasp onto.

In our Dragon Back Bracelet, we make a rope, 6 size 8/0 beads around, bead-crocheted on Tex 135 C-Lon bead cord. We create brick stitched caps to cover each side of our magnetic clasp, and we attach these covered clasp parts to either side of our rope.

Bead Crochet uses a "slip-stitch", moreso than a specific "crochet-stitch." Success depends as much on your ability to manage the stitching and all the parts, using both hands, as it does on mastering the basic technique.

LearnToBead Goals:
- Using a crochet bead pattern with different bead shapes and sizes
- Implementing a reversible bead crochet pattern which allows for easy wearability
- How to add more beads, after you have begun your rope
- Discussion of two approaches for starting and ending a bead crochet rope
- Making bead woven, brick stitched caps to cover a magnetic clasp
- Attaching a bead woven, brick-stitched clasp assembly, which functions, in appearance, as a beaded bead

Prerequisites:
- Orientation To Beads & Jewelry Findings
- BW1-CRO-01 BEAD CROCHET: Introduction to Bead Crochet Ropes: Bangle Bracelet, or, previous experience with Bead Crochet Ropes
- Familiarity with brick stitch