Photo Tutorial Beaded European 4-1 Bracelet

Author's Note
Our projects were very popular during the lifetime of our business and we wanted to ensure they continued to provide inspiration for chain maillers whatever their experience. It's a pleasure to see they will live on with Chainmaillers.com
-Sarah Austin

Beaded European 4-1 Bracelet​

Add seed beads to a basic European 4-1 strip to make this sparkly cuff bracelet.

Turn your European 4-1 cuff into a chunky round maille bracelet by adding one row of rings. For instructions, click here.

Make a matching beaded round maille necklace. For instructions, click here.

Materials​

For an 18cm bracelet, you will need:

• 173 black ice anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 5mm, WD 1.2mm
• 2 black ice anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 4mm, WD 1.2mm - clasp rings
• 8g (102 beads) silver lined aqua size 6 Miyuki seed beads
• black finish jubilee heart Tierracast toggle - 14x17mm

Tools:

• two pairs of smooth jawed chain nose, flat nose, or bent nose pliers

Instructions​

1. All the steps in this project use the id 5mm, 1.2mm jump rings unless otherwise stated.
   
   Open one jump ring, add one seed bead and close. Make 102 seed beaded rings. Open the remaining 70 rings. (You do not need to make all the beaded rings or open all the rings but it is handy to have a small pile from which to work).
   
   Link four seed beaded rings with one jump ring. Position the rings as shown in the left hand picture, making sure that you orientate the rings in exactly the same way.
   
   Weave one open ring through the lower left hand ring and through the lower right hand ring. Add two beaded rings before closing the jump ring (centre picture). Make sure to push the seed beads on the rings to the side so that they do not get caught underneath your work.
   
   Repeat until you have made a strip the required length for your wrist, allowing for the addition of the clasp (right hand picture).
   
   
   
   
   
2. You will now widen the strip.
   
   Weave one open ring through the second and then first beaded edge rings of your strip, making sure that the seed beads are pushed to the front of your work. Link two beaded rings and close (left hand picture).
   
   Weave one ring through the third, then second beaded edge ring of the strip, and through the last closed beaded ring added. Again, make sure that the seed beads are pushed to the front of your work or to the side as appropriate so that the beads do not get caught underneath your work. Add one beaded ring (right hand picture).
   
   
   
   
   
3. Continue adding a single beaded ring each time to the edge of your strip until you have reached the end of the strip.
   
   
   
   
   
4. At the end of the doubled strip, weave one ring between each pair of beaded rings (left hand picture).
   
   Weave one ring through the two rings just added (centre ring).
   
   Using one clasp ring, link the toggle ring to the single ring just added.
   
   
   
   
   
5. You will now repeat step 4 at the other end of the doubled strip. The rings are orientated slightly differently.
   
   Weave one ring between each pair of beaded rings (left hand picture).
   
   Weave one ring through the the left hand ring just added, add a seed bead, and weave through the right hand ring just added, making sure that the seed bead is uppermost (centre picture).
   
   Using one clasp ring, link the toggle bar to the last single ring added (right hand picture).
   
   

Variations​

• Use matt silver (white) rings with a pastel coloured seed bead, finishing off with a silver plated clasp.
• Use mixed shades of a single colour seed bead with a neutral coloured jump ring, either as a random mix or graduating the colour.
• Use a different colour non-beaded ring to the seed beaded jump rings, perhaps matching or contrasting the non-beaded ring to the colour of the seed beads.

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©2021 Sarah Austin. All rights reserved.