Beaded Lariat

[honeyb]

My sister asked me to make her a beaded lariat for her birthday, which she wanted quite long as she is very tall.

It was much harder to plan than I thought it would be, as it was hard to get the combination of beads right.

I was wondering if anyone would take a look at my new album, and see if the think it looks ok. I need to get it posted off to her. I hope she likes it.

I have also put some stretch bracelets on there that I have made - some people have asked me to make for them as christmas gifts.

I am ever so worried about selling them though, incase they fall apart. I have used a surgeon's knot and glued it too. I suppose it is natural to worry.

At the moment I am working on some beaded ribbon bookmarks that people have ordered as gifts, and I will add those to my album, when I have finished them.

Any advice/comments welcome.

[crafty-clarie]

Hi there, the Lariat's look lovely. Your jewellery style is comparable to mine. I use a mix of beads and charms and make necklaces and bracelets on cotton cords.

My only advice about elastic is to be careful especially when using glass beads. I started using elastic about 3 years ago with bracelets and decided to restring onto Tiger tail and use clasps or toggle fastenings as they are more reliable.

I found that elastic will stretch eventually or break and in time will disintegrate (not sure how to spell!!). Where beads are weighty they will continually put stress onto the elastic causing it to stretch.

The only thing is once you start adding clasps and extra findings the price inevitably increases and I have lost sales at fairs to other stall holders who use elastic and their prices are cheaper. However, after 1 fair I was asked to fix on such bracelet by a mother from school who went for the cheaper option which broke!

The best thing to do is to judge which beads and bracelets to use elastic for. It is ideal for some things and not so for others.

I hope that helps.

Claire x

[honeyb]

Thanks for the advice - that's one of my worries about elastic tbh. I have doubled the elastic in the finer bracelets and in the ones with the heavier beadsI used the heavier elastic - I don't know it's name, but what I would call proper elastic.

The reason I have used elastic is that I'm not sure what else to thread beads on to make bracelets and I need more parctice with clasps.

But I will try the tigertail and see how I get on.

[crafty-clarie]

If you need any help or advice (when I say advice I mean from my experience) just drop me a pm. I'll be happy to help with all the pitfalls that I fell into!! It is embarassing when people bring back broken stuff.

Claire x

[beckyboo]

The necklaces are lovely Honeyb, funnily enough I made one on waxed cord today and was quite pleased with how it turned out, so I will be making more

I agree with Claire , sometimes a mix of pretty acrylic and glass or stone works better on the stretchy bracelets, because as the stretch fibre ages it becomes brittle and breaks.

your work is lovely Honeyb and look forward to seeing the bookmarks

[honeyb]

The children's bracelets were made with the elastic doubled - a local bead shop owner advised me to do that. The beads on those are quite light because they are acrylic and glass mostly, as are those on the blackand silver adult one.

If I wanted to restring the others, what would be the best stringing material to use.

The black and silver one is actually strung on elastic that you would use in sewing - iykwim, so are the other adult ones actually now that I come to think of it.

I'm a bit worried now. I have only sold the childrens and the black and silver one lol

[SusieQ]

Ignorant me didn't know what a lariot was!! They are lovely, especially the orangy- green one!! I love it!! Sue xx

[Critchley]

Your sister should be very pleased with her gift, it is lovely. Can't offer any advice - I wouldn't know one end of a bead from another but do know what I like to look at amd I did like the items in your albumn.

[RenataHarris]

Thats a good gift, has a jungle feel to it, i like the flower one!

[crafty-clarie]

The children's bracelets were made with the elastic doubled - a local bead shop owner advised me to do that. The beads on those are quite light because they are acrylic and glass mostly, as are those on the blackand silver adult one.

If I wanted to restring the others, what would be the best stringing material to use.

The black and silver one is actually strung on elastic that you would use in sewing - iykwim, so are the other adult ones actually now that I come to think of it.

I'm a bit worried now. I have only sold the childrens and the black and silver one lol

I've pm'd you.

Don't worry about them I am sure that they will be fine and they look lovely.

Claire x

[shiner]

I'm not a great lover of elasticated jewellery(actually I hate the stuff) but was recently asked to repair a bracelet for a friend of my wife, I dont trust knots in elastic so I used a carick bend plus where I pulled the tail ends through I knotted them and glued all 3 knots

[Louise77]

Hi.
I make loads of elasticated bracelets, they are much more popular than those with fastenings (I have found) for ease of putting on and taking off.
I started of with the clear stretch elastic but it does not stretch very much and loses it shape if you pull it too hard, also it's so slippy that the knots can work loose, and it goes brittle and yellow over time.
What I use now is SHIRRING elastic, you can get it in every colour imaginable although I tend to use silver or gold or black depending on the beads. I use 1mm thick elastic, and tie using a surgeons knot, then clip the ends and cover the knot in Hypo Cement, then slip it inside a bead and tip more glue into each side of the hole.
I have never had a bracelet come apart using this method.
Louise
x

[honeyb]

Louise - that'sthe naem for the elastic I used on the adult bracelets I glued the knot before tying it and then put glue over it when I did tie it. I then did what you did by putting it inside the bead and putting a little glue on.

On the childrens, I used clear elastic as the beads were more fine - I was able to double it though, so it is not a single strand. Also I used an elastic with mutiple fibres,and knotted as above.

I was specifically asked for elastic by the people who bought them and I made the others really just as an experiment, to see what worked best. I think they wanted elastic for th children because, as they were gifts, they didn't really know how long to get me to make them. I do hope they are ok.

My own children have broken some of the bracelets they have had with clasps on too - as they sometimes get caught in clothes etc. The little childrens bracelets are not expensive bracelets and are not the type they are likely to keep for years to come if you know what I mean. I find my children like little pieces of jewellery, but move on quite quickly.

So I suppose there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Thanks for all the advice.