Saturday, July 9, 2011

Bling, Bling Ring ~ Tutorial


About a year ago I won a ring from my Mary Kay Director. It was a handmade ring, and I later found out that she paid $40 for it. Well, it broke... and eventually hers broke too. I love making jewelry so I studied the ring and then decided I could make one myself.

I modified it so that it wouldn't break. The problem with a ring like this is that if the band breaks it all falls apart. (Which is what happened to ours.) SO I made the top of the ring (with all the beads) with sturdy beading thread and then tied it off. Then I made the band separately using an elastic(!) beading thread. This way, if the band breaks I only need to replace the band. Yay!


Want to make one?? Here's my first shot at a tutorial.
Comments, congratulations, and critiques are welcome!!!!

MATERIALS:
- 36 ~ 4mm Swarovski Crystal Bicones (I like AB faceted)
- 24 ~ 4mm Fire Polished rounds "FPR" (they are actually more oval than round, and THAT is key)
- around 90 ~ size 15 seed beads (tiny!)
- beading thread
- elastic beading thread
- beading needles (I use both sturdy needs and bendy wire needles)
- clear nail polish or flexible glue
- scissors


1. Cut your bead thread the length of your 'wing span' ~ from hand to hand with your arms straight out.

2. The base of the ring is done with the "right angle weave" stitch. I'm probably not doing it exactly right.... but below is how it makes sense to me.

3. String 4 of the FPR onto your thread. Tie a knot at the end of the thread to make a circle with the 4 beads. Go through all 4 beads again to reinforce the circle.

4. String 3 FPR. Send your needle through the opposite end of the bead that the thread is coming from. Again, making another circle. (In the photo you can see that the thread is coming out of the bottom of the bead, so the needle is coming through the top of the bead.)

5. Now you have two circles next to eachother. Go through each bead in the circle again to reinforce. End with the thread coming out the top of the rightmost bead (Pictured below)


6. String 3 FPR. Bring your needle up through the rightmost bead to create another 'circle'. Go back through the entire circle to reinforce. End with your thread coming out of the left side of the bottom bead. Tip: throughout this process make sure your thread is always tight. There should be no slack in the thread at all.

7. String 3 FPR. Put your needle through the bottom bead from right to left to create a 4th circle BELOW the previous circle. Go through the circle to reinforce. End with your thread coming out the bottom of the leftmost bead.


8. String 2 more FPR. This time go through the bottom bead of the top middle circle. Continue the circle with the leftmost bead of the circle on the right.... I know, words are complicated, hopefully the picture helps! Again, reinforce the circle. End with the thread coming up out of the leftmost bead of the new circle.


9. Now take your thread through the bottom bead of the top circle. It will be exiting to the left of the bottom bead of the top circle.

10. String 2 FPR. Continue the circle with the leftmost bead of the circle to the right. Reinforce the circle by going through all four beads. End with your needle coming out the right side of the bottom bead of the new circle.

11. Are you getting the idea??? Here are pictures for the next few circles. It's basically 9 circles ~ 3x3 with all of the center beads sharing circles.


12. Now that you have your 3x3 grid of circles we can begin the top!!!! String 1 Swarvoski Bicone, 1 seed bead, 1 Swarvoski Bicone

13. Put your needle in diagonally from where it is exiting. In the picture above the thread is exiting the bottom right of the circle; so the need enters the top left of the circle.

14. The two bicones should sit on top of the 'circle' evenly. Again, be sure the thread is tight! You basically make an 'X' with the bicones over the top of the circle.

15. String 1 bicone. Put your needle through the Tiny seed bead that was previously strung. Pull tight!!!!!


16. String 1 bicone. Finish your 'X' by putting your needle through the topmost bead of the FPR circle.

17. Tada! You now have your first 'X' of pretty bicones! Continue this 'X' process on top of all of the 'circles'.




18. When you are done you'll have 9 'X's of 4 bicones each with a seed bead in the center.

19. Reinforce the top. From the bottom right corner of the entire ring go through the bicones/seed beeds diagonally to the top left corner of the square. You will not go through the FPR in this process.

20. Go through one FPR and then back up to the bicones/seed beads and again go diagonally through 2 'X's. Continue this process weaving through diagonally to connect all of the bicone 'X's.

21. Feed the thread through the ring to the beginning thread. Knot them together. Nail polish the knot to hold it (or use flexible glue). Weave the ends through some beads and then cut!

THE BAND

1. Take your elastic ~ a good stretchy elastic ~ and cut a piece about 10 inches.

2. Feed the elastic through one of the middle FPR as shown above.

3. String the seed beads on both ends. Fit it to your finger, about 40 beads per side.

4. After its the right size, feed one of the elastic ends through the FPR opposite the first one. Tie the two elastic ends together. Nail polish/glue the knot. Feed the ends through a few beads and then clip!

DONE!


There will be two elastic strands. I use the tiny seed beads because I think they are more comfortable on your finger. Bicones or even FPR under your finger aren't all that comfortable.

There are many variations.......
These are all tops that need bands.

I am not kidding when I say that EVERY time I wear one of these people stop me and ask where I got it!!!


Bling, Bling in the sun!


AND my favorite... the HUGE one....
I'm not sure I like this color design. I'm still playing around with it.


This is what the FPR structure looks like for the big ring.

This is your 'map' for making the base for the large ring. Each line is a FPR. Do a row of 3 circles and then a row of 4 circles, etc.

Turned to the side (like the map).


Thanks for reading this long tutorial... I hope it worked... again... comments, congratulations, and critiques are welcome!!! =)

~this tutorial was featured on Craft Gossip~

This tutorial is meant for personal use only.


Have you made a Bling, Bling Ring??  Show us what you've got!


20 comments:

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Looks good to me, but, I don't make jewelry. Nicely done.

Jenn said...

Can't wait to try this out!! Thank you.

kathy s said...

thanks for the tute- seems easy to follow will try it out soon

Juliet A said...

Brilliant - and a great way to use up those last couple dozen bicones I always seem to have leftover!

LidiaZuniReds said...

wow!!! wonderful rings .. I' try one... thanks by shared!!

Andrea @ Sew Divertimento said...

Thank you everyone! Jenn and Solo por el gusto de compartir you are 'no-reply' bloggers so I couldn't send you a thank you email....so I'm thanking you here!! Let me know if you make a ring. I would love to see what you design.

The Beading Gem said...

Awesome! I'm glad I saw it on CraftGossip. I will feature and link in my blog too later on this year so my readers will come and visit! Pearl

Make handmade said...

Great tutorial. Love it, thanks for sharing

Linda said...

That is Lovely , and something that includes bead stiching that makes me think I can do it , I can't seem to get the hang of stiching beads (even with a whole book the 101 of bead stiching for the beginer)lol ... but this looks very easy and I love the idea of making the band and front focal peice and then putting them together so you dont lose all your hard work when or if the band breaks ... I think i may try it with a softer wire , the type used for wire wraps and see how that works , i've made bands out of that before and they are very comfortabal and dont tend to break unless they are bent and rebent .. but so beautful ,and wonderfull for 4mm Bicon I always find them cheeply online ... I just love this and can't wait to try it !! ... Thanks for shareing !

Mab said...

Awesome! I'd love to try that!

Judy said...

Loved your tut, and you're right. The oval shaped beads are crucial!! LOL I tried making the basic pattern with bicones, no way! I've saved it though and when I get some beads like that, I'll try it again. I had some in a 6mm but that didn't work either! Good job!

Anonymous said...

I really think you did a good job with explaining that most could understand even if the person did not speak English your pictures show clearly how to make it..Good job,hope we see more thanks..karen

midge said...

I loved the ring and have just made it, for such a nice ring I want to make a nice band so I haven't quite finished it yet but am looking for a band tutorial, I will be trying a few more very impressed hope I can make the others as nice thanks again Midge.

Anonymous said...

your ring is lovely, thank you for sharing with us.God bless

Anonymous said...

cute ring! Without seeing the actual ring I am wondering what the purpose of the 2 layers is?? Do you actually see the fire polish layer under the bicones or could it be done with just the crystal bicones?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for taking the time to share this great pattern with us .Karen

mara. said...

Very nice tutorial,am going to try to do it.

Unknown said...

I'm so HAPPY I found your website again for THIS ring. Thanks

Anne said...

Thank you for this great tutorial. I would be interested at making a bracelet so that I would stop at step 12 in the tutorial. And, I would love to have it diamond-shaped. Would you know how to do that?

FightLikeAGirl said...

Awesome job. Very easy to follow. .. thanks so much