How to make a flower bracelet

Honestly, is there anything happier than daisies?! I was desperately needing a dose of happy over the weekend and whipped up a few colorful bracelets to soothe the soul. Making daisy chains from seed beads might look complicated but honestly, it's not difficult at all! It's a cinch as long as you have the right materials. I dare you to stop at one, it's that addicting. Just be sure to pay attention to the size of the beads and stringing cord before you purchase the supplies. Have fun!

You'll Need:

• 8/0 seed beads, assorted colors (I used frosted innocent pink, frosted cantelope, opaque sunshine, frosted shamrock, frosted turquoise, frosted periwinkle and frosted light beige); more seeds beads available here and here
• no.8 Griffin silk thread with needle
• 3mm brass bead (optional)
• no.10 Griffin silk thread or 0.8-1mm Chinese knotting cord (for closure)
• scissors
• pliers (optional)
• materials for other bracelets
  • freshwater pearls
  • African beads (found here and here)
  • Czech beads
  • 0.5mm elastic string
  • 11/0 gold seed beads

Using the right thread or cord is important here. My favorite thread for the daisy chain is Griffin's twisted silk thread. It comes with an attached needle which makes threading through the tiny seed beads seamless, especially since you'll have to double up the thread through some seed beads. Unravel the entire card and double knot the end. You'll want to leave about a 3-4" tail.

Note: You definitely don't want to use elastic cording here. It's too difficult to get a tight weave on the daisy.

Thread on a few seed beads. Then, you'll add the daisy petal colors and form the top half portion of the flower. Because I'm using a slightly larger center gold bead here, I'm adding 5 beads here. If you were to use a smaller center bead (like a 8/0 seed bead), then I'd add 4.

Add the center bead. Again, I'm using a 3mm gold bead here but you can sub any sized bead. Take the needle and thread it through the 1st colored bead, towards the knot/end of the bracelet.

Note: See how it's important to have a cord or thread that can pass through your seed bead twice? Size and material is crucial!

Pull the thread all the way through. You'll want everything pulled together as tight as possible.

Add on three more colored beads. Then, take the needle and thread it through the last colored bead, before your center bead. This should be going in the direction opposite of the start of the bracelet.

Pull the cord all the way, forming the daisy. You might want to adjust the beads as you tighten to pop them into place and make sure they're evenly distributed.

Once it all feels taut, add a few more spacer beads before starting the next daisy. Add the next set of colors (5) and the center bead.

Thread the needle through the first colored bead, add three more beads and then thread the needle through 5th bead, the last one before the center bead.

Pull and tighten. Continue the pattern until you're reached the ideal length.

To close, I like using a sliding macrame closure. It's more work and I find it easier to loosen and tighten around your wrist versus a clasp. If you decide to do a sliding closure, leave about an inch of space. If you're just adding a clasp, you can leave about a 1/4-1/3" of space.

Note: I'm using Chinese knotting cord for the closure here because I was low on silk thread and wanted to have a contrasting color to help better visually explain. I actually prefer Chinese knotting cord for sliding closures. But if you don't want to bother buying it, you can use the silk thread - preferably a size up.

Cut a 8-10" piece of cord or thread. Lay the ends of the bracelet parallel and opposite of each other. Lay the center of the closure cord under your bracelet ends. Fold the right cord across the strands and then fold the left cord over the right cord, pointing down. Pull the left cord under the right and middle strands and then through the loop on the right side.

Note: reference this tutorial for a more in depth tutorial on the macrame knot.

Pull tightly and the knot should look like this.

Now do the same thing on the opposite side, completing the square knot. Finish the 2nd half of the square knot by folding the left cord over the middle strands and under the right cord. Pull the right cord under the left and middle strands and through the loop on the left side.

Pull tight and continue working your way down until you have about 4-5 knots.

To finish the closure, thread one of the cords onto a needle and sew up the center of 2-3 knots along the backside. Pliers will help pull the needle through the tight knots.

Pull the second end through and then trim both ends as close to the knots as possible. Now, your bracelet can tighten by pulling ends or loosen by pulling the bracelet apart.  Measure to fit and then thread two seed beads onto each end and tie the tips into a knot. Trim.

Note that the plain beaded bracelets were threaded onto elastic thread and then tied into a triple knot. Happy beading!!

tutorial and images by HonestlyWTF