Woven Copper Wire and Glass Bead BraceletIntermediate/Advanced

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2 - 12” pcs of 16 ga Copper Base Wire DS4 - 12” pcs 20 ga Copper Base Wire DS Note: I was able to cut several inches off at the end so you can probably start with 10” and still have plenty of room to adjust for fit.

28 ga Copper Weaving Wire Note: I pull wire from the spool as needed so I don’t really know how much I used.

1” Flat Glass or other drilled focal bead

Nexcare First Aid TapeSpring ClampNeedle Nose PliersBail Making Pliers or Round Nose PliersNylon Covered Pliers (to tighten the weave as you go)

Tools and Supplies

PLEASE NOTE: This is not meant to be a comprehensive tutorial but rather brief photo demonstration of how I created the bracelet. I do not demonstrate HOW to do each weave but only how I combined different weaving techniques to create the bracelet.

The bracelet in this demonstration is slightly different than the orig-inal, in that I omitted the copper beads to the right and left of the focal bead so that I could weave in more wire later. The finished vari-ation is pictured at the end of the tutorial.

I don’t know if there are “official” names for the weaves I used, so I made up my own. You can really use whatever types of weaves you like here so don’t get too hung up on the names.

I use a common spring clamp to hold the wires while I start the weave. The the outermost base wires are 16ga with the inner wires being the 20ga.

Note: I put a couple pieces of Nex-care First Aid Tape on the tips of the clamp to make it a bit more “grippy”.

Using the 28ga weaving, I did four rows of “houndstooth” weave to start. You can add more depending on the size of the bracelet you are making.

I then started the “pyramid” weave looping around the base wires five times each. You can vary this pat-tern however you like, or use anoth-er type of weave all together.

I got a little carried away here and forgot to take an intermediate photo but as you can see I did two “pyramids” and then four more rows of the “houndstooth” weave. (Looking at the finished bracelet now, I think I should have added several more rows here. *see fin-ished photo) I then split off two wires on each side and did a basic six and two weave, leaving the middle two wires alone. Again, you can vary the number of loops in the weave to suit your taste.

If you have some accent beads with holes large enough to fit over both wires you can add them on either side of the glass focal bead. This will help stabilize the bead and keep it from spinning around. I left them off on this one so I could weave some added wires into the space later on. *See last image.

Once you have enough of the six and two weave to go all the way around the focal, bring the wires back together on the other side and begin mirroring the same weave pattern as the first side. How many rows you do on either side really depends on the size of the bracelet you are making. I left this one as a cuff type but if you are planning on adding a clasp I would add more rows.

I cut the ends of the wire to about 1 1/4 inches and used the Bail Making Pliers to round the ends. In this photo you can see that I wound some weav-ing wire through the circle to secure them together (I am not sure if I like it or not). For the middle wires, I used a technique from Lisa Barth’s book and crossed the center wires over each other and then secured them to the outer wires. I don’t do it justice here, if you dont have Lisa’s book al-ready you should really pick it up!

This is the final bracelet. I added some extra weave to better frame and stabilize the bead. Use your imagination!!!!