Well we don’t usually celebrate July 4th over here in the UK, but as you know we have an office in Minnesota, so here in West Sussex we like to get involved. Last year we had an excellent BBQ at lunchtime and we all wore red, white and blue!
To celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee last month our kindly boss closed our US office for the day too, so as it’s only fair, tomorrow we all get the day off! Hurrah! Arthur the US office mascot is already getting in the swing of things…
We’ve got even more reason to celebrate this year as we have an exciting announcement! Our US readers can very soon look forward to their own digital edition of the magazine. Bead America will be packed full of all the same great projects and articles that you see in Bead, but each digital edition will be designed specifically for our US beaders, with featured American stores, adverts and news snippets, plus supplies for projects which can be easily sourced in America, where possible.
* FREE PROJECT *
Star Spangled Dangles
Red, white and blue are definitely ‘in’ this summer, whether its for July 4th, the Jubilee or Olympics, or even just fab nautical coloured trends, these earrings have got it all!
So for all our US readers or even anyone just rockin’ the colours, here’s a fab free project, and they're perfect for wearing to your July 4th BBQ!
These earrings are really versatile, as shown by the photos the dangles can be moved to different parts of the star for completely different looks!
1. On each strand I used 1 star and 1 blue bead. Use the wire to create wrapped loops joined to a length of chain and make two of each strand as follows:
strand 1 – Blue bead, 3 links of chain, red star, 5 links
strand 2 – 5 links, red star, 5 links, blue bead
strand 3 – red star, 5 links, blue bead, 5 links
strand 4 – 5 links, blue bead, 5 links, red star
2. Attach strands 1 and 2 to the star ring with a jump ring. Attach strands 3 and 4 to the star link with a second jump ring. Repeat for the second earring.
3. Use a chain of 2 jump rings to attach the fishhooks. This gives the earring more freedom when worn, but you could equally just attach the fishhook straight to the star.
DESIGNnote
I used 0.4mm wire so that the links looked dainty but you could also use 0.6mm wire or eyepins.
For help with making wrapped loops check out our free Basics download from the Bead website:
BEADstore
8 x 8mm red coated Hematite stars
8 x 4mm blue glass beads (mine were from a Czech glass mix but you could use any blue beads. Swarovski Element rounds or Xilions in Sapphire would add some sparkle)
2 x 24mm star shaped closed ring silver plated
Thin chain silver plated
0.4mm wire silver plated
8 x 4mm jump rings
Fishhooks silver plated
TOOLbox
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Cutters
SUPPLYshop
Hematite stars from Beads Nest at the Big Bead Show. If you can’t find any of the coloured stars why not try painting the regular hematite stars with nail varnish? You can even add some sparkle!
24mm Stars available from Etsy (mixnmatchsupplies)
I found these cute 12mm sterling silver stars at Kernowcraft too and thought these would work well for subtler starry earrings!
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So what to do with my unexpected day off! Well what better of course than a day spent beading and nattering! I’m off round Sian Nolan’s house for lunch, beading and plenty of catch up! I’m looking forward to seeing what she’s been creating lately and if she has any gorgeous new designs for Bead! It’s like a busman’s holiday! ;)
Happy Beading
x Chloe x
