Easy DIY Bracelet | Vintage Inspired Floral Design

Hey friends!  So today’s quick and easy design is vintage-inspired, which isn’t normally my style but I just love the floral beads… they remind me of special occasions of my childhood when we were invited to use the china and the teacups.  I got all reminiscent, and I put together a quick floral design (that you can of course adapt to your own style, if vintage just isn’t your thing).

This idea came from my last Blueberry Cove Beads subscription box, which is one of the things I love most about getting a surprise theme each month. (A quick disclaimer, here: Blueberry Cove Beads does not sponsor these posts, but I do get my monthly subscription free, because they know I can’t resist making and sharing projects from their boxes. They don’t assign me to post, I just do it out of my love of jewelry!) This month’s theme was – you guessed it – vintage.  Since that’s so far outside my normal style, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, and almost put the beads away when the ceramic beads caught my eye.

There’s always a great selection of ceramic, glass, and stone elements in each bead box, which is SO my style!  But I’m much more modern and organic, typically.  But between these floral brass connectors and the “teacup beads” as I have dubbed them, I knew I wanted a piece a little outside of my normal style.

In addition to the beads and connectors from the box, I also got out a few basic tools and findings.  For this piece, I used:

• 4 – 10mm ceramic beads
• 5 – 10mm brass connectors
• 4 – brass finish eye pins
• 10 – 7mm brass finish jump rings
• 1 – 12mm brass finish lobster clasp
• round nose pliers
• chain nose pliers
• wire cutters

I needed to turn the beads into connectors so that I could keep a chain-type feel to the piece, rather than stringing the beads.  To make basic connectors out of beads, thread them onto a 2″ eye pin.  At the opposite end, loop the wire over one side of a pair of round nose pliers.  Trim the excess wire, and adjust your loop as necessary.

To connect the bead connectors to the brass connectors, just twist open a jump ring with your chain nose pliers.  Add both pieces to the ring, and twist it closed again.  Connect all your pieces with jump rings, alternating between beads and brass.  When you’ve reached a length of approximately 7 inches, add a jump ring to one end, and connect a lobster clasp to the other.

This simple style pairs well with modern styles, other vintage styles, or wear it solo!

If you’d like to learn more about the Blueberry Cove Subscription box, you can visit their website.  Each box is a themed box with a variety of beads and findings, and each month comes with an optional challenge to help get your creative juices going!