Square Stitch Ring | Jewelry 101

I want to show you guys how to make this little ring that I did for the show yesterday because I was pretty proud of it. And I think it's a really neat little technique. So this technique, it can be done very, very small like this. I'll show you kind of the sides of it right here. Or it can be done larger like this. I think it's called square stitch. I'm not 100% sure, but I always love doing it when we get the Beadalon wire in stock. It takes quite a bit more wire, so I'm appreciative of the 30-foot spools that we get in stock. Also appreciative that this particular set of 49-strand beading wire, of course, is super, super flexible, so it will bend into these small, tiny spaces without kinking. And also that it comes in different sizes. For this particular ring, I used the .013 size, which is the smallest size that it comes in in this set. I'm using gold-filled beads and a citrine bead at the top, and then I'm going to use a coin bead from our coin bead set today during my demonstration. But I also have tons and tons of 6-millimeter round beads in the show in all different varieties. I have got spacer beads. I have got black spinel small beads if you would like to try this with a gemstone. And I also have the easy crimps, which are very important because that's how I ended the entire thing. I'm just going to show you the back of this so you guys can see. Right there in the center, that is an easy crimp. It's very hard to see, but if you look up close and personal, you can see that it's ever so slightly bigger than the other beads around it, and the color is just a hair, a skosh, different. So that is what's holding this entire ring together. Isn't that cool? And then I have the citrine. Now the citrine's in the show, but I'm going to be using one of these little guys right here to replace that center because I wanted to try it with a coin-shaped bead. And so this little guy is a little piece of goldstone, and it's on a multi-stone 10, 15, and 20-millimeter puffy coin bead strand set. Only about 18 of them available. It is available for you guys to purchase today. It'd be a great choice just because there's so many different colors on the strand that you can do this in a lot of different colors, and I'll just kind of show you guys that right now just so you can see. So all of this stuff's available included, and all the tools I'm using are available as well. I've got the Omtara crimper, and I've also got a cutter in the show. So I'm going to use this one to make this little design. All right. So I'm going to do, I said I'd start to finish it, so I'm really going to start this. I want you guys to know that this particular design is not easy, and the reason it's not easy is because the beads can be a little bit hard to string because they're hollow. So the only thing that's going to be hard for me about this design today is going to be the time it takes me to string the beads, by the way. So okay. So you're going to start, interestingly enough, with your Easy Crimp. Now if you've never seen these before, Easy Crimps are crimps that have a little button. See that little button at the top right there? And all you have to do is press that button to crimp it, which of course closes down on the wire and holds it in place. That's what crimping means. It just squishes it and holds it in place. So that's where you start. You put that onto your wire first. Now I'm using the .013 to do this. I do think you could have used the .015, but I wanted to make sure, so I started with the .013. Now this is not enough wire. You're going to need about, I would say, 18 inches of wire, but it's easier for me to start, show the beginning on one little piece of wire and then go to the middle. So you're going to string on two of these 3mm round beads on one side. So they could be these little gold-filled rounds, if you guys have these. They could be stainless steel rounds, which I put in the show for you guys. They could be gemstone rounds. They could be anything. They don't even have to be 3mm. You could use any size you want. I would think for a ring, a 2, 3, or a 4mm would probably be the best size to work with. All right. So here's what I was talking about. These little hollow beads can be a little bit tricky to string. All right. So you want to put one bead on one side of that crimp, okay, and two beads on the other. So you've got a total of four beads strung onto this design. Now what you're going to do is you're going to go over to the extra bead on the one side, and you're going to take the other side of the wire, and you're going to string that wire back through that extra bead right there. And then you want to pull that tight, and this is really cool to watch, but when you pull that tight, what happens is that comes into a little diamond like that. Oh, kind of pretty, huh? Very nice. Now what you're going to do from there, you've got these two pieces of wire still coming out, so I'm going to put two beads on one side, and like I said, the hardest part is finding the hole on the other side, one. Actually if you don't think about it, they usually string easier than if you do think about it. Like if I start thinking about stringing through these holes and finding the hole, it becomes this whole issue. Get it? There we go. Two on that side, and then one on the other side of this. If I'd picked a bead that was not hollow on the inside, it would have been way easier, but of course I did not do that, and I love the way these gold-filled beads look. So two on one side, one on the other, so it looks very unbalanced like that, but you're going to take the side of the wire that there's only one bead on, and go over to the side that there's two beads on, and you're going to go back through that extra bead with your wire like so, and then you're going to pull that tight. See what's starting to happen here? Oh, it starts building on itself. That's right. Very, very cool. Now in order to do this, you're going to need about, you're going to need about six segments of that on the side. That made about a size eight ring. So watch this. It's going to be like one of those cooking shows. We're going to go up here to where I have my six segments already made. So just like magic, they kind of come together like that. There's my crimp bead at the bottom. Okay? So this part's going to be fast. I will tell you guys right now, after this is going to go very, very slow, so I hope you have lots of patience today, because I'm going to string all the rest of the beads on the other side. But then what you're going to do is you're going to actually string on four beads on each side. All right, now for the citrine, which was a little bit smaller, I only strung three beads on each side. I'll show you this really quickly. So the citrine, I only need three beads on each side, but for this larger coin shape, I'm going to need four beads on each side to kind of make this segment right here in the center. So depending on the size of your bead, you'll need more or less of that little bezel part right there. So for the one I'm doing today, this little piece of goldstone is a little bit bigger. So I'm going to go with four beads. And so now you're going to go through the goldstone from one side, and then you're going to go through it from the other side. So whatever your center bead is, you're just going to be adding that in and going through almost in a little crisscross fashion, and then that will just sit right there. Oops, let me pull that a little bit tighter so that those other beads are tight. There we go. So it just sits right there. Isn't that cute? Oh, I'm loving all the goldstone. I'm just saying, I'm pretty excited. Katie and I were both like obsessed with this goldstone yesterday. There's only one in the strand, but it's my favorite one. So all right, now we're going to string four beads on to one side and five beads onto the other side so that we can make that next step. So this is going to be the part that's going to be hilarious because you guys are going to watch me string these beads. Now, sometimes I'm super fast at it, and other times it takes me forever because I'm so silly about getting the beads on. There we go. One. Oh, that's one. And it's not about being able to see it, I have to tell you, because you can't see the inside of a bead. So you can see these are hollow. Can you see that? And so they can very easily just kind of get stuck on there too. And that is the joy of stringing a hollow bead. Three. Oops, that went right on. I'm so happy. Four. So I need four to create the bezel and then one more on one side to actually finish off the little technique. So get your little booty on there, you. Four. This is always a good thing to do, I think, in front of other people because other people are like, how come I can't string these crazy beads? And so there's five on that side, I'm going to string four on the other side, luckily. It's not you. It really is. Hollow beads are a little bit harder to string. If you have, like if I had the .015 wire to do this, it probably would have been a little bit easier than the .013. Just something about it being a finer wire for some reason. It just is a little harder, but if I'm in a quiet room and nobody's there, they all just slip on like butter. If I am not, if I'm talking and trying to do it while people are looking at me, like if this was out on the actual Jewel School set, I would never do this because it would just, I would never get one of them strong. It would never happen. And if you're lucky and you get it the first time, it's just fantastic. But if you don't, you don't. All right. So four on one side, five on the other. So the shorter side, that's the one that you're going to take where there's just four beads and you're going to go back through that fifth bead. And this is going to start that little kind of pattern that we were doing on the other side. So we're going to go back through that one bead, that one extra bead. Come here you little guy. You like that? And it's a little easier when there's already one done and that's going to pull tight here. And now we've created this little bezel around our little bead. Isn't that cute? I love it. It's so much fun. All right. So now from here, we're going to keep on going and we're going to add, of course, two beads to one side and one to the other side. Ooh, that was so easy. Sometimes I have, I don't know, I have the magic with these beads and other times I don't. You can see that I've had the magic like one out of five times, two, and there's another one. The cool thing about this is you guys can always talk amongst yourself and you can also fast forward me. All right. So make sure they're tight. And then you're going to pull, push this one into that extra bead on one side, go through like this. Look, it's even giving me trouble when I've already got one through there. Come here you little guy. All right. This is kind of the magic, a magic part. So I want you guys to see this part. All right. So because this is going to kind of pull everything together, so you're going to pull that tight and this is kind of, you're going to start seeing how this ring is going to come together. See what's happening there. This is also a good time to kind of check yourself and make sure you're not too tight on one side or too loose on another. Everything looks pretty good to me. All right. So now I've got, I've got two already done on that side. So I actually only have to do four more segments on this side. So it doesn't look like I'm close to being done, but I actually am getting very, very close to being done on this. Once you get to this point, it works up really, really fast. So that's kind of nice. And the other thing is like you're not making a bracelet, so it only has to fit around your finger. So it doesn't have to be that long. So I'm going to go two beads on here. And so you only have to watch me for like another probably five minutes before I get to the end. And in the end, of course, is the magic. That's what people always want to know is how did you begin it and how did you end it? Because those are the two things you don't know. The middle is pretty easy to figure out, you know, but the beginning and the end, not so easy. All right. So I'm going to go back through. So two beads on one side, one on the other side, and then you go back through the extra bead from the side, the side that only has one on it. So you bring that wire through like so, and things are starting to look good. Let me get everybody back in place here like that. See, I'm going to pull a little bit tighter right there. And this guy, as long as you're not wearing them on your finger, he's going to do a little bit of a flip, I think, until I get it finished. There we go. Cute. OK. So that's one, two, three. So it's like one, two, three, four, five, six. Yeah. OK. So I've got three. So, oops, that's an easy crimp. We do not want to put any easy crimps in the middle. That would be icky. So one, two beads on one side, three beads, two, one bead on the other. One. Two. You know, I almost didn't let myself, I almost like tried to set this up three times, but the problem is it takes me so long to set them up that I didn't have time to do this before the show. But I thought you guys would enjoy hanging out with me while I did this. Are you, are you enjoying it? Now, these beads are not that small. I'm glad you guys are patient. So these beads aren't that small. People always think three millimeter beads are small, but they're actually kind of, oh, I think they're big. So for, for, I mean, if you think about like, look at the, this is my diamond ring, right? With all those little mealy. Those are like one to one and a half max. And so three millimeters, huge as far as beads are concerned, because, you know, jewelry is small. Our ring, our fingers are small. You know, our toes are small. Our ears are small. You can't put humongous pieces of stone on those parts of your body. You have to have the small beads. You just do. And so everything can't be humongous and it's really three millimeter beads are essential. They're so important to jewelry making. They're just big enough to make an impact, but they're sometimes almost too big as a spacer. So I just, but I just, I think it's a great size. Two millimeter is also a fantastic size and especially a round spacer. But I would not have done a two millimeter because I wouldn't have got the impact out of this. And I wouldn't have done a four because it would have just been too big. All right. So one bead on one side, again, two beads on the other. This is my second to last little connection here. And of course I've never done this with one of these little coins. So we'll see how it turns out, but I think it's going to be good. All right. So, oops. Oh man, I thought I had it back through the center here. You guys can talk amongst yourselves if you would like to. All right. Get through that. Sometimes it's hard, the hardest to get this one through the one that's already got one through there. All right. So that's, what have I got? Five, one, two, three, four, five. Yes. I need one more. Put you down there. All right. So this will be our last connection and then I'll just have to string two beads and then string through the easy crimp and that's the, the finisher. So we are getting super, super close. If I can just string these last few beads on here for you guys. Now if this was the black spinel, I think this would look gorgeous in that black spinel. It actually would be a little easier in some respects because I wouldn't have the hollow beads, but harder in other respects because I always think black spinel, it's kind of hard to see the holes because the facets all look like holes to me. Oh, that was an easy one. Did you see that? That was so easy. All right. Now I'm going to go through the other side like so, and it's really weird how you would think with a little guide, the easiest ones would be the ones where you go back through, but sometimes they're the hardest. There it goes. All right. So pull that tight. All right. Am I all good? Does everybody look pretty? Yes. Everybody looks pretty. So now I just need two beads, one on each side, and then I'm going to go back through the easy crimp. So remember we started with an easy crimp. That was the very beginning of the design and that's also the very end of the design and it's kind of neat to already have that in place on this piece because I only have two pieces of wire to go through it. All right. And actually, we didn't think that through. I probably should have used the .015 for this. Ooh, might have been a lesson learned from Susan, but we'll see how it works because when I did it the first time, I did not go through the easy crimp at the beginning. I actually only went through it at the very end with all of them, but I found that to be a little bit finicky. So all right. So now here I am. I've got everything done. Okay. And I have these two little pieces at the end here. Let's make sure everybody looks good. They do. There's two little guys hanging out at the end and now I'm ready to go back through. Let me get this little guy in place here so you can kind of see what it looks like. So now I'm ready to go back through my easy crimp with the other side of this bracelet, or this, not bracelet. This is a ring. All right. So back to the beginning here and there is my easy crimp. See him right there at the very beginning with this little piece hanging out, this little button. All right. So now you're going to go back through from one side with the wire. So see how that kind of went through there? And then the other side, you're going to come from the other direction. The only thing about these easy crimps that's really, really important is you have to make sure that you fill them up pretty well so that when that button presses down, it actually compresses all of your wires so that they're all held in place. If you have too fine of a wire in an easy crimp, it actually won't crimp and that's super annoying. All right. So now that everybody's kind of going out both sides of my easy crimp, I should just be able to kind of pull this tight. It's going to be kind of exciting and it's going to turn into a ring. See that? What? Oh my gosh. Look at that. I can't wait to get this little guy in his little home. There we go. Okay. This is cool. So now the hardest part of the whole thing is getting that easy crimp face up so that you can find his little button because that has to be pressed down. So I am going to hold that in place with this little bead stopper on one side and my fingers on the other side. Just want to make sure it's nice and tight. And let me get my little... This seems weird, but I'm going to use plier 61 to press that up. All right. And so now you just got to get into that easy crimp. Can you guys see the little button sticking up? I don't know if you can see it. Right there is where I'm aiming for. See that little button right there? This way. See it? That is what has to be pressed down with this plier right here. So I just have to get my eyes and that easy crimp together. Oh, I did so good. All right. And so that guy... I'm going to make sure it's tight here. I want to press... Let me get my fingers out of the way. Press down on that. All the way down. So you really want to give it a good compression so you make sure that it compresses all of that wire in there. And so these are the only two that I have to worry about. And I just want to make sure. Yeah, they're nice and tight in there. So actually my .013 wire was good. I'm so happy. And so now you're literally... You can, if you want to be super secure, string this wire back up through the others. I did not either time and I haven't had any trouble with it. So I'm just going to clip off the extra wire on this like so. And let's see how this worked with my little piece of goldstone. Should be kind of pretty. There. Pretty cute, right? Except for my knobby fingers, but yeah. Pretty nice. I like it. Let me try it on the other hand. So this basically... I was a little bit worried that it would be too big for my finger just because I use the six beads for connectors on either side. It's actually perfect. So that's what it looks like with the goldstone and that's what it looked like with that citrine. So I actually... This is more... I'm trying to decide which one I like better. I don't really know. I think I like this one better just because I like that diamond shape. I think it kind of had a really neat thing.