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Spiral ropes are so cool, you can do so many things with them, you can make them really
small and streamlined and very precise. Or you can make them really loopy and lush and
very dramatic. So I think that spiral ropes are one of the great underserved beading tools
that you can use I had just done a book on ropes. And spiral ropes was actually the first
section in that book because I think that most ropes grow from the very basic spiral
rope. So that's what we're going to look at today and I wanted to show you some variations
of spiral rope, what we're going to talk about is the very basic spiral rope, but I wanted
to show you what you'll be able to do with the concept. So let's take a look, this is
one, a bracelet that I created using freshwater pearls, this is one that I kind of used larger
loops on so that it's a little more full and fluffy and dramatic. This is a version of
the piece that I'm actually wearing today and this is a small spiral rope that I've
done with 3mm crystals and a small center section and what I did with it is I made it
a very long necklace so that I can either wear it long just by itself, I tend to knot
it because I like that look a lot, and then I actually made it long enough that I can
double it over and wear it as a doubled necklace too. But I will also show you in this piece
how we're going to take those ends and bring those ends together instead of adding a clasp,
how you would just join those 2 pieces together, that's going to be a part of this piece, this
video that we're doing. You do not have to do spiral rope for your entire necklace, you
can just do a section of spiral rope and it looks great and then this is actually a piece
that was in my book, and it's where I varied the spiral rope, I took it from a narrow to
a more thick piece, I embedded some focal beads here and then added one little section
down at the bottom and all of this is just variations on spiral rope. So that's what
we're going to learn how to do right now. All spiral ropes start out the same way and
what you need are some larger size beads for what I call the spine, and in this case I'm
just going to pick up 4 beads, these are size 8's that I'm working with here, other beads
that I like to use for the spine are Delicas because Delicas have very large holes, you
do end up going through these beads a whole bunch of times and that's why your hole size
is a factor in a spiral rope, so that's going to be the spine that goes straight down the
center, you're only going to see this peeking out a little bit. Then you have to pick up
your beads for your loop, in this case what I've got sitting here are some size 11 seed
beads, I've got a crystal cause I thought I'd go ahead and add a little accent in this
loop. So what I'm picking up are 3 size 11's, a crystal and 3 size 11's, and there's no
magic to this particular set of beads, you can pick up anything you want for a loop.
You could pick up all seed beads, you could pick up 2 seed beads, a crystal and 2 seed
beads, there's just no magic to it. What you're going to do is come from the bottom end and
go back up through all 4 of those spine beads. and this is going to be the first time that
you're going to get a chance to take a look at what that loop is going to look like here,
and so if that's not full enough for you or if you wanted it closer to the spine, this
would be your point to make that adjustment. So now, that's just for your first piece that
you picked up, the 4 size 8 seed beads, you're next, and for your next loop and all the others
we'll only pick up 1 spine bead. Cause we're going to grow this down the center by 1 spine
bead every time. So 1 spine bead and then the beads for the loop again. 3 11's (in this
case) a crystal, and 3 11's, you'll have to bring that new spine bead down so that it's
sitting right next to all the other spine beads, and you're only going to pass through
the top 4 beads, so because you're adding a bead, it's going to be that new that you
just added and the 3 below it, so you'll always be dropping one off the bottom and using your
brand new one (when you add that loop) Here's the other thing, you don't want your loops
to, have some of them end up on this side and some of them end up on this side, what
you want to do is every time you add a loop push it off to the same side. Because I'm
a right handed person, I tend to push them off to the right, if you're a leftie and you
want to push them off to the left, if that feels more comfortable to you that's fine,
just pick a side and go with it and stay with it for the rest of your life. So we'll keep
adding, so another spine bead, 3 loop beads, a crystal, and 3 loops, bring it down to your
remainder, and I'm only passing through the first 4, or the top 4 of your spine beads.
And you're just going to keep adding and keep adding this way, and add loops and grow it
as long as you want it to and that is basically how you're going to do a spiral rope. If you
want to work on it for a little bit then come back and we're going to talk about how you're
going to add and end thread, cause you will need to do that.
So once you get going with your spiral rope you're going to find out that spiral rope takes an awful lot of thread.
It's cause you're going and doing these loops and going through that center spine so many
times, so you're definitely going to have to add thread and end thread and there is
a little bit of a trick to that, at least to make it so that your center spine beads
have, you don't want to tie knots in those center spine beads because you need to be
able to get your thread up through there again. So here's how we're going to do it, let's
take a look. I have got, here, a very short little thread left, this is about as short
as you want to go when you need to finish off a thread, now the nice thing about spiral
rope is that you don't have to play the game of well where does my thread need to be coming
out when I start a new one, the answer is, it's just going to be coming out the top of
that spine bead so you don't have to add your new one first and then your old one off, you
can actually go ahead and end this right off the bat. So what I like to do instead of,
the easiest way to do this would be to go straight down the spine, tie a couple of knots
right there in that spine area, and then cut it off. But, like I said, I need to be able
to get back through those spine beads a bunch of times and I have messed myself up more
times than I care to admit by doing that and then having trouble getting that needle through.
So what we're going to do instead is tie knots in these outside loops, and you can actually
just pass through the very first loop that's right there, it's going to be the very last
one that you did, and I bring, I don't like to tie knots next to crystals ever because
crystals are nasty little thread cutters, and so that's a bad spot to have a knot, but
what you can do is, here at the base of this loop, I'm just going to catch that thread
that's sitting right there and tie my knot there, pop it through, make sure that it all
tightens right down there, now I can go up a couple of beads, I only go up one or two,
and then I'm going to find the loop that's coming out of that bead, that center spine
bead that I'm coming out of, so here's the loop that's coming out of that, and I'm going
to pass through that loop (like so) and get to the bottom of that loop, I'll tie another
knot right there and then at this point I can just, cause I'm done tying knots I can just pass down through
a couple of the spine beads, tighten it on up, and now I can cut that thread off. Ok,
so to add a thread, the only thing that's a little bit different about adding thread
is that you do want to make sure that you end up coming out of that center spine bead,
so what you need to do is make sure that when you start it down here and let's say, I'm
just going to randomly pick a spot, go up a couple beads, have to kind of hold on to
that tail thread to start out with, there's the loop that's coming out of this guy, so
I'm going to pass through that, so all of this is familiar (manipulate it to get down
to that loop) there we go, through these last 3 beads of the loop, and catch the thread,
you know there's a lot of stuff, a lot of loops and thread and all sorts of stuff going
on here and the thing that I see people do most to themselves when they're adding and
ending thread that gets them into trouble is not taking their time. If you're trying
to rush this, because you don't like it or whatever, that's what's going to get you in
trouble, so as long as you take your time, stop, get the threads, you know like that
little tail thread, get it out of the way so it's not going to accidentally get pulled
in there, go ahead and take the time to pry these loops apart so that you can see that
center spine, then you're going to have a much better experience with adding and ending
thread. So we're going to pretend that I went through more than one loop here, just so that
I can get you to the point that I need to show you which is when you go to do your last
loop, what you want to do is you want to tie your last knot on the loop before the last
one, because what you want to be able to do is come through this loop and then come back
through all 4 of these seed beads, come out the top of the spine bead and then you'll
be ready to go again so you just want to be very aware that you want to be coming through
this center spine bead straight, you don't want to come up this loop and then try to,
because if you came out this last loop, out of the top of this last loop, I've seen people
do this, and then start adding their spine bead there, well right there you're not going
to be centered, and so you're actually going to have a little jog in your piece. So that's
how you're going to do your adding and ending a thread. And then, when we come back, the
other really important thing to know is how to attach a clasp and I'm going to give you
2 different ways to do a clasp, either adding a premade clasp, or how you can join the 2
ends together to create one continuous rope.
Ok, so let's get a clasp added to this, I tend to use toggle clasps, you could also use the little fish hook ones, or really any
kind of clasp can be attached to a spiral rope, and it's really easy so let me show
you what's going on here. With your thread coming out the very last bead on the end,
all I'm going to do is pick up a loop of seed beads, and I'm using the size 11 seed beads
here, you could choose to use the size 15's if you wanted, doesn't really make a huge
difference, I just happen to be picking up 6, I'm going to kind of see how that works
out, this clasp that I picked up is going to be absolutely perfect for it, and in this
particular clasp, the loop is on the back, oftentimes you'll see the loop on the side,
but in this case it actually has kind of a hidden loop. So we're just going to take your
needle and thread through there, and then you'll have to go back down the center spine
and this is where you're going to want to go down farther than just 4 because you don't
want to come out that top loop again, remember, you want to come out the seed bead, cause
we're going to have to reinforce this piece. My rule of thumb on a clasp is that I want
at least 3 passes of thread through there, so what we just did when we added it was the
first pass, so now we're going to have to do 2 more passes. So to turn around and come
back up here we're going to utilize these loops, so my thread's coming out right here,
the loop attached to it is right next to it, and so we're going to come up that loop, now
I can pop up those last 2 spine beads, reinforce that little loop of beads around the clasp,
and all I'm doing here is passing through the beads, and I'm not adding anything. and
then I would do that same thing again, and ideally you're going to do it in a slightly
different spot, I like to do it in a different spot every time, right now (oops) just have
myself a little poke, a little DNA sample for my piece, that's called your DNA signature
when you do that on your beaded piece. Ideally I try to do it in a different spot every time,
and the other thing is as I was coming back through the spine beads, I was noticing (and
the reason that I poked myself) is that I'm starting to get a lot of resistance there,
so just be prepared that that happened, I happen to be using a size 10 needle and I
certainly could go down to a size 12 needle and that would make a big huge difference
in getting my needle back through there. So then to navigate back up I need to find, so
my thread's coming out here, here's the loop that comes out of there but, that's going
to be that very last one that comes off the tip so really, I need to go for at least one
more spine bead down. Now, when I turn around and come through this loop (go back up here)
Now I have one spine bead right there in the center to go through so that I'm coming out
the center. Like so, watching carefully for hooking on anything, cause that's something
that's very very easy to do, so then I would just reinforce this again, and then bring
it back down and end your thread off, the way you normally would. Ok, so that's your
number 1 option for attaching a clasp, now your second option for a clasp, is not use
a clasp at all. And if you're making a long piece, that can fit over your head, what you
can do is actually join the 2 ends together, and just create one continuous circle. It's
not quite as easy as it sounds, in that, what people's reactions are is "ok, all I have
to do is here, my thread's coming out of this spine bead here, I'm going to go in the spine
bead on the other side go back and forth to reinforce a couple times, and I'm done" Technically
you could do that, but, what is going to happen is you're actually going to be missing 2 loops
of these crystals, if you do it that way, so there's actually 2 loops that you have
to add when you're joining. And I say 2 loops so that's 2 loops only because my spine on
this particular piece was only 3 Delicas, and so one of those will already have a loop
attached to them, but the other 2 we have to attach loops. If say, you had 5 Delicas
in your spine then you'd have 4 loops that you had to add. Ok, so I'm coming out of the
center Delica here, and what I'm going to do is on the opposite edge I'm going to go
through the center Delica there, and just one, I'm just going to attach it with one.
Then I want to line it up so that, you want to make sure that your previous loops are
off to the side here, so right here you can see where my previous loop from underneath
was right under there, and now I'm coming out 1 spine bead above where that previous
loop was, so here I'm going to add a loop, so in this case my loop happens to be a size
15, a crystal, and a size 15. So now, I'm just going to add these as if it were normal
and as if I had picked up that spine bead instead of just grabbing it from the other
end. And again, this time I'm only going through 3 because that was the spine on this particular
piece, so now I've got that one, and then I need to pick up one more spine bead, I'll
go forward by 1, and this will be my very last loop that I have to add so one 15, and
a crystal, and a 15, and then I'm just going through the last 3 spine beads like I normally
would, so this has a double benefit, it finishes off your loop pattern but it also just reinforced
that join area and now, you cannot tell at all, where that join happened. At this point
then I could just end off this thread and then this is one continuous piece. Now this
particular piece happens to be too short to go over my head so I will actually undo this
and make it longer and then do it again, but that is how you create a single continuous
loop, and that's also a really good thing to know how to do, especially these days when
the designs tend to be for longer necklaces. So I hope you had a really good time making
spiral ropes and I hope you'll experiment a lot and that's what I'm really hoping to
encourage you to do is play with your loop size, play with colors, play with placement,
and then please be sure to share with me what you've done, you can find me on Facebook (there's
a link) and you can find me here, obviously, you can leave comments here. You can like
this video and subscribe, there's buttons for that, I know I've got buttons for everything
right? And I really hope that you have a really good time with it, thanks so much!