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Welcome to Beads Direct TV. I'm going to show you how to make a shamballa style bracelet
today. These are really popular at the moment but most people might not be aware that they
can make their own at home. To make one you'll need some shamballa style cord, some end beads,
I'm using hematite, some shamballa style beads, you'll need about seven of these and you can
either choose a mixture of colours or the same colour all the way through, a shamballa
style slider bead, a safety pin. I've also got a thread zapper here that you can use
and i'll show you what you can do with this later. So to start your bracelet, first cut
a piece of cord around about 40cm long but I always over estimate to make sure that I
don't run out of thread. Taking this thread, measure approximately 10cm from one end and
just tie a simple knot. Then use your safety pin through the knot and just secure it to
a bead mat or just something that secures it in front of you. And the knot should be
away from you and the long end of the thread should be coming towards you. Now you need
a second piece of thread around about a meter long but again it's best to over estimate
because the worst thing to happen is to run out of thread so it's better to take more.
And with this thread so you need to find the centre and then just tie a normal knot just
to attach it next to the knot that you've already tied so it's tied around the thread
that's coming towards you. Ok. And I'm just going to clear my beads away whilst I get
started so I've got plenty of room to work. So the key to making a shamballa style bracelet
is the square knot so once you get the hang of that then you'll be fine. To create the
square knot all you need to do is take your left thread and create what looks like a 4,
placing it over the top of the centre thread. Then bring your right thread over the top
of that and then take the end and I like to pop it underneath the point that these two
cross, so where your number 4 crosses and up through the loop. And then all you need
to do is just pull both ends tight making sure the centre thread stays tight as well
and that creates the first half of your square knot. So to complete the second half of your
square knot you need to do the same thing starting from the opposite side. So take the
right thread, bring it across the middle thread to make a D shape then bring the left thread
over the top of that and then take the end through the cross in the centre and up through
the loop. Again pull tight and there you have your first square knot. Now if you do forget
and you do the same side twice, what you'll find is that your knots start to twist and
you'll actually start to create a spiral which isn't the look that we're going for at the
moment but you can do that if you want to do a different type of bracelet but if you
want to stick with the shamballa style you need to make sure that you alternate. So I'll
do that again, back on to the left thread, number 4 shape, bring the right thread down,
and then under the cross and up through the loop. Now take the right thread, D shape,
and bring it up through the loop. And once you get the hang of this it's really simpler
than you might think. Ok, so to begin the bracelet I usually do 2 or 3 square knots
before I start adding my beads. And the next stage is to add some beads. Now it can be
a little bit difficult to thread your beads on, I don't think this is going to fit, so
you can either put some clear nail varnish on the end of the thread or you could use
this thread zapper. Now you do need to take care when using this as it does get very hot.
All you need to do is press the button and you start to see the end glowing red as it
heats up. And what this does is it just slightly melts the thread and it makes it go a little
bit more solid so it's easier to poke through the beads. So I'm just going to make sure
I've done it enough there. You can always just, after it's cooled a little bit just
squash together but do take care when you're doing this. And then you'll get an end which
makes it much easier to thread on your beads. So I always start with a hematite bead on
the end, and then all you need to do now is bring the outer cords around the bead and
then just carry on with your square knots as before. Now I personally like to do just
one knot in between each bead but you can choose to do more, or you can even thread
on some beads without knotting in between each one. I'm going to continue now just with
the one knot in between each. So no I'm going to add these lovely sparkly shamballa style
beads. And at Beads Direct these have been so popular that we have got lots and lots
of different colours, we've got different styles we've even got some different shapes
that you could try and they really do look fantastic. And we all love them in the office,
we've been making lots of these bracelets. And we know that lots of our customers have
too. So, that's my next square knot. Just continue adding your beads and knotting in
between each one. Now what you need to do is finish off these ends. There's a few ways
to do this, you can turn the bracelet over and tie these two together and then secure
with some glue, but that gives you a bit more of a bump on the bracelet. So what I'm going
to do is use this thread zapper again. So that's the main basis of the bracelet, but
the most important thing about it is this sliding knot. I've just got one on here to
show you, and that allows you to open up the bracelet so you can take it off. And then
pull it tight. So I'm going to show you how to do that next. So un-pin the bracelet and,
you don't have to use one of these but I'm using a slider bead just to make it, embellish
it a little bit more really. So if you are using one of these thread your ends through
it in opposite directions so you can see this sliding effect that opens and closes the bracelet.
If you're not using one of these you just need to put the thread in this position so
that it's crossing over each other. And then take another piece of thread, again around
about a meter long and basically what we're going to do is very similar to what we did
earlier. This time through you have two threads in the center instead of one. So, it's a bit
tricky, but tie round both the threads and then what you need to do is hold that in that
position and then do your square knots again so just the same as you did before, it's not
going to be quite as easy for me to show you because I need to hold everything in place,
but it's exactly the same process. Just make sure that you're going round both these centre
threads. Now I'm going to bring the slider bead up to the knots that I've completed,
and just like I did with the other beads, bring the thread round the outside of it,
and then just carry on. Ok, so now I've got my slider bead in place and we should be able
to slide the bracelet open and closed. Right I'm just going to open it again because we
need to finish off the ends like we did before. And again you can tie these together and use
some glue or just do exactly what you did before with the thread zapper. So heat up
the ends and just attach to the knotting. You might notice that if you pulled this too
much it would slide right through your knot and we don't want that so the final thing
is to add some end beads. Again I've got some slightly smaller hematite beads here, but
you could choose whatever you like as long as the cord fits through. So pop your end
bead on. Now it's a good idea to work out how big you need the bracelet to open to fit
it on because you don't want these ends to be too long. So that's plenty long enough
for me, so I know I don't need to leave this much longer than it is. So I'm just going
to tie a knot here. And cut off the end, and again I haven't zapped this end or put any
nail varnish on it so I might not be able to thread my bead, so I'm just going to give
that a bit of a zap. And there we have the finished shamballa style bracelet.