Do you love faceted glass beads? Check out these four different ways to use them in your crafts! 1. Shamballa Bracelets Obviously, the more popular and ‘traditional’ style of the currently very fashionable shamballa bracelets uses specialised shamballa beads. If you’d like to try an alternative take on a trend, though, faceted glass beads are a good choice – they knot into this style of bracelets just as well, and they’re a slightly less ‘blingy’ way of experimenting with something that’s almost ubiquitous at the moment. The concept can be repeated with all sorts of other beads for more variety, too! Try using a rainbow of colors, or adapting your knotting technique to allow for differently shaped beads. There are any number of interesting combinations waiting for you to discover them. 2. Bird’s Nest Pendants With a little practice in wireworking and a few faceted glass beads, you can create gorgeous pendants (or earring drops, if you work a little smaller) that are relatively easy to learn how to do and make gorgeous use of these sparkly little beads. One of the wonderful things about bird’s nest pendants is that they look a lot more impressive than they really are – it's not hard to learn how to do them, but they come out very professionally indeed when done well. Your best bet is to look online for some video tutorials – there are a few different ways of making these pretty ornaments, so make sure you experiment till you find the method that works best for you. 3. Decorative Fringing You'll be amazed by how many different things can benefit from a little fringing, and faceted glass beads – particularly of a drop-shaped variety – are the perfect thing to use for it. Try adding some beaded fringe to scarves, tops, dresses, 'peter pan' style collar necklaces, curtains or anything else that you think it might work on. Just remember to use relatively light beads if the finished product is meant to be worn on the body! Making your own beaded fringing gives you far more flexibility than you'd have if you simply bought it ready-made, and it can be surprisingly rewarding to do. It does, however, take a little patience! 4. Caged Feature Beads Most jewelry supply shops sell little 'cages' into which you can slip a couple of faceted glass beads to show them off beautifully. These cages can then be used as pendants, earring drops, keyrings, bracelet charms or in all kinds of other ways. Try mixing and matching different colors or styles of bead in one little spiral cage, or experiment with a few combinations till you find something that's interesting to look at. Just be sure that you're mindful of the beads once they're in there, and don't use them if you think they might get bumped about a lot – it's possible for the beads to slip out of the cages again. For more information on faceted glass beads visit PandaHall.com today!
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