Blast from the Past: Beaded Bracelet

My 5^th grade teacher was Mr. Wendel. The thing I remember most about him is that he abhorred little scraps of paper. You would think that an elementary teacher would just learn to deal with little scraps of paper, but he made us cut out paper in way that only left one scrap. If we made a mistake and had two or more scraps at the end of a cutting activity, we had to stay in from recess. To this day I still plan out my cutting so that I only have one single piece of paper to throw away at the end.

Anyway, the purpose of this post was not to demonstrate how well I can cut paper. Mr. Wendel also taught us how to make beaded bracelets. We started by coloring our designs in on graph paper. Then he had enough looms that we could each work on our bracelets while he read to us after lunch. Here is the design that I made.

I liked this activity so much that I convinced my grandpa to make a loom for me. He nailed three pieces of wood in a U shape, then made thin cuts in the two open ends to hold the string. I wound the string around the loom to create the base threads and then was able to weave in the beads. Here are some instructions to make your own loom that’s only slightly different than the one I had or you can also buy one on Amazon: Darice 1012-24 Bead Loom

Thinking back on this, it really seems like seed beads rolling all over the tile floor while Mr. Wendel was reading would have been at least as annoying as multiple scraps of paper created by 5^th graders.

Supplies Needed:

• Graph Paper
• Markers or Crayons for Design
• Beading Thread
• Seed Beads (Several Colors)
• Needle with Small Eye
• Scissors
• Bead Loom