Commemorate your mother — she brought you home from the hospital with a bracelet — now return the favor for Mother's Day Spell out her name, or just her "title" - make a matching one for yourself as well!

You might want to pick her favorite colors, or do birthstones of all the kids or grandchildren instead of these colors. I personally find that you can get rather garish color combinations that way, so as a designer, I tend to avoid the whole birthstone "thang." I say — wear what you love and to heck with someone's opinion about what your "stone" is!

Skill Level: Beginner. You may have to adjust the length to accommodate the "name" and the recipient.

Supplies

• Sterling Alphabet Cubes beads, 5 x 5 mm, spelling out "Mother" or "Mommy." Note, for petite moms - you might want to stick with a short name like Mom, if you want the whole name to show and be readable at once. I've found that some moms like this! Other variations are Mum, Mummy, Mumsie, Mamma, Mama, Momma — and I'm sure there are many more! Or, you could spell out her name!
  
  Don't forget Grandma either. Bet she'd like one too!
  
  
• 4 mm sterling balls equal to the number of letters, plus one.
  • In the case of "Mother," this is 7 + 1 = 8
  • _____ number of letters +1 = _____ 4mm beads needed
• 8 x 6mm bicones, your needs may vary
• 6 x 4mm bicones, your needs may vary, depending on the name you spell out and the size of the bracelet you are making.
  • For the sample shown above, I have used Swarovski Crystal bicones as follows:
    • 8 mm Tanzanite
    • 6 mm Violet
    • 8 mm Rose
    • 6 mm Light Rose
    • 8 mm Aqua
    • 6 mm Lt Azore
    • 8 mm Sapphire
• 15  3mm sterling rounds (adjust as necessary)
• 2 sterling crimp covers
• 2 sterling crimps
• 1 decorative toggle clasp
• approx. 12 inches beading cable, such as Softflex, Acculon. Medium weight is fine.
• 1 crystal heart bead, 10 mm Swarovski Heart in Rose.
• Short piece of sterling or silver art wire (3-4 inches wire, 22 - 24 gauge. If no wire is handy, long headpins or eye pins can be used, just cut the end off before starting.)

Tools

• wire cutters (I use the wire cutters to cut the beading cable as well as the wire.)
• chain nose pliers
• round nose pliers
• crimp pliers

Start by stringing the Alphabet beads onto the center of the cable, with a 4 mm sterling round in-between each one, and another at each end. Double-check your spelling! Triple-check it. Making a bracelet that says "Mohter" would be really aggravating.

Alphabet beads usually have quite large holes, so the 4mm rounds are necessary to prevent falling into the holes and disappearing!

Add a 8 mm bicone onto each side, and then a 3 mm sterling round.

Then add a 6 mm bicone and a 3 mm sterling round.

Alternate 8 mm bicone + 3 mm sterling round and 6 mm bicone + 3 mm sterling round until you have enough length.

You may need to tweak the length a little bit by adding an extra 3 mm sterling round or two. Or a whole 8 mm bicone.

When determining the length that you need to make this, you may not know how big the bracelet needs to be. If you want the finished piece to be a surprise, then you may need to resort to some subterfuge. Borrowing a bracelet can work, or a conversation about wrist sizes, especially one that involves swapping bracelets or watches around the table. You may need to enlist a friend to help. You could speculate about the heredity factors in bone size for instance - and then compare wrists!

Failing that, or if your mother does not live close, the usual commercial bracelet size is 7 inches, complete, end to end, including the clasp. If your mom is a tiny little thing, short and slender and can never find anything small enough, 6.5 inches is a better bet. If she is a big-boned woman with a lot of presence, 7.5 inches is more likely to be comfortable for her.

Now we are going to make a heart dangle to add next to the clasp. This adds movement and interest to the bracelet, and helps to weight the clasp and keep it under the wrist.

Cut 4 x 3 inches of wire - 24 gauge or similar light wire. (If you don't want to buy a lot of wire, you can use long head pins and just cut the head off.)

Thread the heart onto the wire, about 1 inch on.

Leave a small gap, and use the pliers to bend a 90 degree angle in the wire.

And wind the wire back around itself.

My, I did a pretty bad job of this one, didn't I? Try and keep the wraps closer together and neater than this! Trim off the end of the wire, and make sure it is smooth. Tuck the end by pressing with the outer notch of the crimp pliers if need be.

Add the dangle onto the wire. Next we are going to add the clasp.

Make sure you add the "round" or "hole" half of the clasp at the end with the dangle, as if you add it to the "push through" or "t-bar" side, you may interfere with actually getting the clasp done up easily.

Attach the clasp. If the two halves of the clasp are joined with a jumpring, (common with sterling clasps) twist the jumpring open to the side (hold the jumpring on either side of the cut with two pairs of chain nose pliers, and twist your wrist like you are tearing the top off the chip bag). This way, you can save the jumpring and reuse it later. You never know when you are going to need a spare jumpring.

Slide a crimp bead onto the cable, add one half of the clasp, then go back through the crimp bead again.

Crush the crimp bead with the crimp pliers (Using the second, "notched" hole.) Be sure to get the "crimp" between the cables. Really squeeze down hard.

Now we are going to hide the crimp bead entirely using a crimp bead cover.

Crimp covers are a new product, they look like a big fat "C", and when closed over the crimp, hide it entirely. This make for a very polished and professional look. It is also very good for hiding gaps if you didn't quite get the wire pulled up tight enough.

Cut off the excess cable/wire.

Now add the other half of the clasp at the other end. Snug the beads up on the cable, but don't make it too tight. Ensure that the bracelet still drapes and moves nicely.

Notice the apparent absence of a crimp bead and how nice it looks!

Now all you have to do is wrap it up and give it to your mother for Mother's Day! Best wishes to you both. Plan to do something nice together. Why not go bead shopping? ;-)