Shamballa Supplies
Shamballa bracelets are fun to design, easy to create, and stunning to wear.
A traditional Shamballa bracelet uses Macrame knotting with Chinese knotting cord, and a series of large hole beads. Different combinations of Knotting Cord, and Large hole beads can offer drastically different results.
There is no rule that says you can only use pave beads to make your Shamballa bracelets. Play around a bit, and find other cool components to incorporate into your work.
Our Bead thru cross is a great example of a way to expand your design potential when creating shamballa bracelets. The 1.5mm holes on this bead thru cross make it a great center piece to achieve a completely new feel for your Shamballa Jewelry.
Shamballa Tools & Supplies
It only takes a few tools to get started with building Shamballa bracelets.
- Macrame Board (for Holding everything in place while you work)
- G-S Hypo Cement (To keep it all together)
- Nipper Tool (For trimming those Pesky Ends.)
Chinese Knotting Cord
Knotting cord comes in a Variety of Colors, and a Few Sizes. It's important to know what beads you'll be working with before choosing which cord will work best for your project. Most of the projects at Toocutebeads.com will combine a 0.8mm cord for the base cord, along with a 1.2mm knotting cord for nice think knots.
Pave Beads
Probably the most traditional beads seen in Shamballa bracelets. We carry 10mm 54 Chaton Pave bling beads, as well as our collection of custom made Designer Pave Bling Beads, which are available in a variety of Exciting colors, Animal Prints, Disco styles. We also carry unique shapes, like our ovals and tubes.
Stopper Beads
If you'd like to decorate the ends of your bracelets, you will want to pick out a couple of stopper beads. You can also match the beads used in the rest of your bracelet, but be careful, the ends of your bracelet can end up taking a lot of abuse.
2mm Hole Gemstones
Our large hole Gemstones are available in 8mm and 12mm. Each strand of gemstones has consistant sizing. Large hole sizes make our Gemstone beads perfect for working with 1.2mm Chinese knotting cord. It is important to note, that natural gemstones with have color variations through out the strand.
2mm Hole Gemstones
We have a variery of Shamballa Jewelry kits, weather you're looking to just get started (which our starter kit is perfect for) or if you're looking to get a little more adventerous with your technique (Charlotte's Web).
Now that we're familiar with all the supplies, lets move onto the tutorial.
Materials- 8 Feet of 1.2mm Stringing Material
- Stopper Beads
- Nipper tool
- 7 - 10mm Beads with 2mm Hole
- Macrame Board
- G-S Hypo Cement
Creating a Shamballa.
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(Step 2) Take one of your 4' segments and cut it in half leaving two 2' pieces and one 4' piece.
(like this)
(Step 3) Clip one of your 2' pieces of cord into your clipboard, leaving an 8" tail on both sides of the clip board.
(Step 4) Load your beads, pull your cord tightly, and use your binder clip to clip your cord to the bottom of your board. This will be your guide line.
(Step 5) Place your 4Ì cord under the guide line Keeping it even on both ends.
(Step 6) Take the right side of your cord over the guide and under your left side of cord. Now take the left side under your guide and up through the loop. (Step 7) Take the left side of your cord over your guide, and under the right side, then take the right side of your cord moving it under the guide and over the left cord (through the loop) (Step 8) Repeat Steps 6 and 7 3 times then push up your bead. (Step 9) After youÌve pushed up your first bead follow this pattern below
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(Step 10) You should have some excess cord on the right and left side of your guide line. Lets clean those up.
Glue around both areaÌs you have extra cord and let is dry for a few minutes.
(Step 11) Now that the glue has had a chance to dry, go ahead and snip off the remaining cord
What you have now, should look very similar to this.
(Step 12) At this point we get back to our knotting to close off our bracelet. Make sure to overlap your remaining cord (image above) as this will now be our guide line.
(Step 13) Use your remaining 2Ì cord and place it evenly under your new guidelines.
(Step 14) From here we will be going back to page one using steps 6 and 7 repeatedly until you wrap an amount you are happy with for sizing. (Usually 14 Knots or the pattern below)
- Step 6
- Step 7
- Step 6
- Step 7
- Step 6
- Step 7
- Step 6
- Step 7
- Step 6
- Step 7
- Step 6
- Step 7
- Step 6
- Step 7
(Step 15) Once youÌve finished knotting, slide your stopper beads onto your guide line to give you a way to tighten your bracelet.
(Step 17) Lastly, you want to make a tight knot at the end of your stopper beads, gluing to secures, and cutting off any excess cord. Now just let it dry for 24 hrs. Then show it off.
