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Now You're Ready to String Beads
Cut off a piece of wire long enough for your necklace. Be generous - it’s better to have a few inches left over than end up a half-inch short and have to rebuild the whole thing.
If you are going to make a Bugle Bead necklace, (TJ1) or Braille necklace, (TJ2) or E-bead necklace (TJ5), you can judge approximately how much wire you’ll need by lining up the letter tiles (see cheat sheets, pages 21, 22, & 23), and then measuring the wire up against them.
IMPORTANT: You should memorize the Morse code. It will be difficult to proofread your jewelry if you can’t read it. If you use the letter tiles, you can match the necklace up with them. But for the seed bead necklaces you should be able to read your work.
Put two piles of seed beads, message beads (mb), and background beads (bb), next to each other. It’s a good idea to keep the mb and bb piles in the same place in relation to each other. I always keep the mb to the right of the bb. The beads that will be used between words, or spacer beads, should be close by.
The number and color of spacer beads can vary according to your design. You can choose just a couple of bugle beads (BB), (ex.1) or a couple of BB with an E bead in their middle, (ex.2) or a line of seed beads (SB), or whatever you want. Be sure and put a seed bead (SB) between the bugle beads (BB) and the E bead, in the spacer beads. Be consistent throughout the same necklace. If I’m making a necklace with more than one sentence, I usually put more spacer beads in the space between sentences than between words. If you’re making a small piece, like a key ring, you can use fewer spacer beads.
Your message is: Yes I can, with mb in black (bmb) and bb in white (wbb).
Start the Y with three bmb, then one wbb, then one bmb, then one wbb, then three bmb, then one wbb, then three bmb. You’ve finished the Y. Now put on the three beads between letters, (wbb) and you’ll be ready for the E. The E is just one bmb. Easy! Next are the three beads between letters, (wbb) and you’re ready for the S. The S is one bmb, one wbb, one bmb, one wbb, and one wbb. You’ve just spelled “Yes!” Now for the spacer beads.
To continue your message: the I is one bmb, one wbb, and one bmb. That’s simple enough. Next are the spacer beads. Can you put on the next word by yourself? Sure you can! When you’re finished it’ll be time for the margin beads.
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