How To Make A Beaded Coaster

Today I want to show you how to make a cute coaster by using beads and wire. I happened to have a lot of wooden beads laying around, leftovers from other previous projects, and I decided to make a picture tutorial for you. This project can be done with any beads, plastic, glass, whatever you have. The only secret is to use same size of beads, and preferably round.

Here is the coaster we are making today.

You need beads and wire. I used a combination of blue and cream beads, all same size. My wire is regular crafts wire.

These are the four steps, clockwise, self explanatory. It is better to follow the pictures than following the words.
In plain words, here is what you do:

• cut a piece of wire about 30 inches.
• slide 6 beads on the wire, in my case Blue, that is the center of the flower-coaster. Slide them towards the center of the wire. Thread the opposite end of the wire through the last bead, as shown in picture 1, which is the upper left hand side.
• picture 2, the upper right hand side, shows 2 circles. You make this by adding 5 beads on the right side of the wire. The other end (the left), you thread it trough the last bead, as shown. The pattern is 2 cream beads, 1 blue bead, 2 cream beads. 2-1-2
• picture 3, the lower left hand side shows the next circle. You need to thread the wire through the next bead from the center and to add 4 beads 1-1-2. It is easier to understand by looking at the picture.
• picture 4, continue the same threading with the same pattern 1-1-2.

We already have 5 petals. Look at the way the wire comes out now. Add beads as shown in picture 2. We finished the center in picture 3, and in picture 4 we added 4 more blue bead to make the outer circles.

Now there is a little trick: we must thread the wire through two white beads. Before we were treading only through one at a time.

• add 3 beads only, 2 white, 1 blue.
• now slide through only one blue, add 3 beads on the opposite site.
• keep going following the pattern.

We reached the last circle.

• add 3 cream beads as shown.
• tuck in the wires, by threading them through several other beads. Cut the excess wires.

This is the coaster we just made. You just have to understand the steps, you basically repeat 2 steps, over and over.

Here are a few coasters I made before I decided to create the picture tutorial. Everything is repetition and practice. You can start with only one color, like I did in the white coaster, but I like more the colorful ones, as the contrast brings out the pattern.

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