How I love these bead people. These were a pleasure to create.
The initial idea came about when I saw some wood bead robots that used rope and beads to create these cute toys. I started thinking that I would want to be able to pose the robots in different positions. I was in my wire wrapping jewelry making stage so had all the supplies I needed to create the first one.
I made the first samples and loved it. At least once a year, we do this activity in our Craft Market classes.
So how do you make these, check out the photo tutorial below as well as the video above.
Supplies that come in the DIY kit: 9 colored facetted beads, 9 different colored facetted beads, 1 16″ 24 gauge wire.
Additional supplies required but not included as part of the kit: pliers, wire cutters or scissors
Additional supplies not required but good to have: beading tray or a small paper plate,
First step is to straighten up the wire, especially the ends. The wire does not need to be as straight as a metal pole rather just straight enough to remove the small spiral circles.
Then insert a wire end through the head bead and bring the two wire ends together. Pull the head to the mid way point on the wire, that is the area that creates a loop when the two wire ends are brought together.
Gently press the wire on either side of the head to lie flush to the bead. Then over lap one of the wire legs over the other.
Then twist the wire three times to create 3 spirals as shown above. Then bring both wire legs together. Sometimes at this point, I will see that one of the legs is now longer than the other one. This is where the wire cutter comes to use cos all you will need to do is just cut off the long end.
Now it’s time to decide on what my color pattern is going to be. The two that I usually do are either:
- The center is one color and the outside is another color. This is achieved by (I will use the yellow and blue colored beads as my example) using a yellow bead as the neck, then a yellow bead each for the bicep of either arm. They I use 2 blue beads each for the forearms. 2 yellow beads for the chest and torso and then 2 yellow beads for the thighs. To finish off the bead person, it is 2 blue beads each for the calf area of the legs. Or …
- The other pattern I have done is one color from the torso up and the other color on the torso down. This means yellow beads for the neck, arms and 1 for the torso. Then 1 blue bead for the torso and four each for the legs.
Once the neck bead is on, I separated the legs so that they are pointing in opposite directions.
Now I am ready to start working on the arms. I inserted 3 beads per my color theme.
Now, is time to create the hand. Place the pliers close to the last bead you added as shown above.
Wrap the wire around one of the pliers jaws until the wires overlap. Then tightly wrap the wirer in between the beads and the pliers. Do that two or three times, then remove the pliers from the wire loop created.
Next, I inserted the wire end back through all three arm beads. I pulled it all the way through.
Then I repeated the process for the other side by inserting the 3 arm beads, used the pliers to create the hand and then re-inserted the wire to pull it out through the first arm bead. Next bring the two wire legs together, it should look like the photo above.
Now I am gonna work on the torso. With both wire legs together, I inserted two yellow beads.
Then I separated the wire legs until they are pointing in opposite directions.
I inserted 2 yellow beads followed by 2 blue beads. I then used the same technique to create feet as I used to create hands. Place pliers in between the pliers jaws. Wrap the wire around one of the plier jaws until the wires overlapped. Then I wrapped the leftover wire in between the pliers and the beads 2 to 4 times. I removed the pliers then cut off the excess wire.
Make sure the cut end is tightly wrapped around the wire so that it won’t scratch anyone playing with it.
Repeat on the other side. Once finished, your bead person is ready to play.
