It's time for patience

For our lesson this week, we decided to make a watch.

For this project, you will need:- beading elastic, a watch face and of course beads.

To measure how much elastic you need, measure your wrist and then multiply by 3. If 

you are making an adult watch, take 17cm and multiply by 3. In my previous blog 

“string a long with me” I discussed the average sizes of people’s wrists. 

Choosing your watch face is not always as easy as it seems. First, do you want silver 

tone or bronze tone? Second, do you want a big face, small face or round face? 

Remember to choose a watch face that suits you, your beads and your design.

Next, your beads.  To choose beads you need to have in mind for what, and when, you 

will be wearing this watch.  Is it formal, everyday or office wear? Do you want the 

watch to be an attention grabber or an accompaniment to your clothes? What size 

beads do you want, small or large, depending on the watch face and your wrist?  A 

small wrist doesn’t usually wear large and chunky all that well and small beads on a 

large wrist tend to disappear.

Once you have chosen your beads, map out your pattern on your bead board. Measure 

your wrist size onto the board and then lay down your watch face and line up your 

pattern to the corresponding length.

Thread your elastic through one side of the watch and match the two ends. Make a 

note of where halfway should be i.e. if your wrist is 17cm, then starting at one end of 

the watch measure 9cm. This should be the middle. Remember we want extra length 

as the beads will take up space. 

Thread your beads in their pattern on to each end of the elastic. Once you reach half 

way, thread one side of the elastic through the opposite side of the watch. Clamp the 

other end of the elastic, (if you don’t do this, this is where the patience part comes in) 

YOU WILL DROP YOUR BEADS!!!!! Now thread the rest of your pattern onto the 

elastic until your pattern is complete.

More patience testing now as you tie a simple knot to finish off the watch so that you 

can try it on. Once again there is a good chance that you will lose your beads when 

you pull the watch on, if it is too small or, if it is too big, a tight knot will be difficult 

to open so that you can remove a few beads. 

If you got the sizing right, then go ahead and tie a surgeons knot. With the simple 

knot in place make a loop with each end, then pass one end through the centre three 

times and pull tight.  This is a strong knot and will not usually come loose. If it fits the 

pattern you can put a crimp cover over the knot to finish it off, but as the knot is 

underneath and the elastic is clear you don’t need to do this.

We did run into a few difficulties with this and while the watch looks wonderful, the 

two loops that make the watch band are different sizes. 

Patience needed again till next week’s lesson so that we can fix it. Have fun.  I would 

love to see it if you make your own. Please email me a picture and I will put it on my  

blogs.