How to Make a Beaded Zip Pull or Bag Dangle

 I like to add a finishing touch to my hand made bags by making a fancy zip pull, you can also use these as a decoration, I have used one to add some bling to the bag flap on this bag. Here is how to make one.

What you need:

Tools

Round nosed pliers, flat nosed pliers (don't worry if you don't have these, you can get away with just the round nosed), cutters.

 Beads and findings

Lots of choices here, Bali and tierracast type beads are good, Swarovski crystal pearls look great and add a bit of bling. You will need one piece for the bottom of the zip-pull with a ring at the top, I found lots of different designs at my local hobby shop in the jewellery section - flowers, butterflies etc. Alternatively you could use a bead at the bottom and use a headpin instead of wire, just thread the bead onto the headpin and continue at Step 3.

Wire

I used 19 gauge silver plated wire as this is what I had handy, but you could use any similar jewellery wire. Coloured wire would look good, 20 gauge wire would work as well. IMPORTANT Make sure before you start that the wire will go through all the beads and the lobster clip you have chosen.

Small Lobster Clips

One for each zip pull to attach to zip

Step 1

Lay out your beads to find a pleasing design.

 Step 2

Cut a length of wire, you need the length of the finished zip-pull plus about 3 inches. Take you needle nosed pliers, place them about an inch from the end of the wire and wrap the wire around one side to form a loop.

Step 2

Thread your bottom finding onto the wire, placing the ring on the finding in the loop you just made. 

Then push the free end of the wire back around the wire above the loop and wrap around twice to secure the finding onto the wire. 

Then cut off the excess wrapped wire and pinch it to the main wire with your flat nosed pliers

Step 3

Thread your beads onto the main wire in the pattern you decided on in step 1

Place your needle nosed pliers about 1 inch from the last bead and wrap the wire around one side to form a loop.

Step 4

Thread the small lobster clip onto the wire, placing the loop of the lobster clip in the loop you just made in the wire. Then use your fingers or the short nosed pliers to wrap the end of the wire around the main wire to secure it. 

Cut off excess wire with the wire cutters and use your short nosed pliers to pinch the end of the wire into the main wire.

And you're done. Clip your new ring pull onto a bag zip or wherever you want some extra bling and admire your work !

I love to hear how people use these tips, so please add a comment and tell me how you made and used yours.

If you don't want to make your own please check out my accessories page where I have ready made zip pulls for sale.

New Year, New Website

 Happy New Year

Having promised myself a new website for absolutely ages I have finally gotten around to creating it, and of course, being me, I had to do it the hard way and do it myself. Since I used to be a website designer and developer until retiring last year, I should have the skills but how things have changed! One of my reasons for retiring was that, having been in the IT industry for many years I was just getting tired of re-learning all the skills every few years, and wanted to have time to pursue all my other interests away from the computer. So what have I been doing for the last month? Sitting in front of the computer re-learning how to build a website! But thanks to a little help from the son who took over my development work (again !) it is now, I was going to say finished, but I suspect I will be tweaking for some time to come, so let's just say finished enough to put live.

Before starting all this I was having great fun reprising some of the craft skills I used to spend time doing before life got in the way, dressmaking, jewellery making, bag making, and looking forward to expanding on those skills now I don't have the day to day grind to look forward to.

However,  since then we (husband and I) have taken on a considerable project - a village bungalow we are completely renovating and extending so I won't have a lot of time (or the space as we are in rented accommodation until it's finished) to do a lot. Most of my tools and equipment are now packed up, waiting for the day I will have a renovated bungalow to furnish and decorate, a new garden to design and create, and a super new dedicated studio to do it from!

Until then I will be finding the time somehow to create new wire weave jewellery as I can do that in little space and minimal equipment and even paint a few pictures - I have been asked to paint some for a charity auction so must find time to finish those, and I will be be blogging here on some of the projects I have completed and the updated skills I have learned in the last year, so do come back and visit.

I am very excited with all the changes that are coming this year, I hope 2018 is good to you.