Beadweaving Week :: Closures

I think most of us struggle with closures. I know I do. I'll have this great idea for a focal, but then what kind of a chain, or bead pattern do I use? And then, ugh ...  I'm not exactly sure how I should do the closure. Will it lay flat? Will it fit nicely around the wrist? Will it seem out of place with the rest of the pattern, or worse, overwhelm the rest of the piece?

This little zig, zag closure (left) is my latest creation. I wanted something simple, but that would keep the beaded band close together. Leaving it with a feel of continuous pattern around the wrist. This worked perfectly. I simply doubled up the ladder stitch on the back side so it created a loop for the closure to slide through. You can un-hook it on either side.

If you're looking for simplicity try these little flat hook closures (right) I used on my Sultan bracelet. Most of the time I use them with wire wraps at the end, but you can easily use them with bead weaving. My most recent addition to closure options are these fiber end caps.They have a hole on the top of the cap to slip a wire through. I wrapped the sari silk at the end and thread the wire through, then pulled through the end cap to create a wire loop. 

When I'm bead weaving, my number one, go to closure is a button. I have a large jar of buttons that I love to dig through to find just the right pattern for my piece. For this brick and ladder bracelet I added a pewter button and then did a simple peyote loop (left).

Sometimes my piece is too wide, or complicated for a simple 'button-loop' closure. I need to narrow down the pattern a bit before I add the closure. For this wide peyote band I used a ladder stitch with alternating lengths to match up the peyote. From there I switched over to brick to narrow down the width. Then added my button and loop closure (right). 

One last example of a button-loop closure is this final bracelet. It is a bit of a tease for tomorrow when I will reveal the full pictures of the piece. But for now, I thought I'd show you the closure. I wanted to use this gorgeous wood & shell button. But it is big, very big. In fact you could opt to wear it backwards using the button as the focal. This bracelet is a soft, loose weave which I finished with an extended string-ladder stitch closure. I did use a brick stitch behind the button to give it a bit of a backing and stability. Come back tomorrow for the final reveals of both my last two pieces and to see what everyone else has created for the hop.

This is part of a beadweaving series that I'm running this week for the upcoming A Time to Stitch Challenge by Christine of One Kiss Creations & Therese of Therese's Treasures. The Blog Hop reveal is tomorrow, Wednesday May 15.