Hey!
Things have been stressful lately, and I’ve been doing a lot of creative things to cope. One of my main hobbies at the moment is making bracelets and tapestries from hama/perler beads (the ones that melt when you iron them), I’ve been making bracelets for my friends. They’re super helpful with dealing with emotions, cause the beads roll if you run your fingers over it or you can scratch at it like a cat at a cat tower. I figured I’d provide instructions so you can make your own!
What you need:
- a tapestry needle
- some wool (wrap it around your wrist about 9 times to measure)
- beads (I know you can get them at Ikea, in boxes called ‘Psylla’)
Step 1: Tie a knot at one end of the length of wool and thread the needle. Thread an even number of beads on and pull down to the end — 4 works great for a bracelet.
Step 2: Add a bead, go through the second bead on the first row, add a bead, go through the fourth bead in the row. Pull through completely and make sure it’s tight.
Step 3: Add a bead, go through the third bead in the row, add a bead, go through the first bead in the row.
Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 until long enough (generally this is 40 rows long. It stretches, trust me, you’ll get it over your hand. It should have 8 extra rows if you pull it tight on your wrist once it’s on.)
Step 5: To finish, continue as normal through the first row, without adding any extra beads. Sew through a couple of rows and cut off excess, and do the same with the extra wool at the beginning where the knot is. (If you can’t get the needle through all four beads at once just do it in pairs or singular — this is probably the trickiest bit and the needle might need some gentle wriggling to pull through.)
Now you can make cool things to help with emotions too! Or procrastinate. You can also make tapestries — make it bigger and don’t join the ends. Experiment with patterns: you can have stripes, diagonal stripes, horizontal stripes, flowers, plain, or whatever you like!
Have fun, and enjoy your day!