Beaded Hair Pins Mini Tutorial

While looking online for some sort of hair ornament I could make, I came upon this cute little idea at annekata--pretty beaded bobby pins that would be appropriate for all ages.  I love these, because they look great but they aren't too big, and they are really useful too--I frequently use a bobby pin to hold back stray hair, but these will really boost my style quotient!

I tried making them with thread, like she did, but the beads didn't feel secure to me, so I tried again with 34 gauge beading wire (it is as thin as thread so it wasn't too bulky, and it was strong and easy to work with).  I bought my beads at Joann's; I just used two different types, a faceted glass bead alternating with an irregular polished stone.  If you look at Annekata's post, you will see that she used all different types of beads, which looks really great!  I had some beading pliers (I guess that's what they're called!) that I used to pull the wire tight, but they weren't really necessary.  Scissors are necessary to cut the wire. (Obviously, don't use your best pair!)

I used seven beads per pin.

Start by cutting a 20" piece of wire.  Wrap it around the end of the bobby pin, positioning it so that one strand of wire is longer than the other (the short one should be about 6").  Thread the first bead onto both wires, then wrap the longer wire around both the pin and the short wire, 2 times, right in front of the bead.  Continue on this way until you reach the end of the pin.

At the end of the pin, you will need to hide the wire ends, so feed them back through the hole in the last bead, and cut them off close to the bead.

Wrapping the bobby pins with wire had an unforseen bonus:  the pins stayed in my hair much better than unwrapped pins ever have.  A pair or two of these would make a nice little gift, even for someone with short hair.

SHINY!!  PRETTY!!