This was my March project, and it went pretty well. We have a big coffee can of mixed seed beads, and I brought in a bunch of African glass beads, some cheesy cheerleader charms, and some wooden beads I knew I'd never use.
Difficulty: 1 out of 5. If a teen can slide a bead on to a wire, they're golden.
Cost: 3 out of 5- more if you need to get beads from scratch ( if you don't have some lying around and don't have time to thrift-hunt).
Supplies
$2.00
for 12 Memory Wire Bracelet Blanks
$2.00 for a pair of chain nose pliers, if you don't have any. You probably do.
Optional: cutting pliers (in case you have kids who run out of time but want their bracelet finished off where they are, if you know what I mean.)
$1.00 - $???? for beads. The thing with the beads is that if you have the $$$, getting some nice seed beads th
at can be matched with your bigger fancy beads, your teens will be able to quickly make beautiful bracelets. If not, they will either hunt and pick through your mixed up mess of seed beads to find matching colors, or they will give up on matching and make kind of fugly color mixes in order to try to finish their project in the hour.
Hints or tips- Well, most teens will have no problem at all with this project. The only difficulty I had was that 2 of my special needs teens weren't able to really handle the little seed beads and ended up making (very very quickly, too) bracelets entirely made of the big beautiful African glass beads I had brought in to be used as accent beads. This meant that these 2 girls rapidly decimated the supply of the 'fancy' beads, while teens who were trying to make the project as intended were left poking sadly through the coffee can in search of matching seed beads. Again, this is a project where although it is so simple, differences in skill level make for very different results. I must say that the teens who made the bracelets as they are meant to be made had really cool pieces that they loved, and that they thought it was totally fantastic, and the two girls who didn't really follow the plan loved the clunky chunky bracelets they made, so it was an overall success. Would definitely repeat. Even had two boys make bracelets for their sick sister! ^.^
$1.00 - $???? for beads. The thing with the beads is that if you have the $$$, getting some nice seed beads th
at can be matched with your bigger fancy beads, your teens will be able to quickly make beautiful bracelets. If not, they will either hunt and pick through your mixed up mess of seed beads to find matching colors, or they will give up on matching and make kind of fugly color mixes in order to try to finish their project in the hour.Hints or tips- Well, most teens will have no problem at all with this project. The only difficulty I had was that 2 of my special needs teens weren't able to really handle the little seed beads and ended up making (very very quickly, too) bracelets entirely made of the big beautiful African glass beads I had brought in to be used as accent beads. This meant that these 2 girls rapidly decimated the supply of the 'fancy' beads, while teens who were trying to make the project as intended were left poking sadly through the coffee can in search of matching seed beads. Again, this is a project where although it is so simple, differences in skill level make for very different results. I must say that the teens who made the bracelets as they are meant to be made had really cool pieces that they loved, and that they thought it was totally fantastic, and the two girls who didn't really follow the plan loved the clunky chunky bracelets they made, so it was an overall success. Would definitely repeat. Even had two boys make bracelets for their sick sister! ^.^
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