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Your First Single

  • Single strand
  • First string
  • 15 min

The whole craft in miniature: cord length, bead order, sizing over your knuckles, and a knot that holds. Fifteen minutes from a pile of beads to a trade.

A single is the whole craft in miniature: beads, cord, a knot. Every cuff, mask panel and necklace on this site is this same skill repeated more times, so it is worth doing one cleanly before you do anything wider.

It is also the trade unit. Almost every handshake at a festival moves a single, because a single slides off over a hand easily and a cuff does not. If you are prepping for a weekend, this is the page you will use most.

Fifteen minutes, start to finish, once you have done two or three. Want an exact layout instead of free-styling? Every chart under singles lists the colors, the bead count and the cord length up front.

What you need

  • Pony beads — a color mix, or the exact colors from a chart
  • Letter beads, if you are spelling something
  • Stretch cord, 0.8-1mm
  • Scissors
  • Optional: a dot of clear nail polish or jewelry glue for the knot

Steps

  1. 1
    Cut your cord long

    Cut about 8 inches (20cm) more than the strung length you want. That slack is what lets you tie a real knot at the end instead of fighting three beads' worth of cord. If you are working from a chart on this site, use the cord length in its bead count — the slack is already in it.

  2. 2
    String in one direction

    Work off the chart or free-string a mix, but go one way and do not skip beads. If you are spelling something, put one plain spacer bead between words and leave two or three plain beads at each end before the phrase starts. Read it back before you go further — letters are much easier to fix now than after the knot.

  3. 3
    Size it over your hand, not your wrist

    Wrap the strand around the widest part of your hand with your thumb tucked in. It should just meet. Stretch cord gives a little, but not enough to rescue a bracelet you strung to a wrist measurement — that one will not go on. One more check if you are making it to trade: it has to slide over two clasped hands, because that is what the Respect beat does. If it will not slide, it is a keeper, not a trade. Add or remove beads now.

  4. 4
    Tie a surgeon's knot

    Cross the right end over the left and pass it through the loop twice instead of once. Pull snug. Then cross what is now the left end over the right and pass it through twice again. The extra wrap on each half is what stops a smooth elastic cord working itself loose overnight.

  5. 5
    Snug the knot against the beads

    Pull both ends until the knot sits flush against the last bead on each side with no bare cord showing. A loose knot slips no matter how many wraps it has.

  6. 6
    Hide the tails and trim

    Thread each tail back through one or two neighbouring beads, following the direction the cord already runs, so the knot ends up buried inside a bead instead of against your skin. Trim close to where the cord exits. For something you plan to wear three days straight, put a dot of clear nail polish on the knot before you tuck it and let it dry fully.

  7. 7
    Stretch test it

    Pull the finished bracelet gently. If a bead pops or the knot creeps, cut it open and redo it with a longer tail. Better now than on the floor.

Try it on a pattern

Blackout UV Single

  • Singles
  • First string
  • UV

12 min · single · 28 beads

KEEP THIS ONE Single

  • Singles
  • First string

20 min · single · 27 beads · letters

SIDE QUEST Single

  • Singles
  • First string
  • UV

15 min · single · 26 beads · letters

Next

The Ladder Stitch Cuff — One strand of cord, no needle: build a flat kandi cuff rung by rung, close it into a loop and bury the knot. The first piece with real width on your wrist.