Delfina Saddlery
www.DelfinaSaddlery.com
How To Make Professional Looking Beaded Browbands, Belts, Halters and Collars
Supplies
Silver beading wire 0.3mm $2.00 at Wal‐Mart‐ better than higher priced beading wires from fancy craft stores! Leather/Glovers needles (Dritz brand) – bought from Beverly’s Crafts Small hemostat‐ bought on ebay. Coats & Clark Outdoor UV resistant black thread‐ Wal‐Mart
String beads onto 2 strands of beading wire. The lengths of the wire should be several inches longer than the bead channel so you have room on each end to tie a knot and hide the ends as I will show later. The strand of beads should be the same length or about one bead longer than the channel when it is lying flat if the product is something like a browband, collar, belt or noseband of a halter that will have to bend when it is finished.
Thread one of the strands onto the leather needle and push the needle, using the hemostat, through the channel top leather angled so it comes out between the top leather and the soft padding. Be careful not to poke yourself when you push the needle through!
Pull the thread through. Then feed the second strand through a little distance away from the first strand.
Tie a square knot in the beading wire.
Do a quadruple or greater knot to add security and make sure it will not slip.
Tighten the knot.
Feed the loose ends through the needle.
In order to hide the loose ends and the knot, feed the needle between the top leather and the soft padding. The knot should stay on the side you tied it on, but be pulled just deeper into the padding while the loose ends are pulled all the way to the other side. Pull the bead end of the wire to take up the slack.
So now you have a hidden knot and the loose ends sticking out the other side.
Pull the loose ends tight and cut as close to the leather as possible, the cut end should snap back when the tension is gone and be buried within the padding. If not you can use a dremel tool to file down the remaining wire.
You should have a nice clean looking end. Now repeat on the other end of your strand.
Now both ends should be nice and clean looking and the beads anchored firmly on each side.
Now to anchor your beads down the length of the browband, thread your needle with the sturdy black thread and feed the needle between the soft padding and the top leather so it exits in the bead channel.
Now feed your needle to exit the bead channel between the top leather and the soft padding. When pulled tight the thread will lie between the first pink pearl and the silver crystal rondelle.
Feed the needle back through a little further down. This time the thread will lie between the 2nd silver crystal rondelle and the silver melon bead.
And feed the needle back through the other side.
Now you have two ends on the same side. Pull the thread through so you have one very short end and one very long end. Tie a quadruple or greater square knot using the two ends. The long end will continue to weave back and fourth in between the beads to secure them. On this browband I passed back and fourth on both ends of every melon bead to anchor the beading wire down. The short end will be the loose end that will be pulled through to the other side of the browband to hide the knot and the extra loose end will be pulled tight and cut close to the leather just like what was done with the beading wire on both ends. Once you have woven back and fourth in between the beads down the length of the browband and are a few beads from the other end, cut a second strand of black thread and place the middle of it in the loop of the other thread. This will be used to tie down the other end.
Weave the first strand back over in between the next beads until the end of the first strand is on the same side as the new strand you added.
Tie a quadruple or greater square knot holding the two new ends as if they were one string.
Tighten down the knot.
Cut the three ends so they are all the same length.
Thread the three loose ends onto the needle and feed between the top leather and the soft padding and pull to the other side. This will pull the knot in tighter to the leather.
Photo showing pulling the needle through the other side.
Pull the threads tight and cut close to the leather.
**Optional** If any knots are not hidden as well as you would like, you can stuff them deeper into the crevice between the padding and top leather, add a few drops of super glue and squeeze the top leather and padding together using the hemostats, hold for about 30 seconds. Will leave a finished and polished look. Any scratches or holes on your browband from needlework can be covered up with liquid shoe polish dabbed on with a soaked cotton swab applicator.
Finished!