Construct Your Own Beading Loom

Construct Your Own Beading Loom

Native American style beading has become a very popular craft these days. In this art, you use tiny seed beads to create a strip or block of solid beading that can show a picture or a pattern. These finished products can be used for necklaces, bracelets, belts, bags, and more.

This craft is done through the use of a beading loom. These retail from ten dollars to a cheap plastic model to fifty or more for larger looms. It is possible, and cheaper, to construct your own beading loom of any size.

Materials Needed

1. Piece of wooden board
2. Two 1-inch square wooden blocks
3. Two wire coat hangers
4. Wire cutters
5. Narrow wire
6. Four eyebolts
7. Two pieces of dowel that fit through the eye hooks
8. Nails and hammer or screws
9. Glue

Construction

Step one is preparing the piece of wooden board. This will be the base of the beading loom and should be the dimensions that you want the finished loom to be. For a basic loom, a piece of one by four board works great. This piece of board should be sanded and painted or stained.

After that, you should prepare the one-inch blocks in the same way. These will be attached to the baseboard of the beading loom with nails or screws from the bottom.

The next step is to cut the straight wire from the coat hanger and bend it into a square "U" shape. This will be the place where your beading loom threads will rest. Tap a nail into the one-inch wooden block and slide the wire into it securely. You may want to glue this in place.

After the heavy coat hanger wire is in place on both sides of your beading loom, you will take the narrower wire and make the separators. This wire should be easy to bend, but should be tall enough that the beading thread will not slip over it. Simply use this wire to wrap around the coat hanger, leaving small spaces for each thread.

When you are done wrapping this wire as far as you'd like to be able to bead weave, you must create the pegs to attach the threads to. Screw one eyebolt in each corner of the bottom board. Slip a sanded and painted dowel through each end. This provides a place to wind up your project if you are making something long like a belt or headband.