The tutorial for this natty, knotty bracelet is about to go into the shop. The design was originally launched as Nautical Knots in Digital Beading magazine. It has now been rewritten, renamed and expanded and will soon be available as Charming Knots.
Why do I make so many changes to a tutorial before I put it on my site? One of the main reasons is that there are certain constraints involved in writing for magazines. Hard copy magazines tend to have strict word counts, which must be adhered to. Digital Magazines are far more relaxed in this respect, but I still have to be mindful of how much I write. With my own tutorials I have complete editorial freedom and my priority is to make sure that my instructions are as clear as possible. Magazines often like to have a theme running through every issue. For that reason a design might be made in specific colours or materials and needs to be given an appropriate name. For instance, Nautical Knots was designed to fit in with the high summer launch date for that magazine issue. However, the tutorials on my site are designed to sell all year round and are completely stand-alone in terms of theme. I like to give advice on how to develop each design in different directions and to show lots of examples, so the original name is often too specific. Finally, I like to feel that I am giving my customers good value for money. I try to add extra advice and instructions so that customers end up with far more information than they expected. So that is how Nautical Knots turned into Charming Knots.
The final change I wanted to make to the tutorial was to make sure the instructions would work for a gemstone version and that an image of a suitable bracelet was included. For this bracelet I used a combination of tiny blue goldstone stars and white pearls. The charm bracelet style of construction means that all sorts of different gemstones would work brilliantly. Most sizes and shapes can be accommodated.