This tutorial transforms kandi bead stars into pride-coloured ornaments, charms, keychains, zipper-pulls and necklace pendants. They’re simple and quick to make–plus most materials are readily available at dollar shops and craft stores. Flags with four or more stripes (horizontal or vertical) can be transformed into pride-themed stars using this technique, meaning your pride display is limited only by your bead collection!
Materials
To create the basic star ornament, you will need:
- Five beads per stripe colour (two for the centre ring, three for the point)
- Cord, string, embroidery floss or elastic of a size to thread through your beads
- Scissors
- Scrap ribbon, string or cord to hang the star
A needle of a size to fit both cord and beads aids in threading seed beads. I use a size 7 embroidery needle for my largest beads and a size nine or ten embroidery needle for my smallest. (You can use sharps, beading needles or any other appropriately-sized needle: I’m a lazy person who uses already-at-hand embroidery needles.) As dollar-shop and bulk-pack seed beads are irregularly shaped, it’s best to test-thread your needle through several beads to ensure fit before beginning your project.
I don’t use a needle for threading pony beads. If using cord prone to fraying, you may wish to first coat the ends with a little clear nail polish and let it dry before beginning. This creates a DIY aglet effect that helps in threading.
This project works with stretchy and non-stretchy cords. I like stretchy cords because I can push my fingertip through the centre of a seed-bead star and turn it into a stim toy by rolling the beads down my finger, but embroidery floss is easier for colour-matching. Use whatever you have!
To create the star pendant, you will also need:
- Jump rings of a size to both thread through one bead and close around it
- Needle-nose pliers (opening jump rings is easiest with two)
Necklaces and keychains require additional hardware like necklace chains and split rings. My A is for Aro pendant/keychain tutorial contains more information about materials, techniques and custom cords.
I’ve bought pony and seed beads from local dollar, craft and op (thrift/charity) shops. The last option requires sorting and organising, but it’s an affordable way of getting many different beads all at once. For pony beads–and other plastic beads–check out kids’ craft and jewellery-making sets, as they’re often cheaper than pony bead sets from craft shops.
Technique
While I demonstrate this with pony beads, the process for seed beads is identical save for my using a needle to thread the cord or string. Likewise, while my example piece uses a five-stripe flag, the process doesn’t change for flags with smaller or larger stripe counts. The construction is identical: an inner ring comprised of two beads per stripe colour and outer points or spikes comprised of three beads per stripe colour.
For seed beads, I use two or three strands of embroidery floss roughly the length of my forearm, as this gives plenty of spare thread for securing and knotting. For a pony bead pendant, I use hat elastic or nylon/rattail cord roughly twice my forearm length. As I’m cautious in estimating length, you may prefer shorter pieces. Stretchy cords can be cut a little shorter than non-stretchy cords!
While I work counter-clockwise in this tutorial, the end result doesn’t change if worked clockwise. Keep your stripe colours in order from first to last or last to first and then work in any direction–because you can turn the finished piece to match your preference concerning the bottommost stripe on the left or right side of the star.
To begin, thread two beads from each stripe colour in pride-flag order. Form a ring and tie a knot to fasten it with one end of the cord kept short and the other long:
This results in a knot tied between the first and last stripe colours (not visible in above photo).
To create the first point, take the long end and thread the cord back through the first bead of your first stripe colour on the centre ring of beads. (Leave the short end be; you won’t need it until all loose beads have been threaded.) Once through the first bead, thread your remaining three beads of the same colour onto the cord’s long end. Then thread the cord through the first bead of the second colour (skipping over the second bead of the first colour), forming a secure loop:
Pull tight on the cord, locking the beads into place. If the three beads form more of a half-circle than a triangular shape, pull the centre bead outwards to create a sharper point.
To create the second point, repeat the process: thread the three loose beads of the second stripe-colour onto the long cord before threading it through the first bead of the third colour to both lock the beads in place and begin the next point.
Continue working around the ring by threading the cord through the first bead of the next colour and following with the matching beads. Once you reach the last colour, you’ll end up with three beads attached to a loose cord. You can finish the star by directly knotting the long end of the cord to the short end, but I like to thread the long cord back through the first bead of the first colour, as this results in a tighter point:
To bring the long cord to a point where I can knot it with the shorter cord, I repeat the threading process: bringing the cord through the first bead of each colour, followed by the three beads of the star’s point, while always skipping over the second bead of each colour on the centre ring. Once I’ve completed the circle a second time, I tie the two ends together. This takes (a little) more work, but a second threading corrects loose tension and creates a more secure piece.
After knotting, I thread the loose ends of the cord through a few beads before cutting them off, as this helps pull the knot inside one of the adjoining beads, making it less visible. This is easy to do with pony beads; you may need to use a needle to poke the knot further inside a seed bead, depending on the thickness of your thread and the size of the hole.
Finishing requires only a ribbon loop, split ring or jump ring threaded through the centre bead of whichever point you wish to display uppermost. You can then hang your beaded star from the zipper pull, necklace, clip, hook or even Christmas tree of your choice!
A (Long) Note on Bead Colours and Sizes
While I purchased most new beads from dollar shops–where I buy packs for a third to half the price of those at craft chains–specific pride-flag colour matches may require a little searching, craft-shop prices or a willingness to substitute. Some don’t exist anywhere local to me! As I can’t get my hands on orange-gold pony beads, I used a darker yellow for my allo-aro example star (the colour more distinct in real life than in photographs, unfortunately). Greys aren’t common in dollar-shop bead packs, so I needed these “pearl black” grey beads from Lincraft for my aromantic pendant.
White, black and greens have been easy to find in both dollar and craft shops as long as I’m willing to mix matte, pearly and translucent finishes.
If buying from dollar or op shops, where seed beads are rarely labelled by size or dimension, a single package may contain multiple sizes. I struggle to perceive the size difference in a mix of loose, often-irregularly-shaped beads before stringing; I’ve often had to remake a piece with correctly-sized beads! (You may not find this so difficult.) If you look again at my allo-aro seed bead pendant, you’ll see that the light green and gold beads are larger than the translucent and white beads, resulting in somewhat-uneven points. While I prefer all colours in the one size, I don’t think using beads the next size up or down hugely detracts from the finished piece. Cheap seed beads, which aren’t consistent in shape anyway, will look a little uneven unless you take the time to sort ones of near-identical dimensions.
Here’s the allo-aro star remade with size 6 seed beads (after I found a proper gold!) in all colours:
I find any size discrepancy more obvious with a four-point star and less obvious with a six or seven-point star. (My aro-ace star pendant also uses larger light green and purple beads.) While pony beads are available in different sizes and shapes, I’ve found it easier to collect similar-enough beads that the finished pieces look regular and consistent.
Specialist colours and shades, however, may need to be purchased online. A friend bought me the grey (aromantic) and maroon (nebularomantic) pony beads from an eBay seller; I’m yet to find either locally. While I’ve collected pony beads in multiple shades of pink, green, blue or purple, I’ve resorted to brighter and lighter replacements for colours like mint-green (cupioromantic) and navy (nebularomantic).
Plastic melt/iron beads may allow for better colour matching. While they don’t look as pretty to my eye as pony beads, and are much larger than seed beads, Hama-brand melt beads can be purchased in multi-packs with a large colour range. In a single pack I found mint-green, maroon and three different shades of grey!
While these star designs don’t suit all pride flag designs, and finding close colour matches in beads is less simple than in embroidery floss, I like that these are so quick to make! Despite my seldom wearing bracelets, I’m tempted to make a beaded charm bracelet with a star or two in each colour of the aromantic flag…
Aro Worlds 