Let me first start out by saying that I would hardly consider myself an accomplished beader. I am sure that there is probably an easier solution to this problem, but this is the one that I came up with and I am happy to share it with you. This Project can by found on page 28 of the “Beautiful Beaded Rings” book. The Crusader ring was designed by Marielle Elroy, not by me. This is my attempt at making the ring resemble the one in the photo in the book. Ok, off we go..

Assemble the base just as you would in the book. You’ve got your three big round beads, and your four bicone beads and the string is coming out the end. Take those threads and string them back through the beads until you’ve got them coming back out of the center round bead, like this……

Now, you have two large bicone beads left. As the pattern stands, it wants you to add them when you tack on the outer layer of seed beads. I added them now. I also added a seed bead to each side. So take a thread, string on one bicone and one seed bead. Loop the thread back down through the bicone, the center round bead and out the other side. I did this to both sides of the piece. It should now look like….

Go ahead and weave those threads through the rest of the crystal base so that they are coming out the first round bead. At this point I went back and followed the pattern in the book to get the seed beads crossing on the top of the ring. That brings us to the outer band. I couldn’t get a good photo of it but it is pretty simple so we should be ok. I’m going to write the directions once, but you need to do it to both sides of the ring.

Take a thread and put three seed beads on it. String the small crystal bicone on and then add two more seed beads. At this point I took a small pair of pliers and straightened out those two seed beads I added on to the base. Thread through that outer seed bead. Pick up two more seed beads, a small crystal bicone and then three more seed beads. Thread it back through the large round bead that is opposite the one you started this step with. Do the same to the other side. This will give you five beads between those two small bicones. It is amazing to me just how much of a difference those two little extra seed beads can make.

At this point you can continue following the pattern in the book and make the shank of the ring. I much prefer how the ring looks now. Those two little extra seed beads completely change the shape of the ring.

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I am very happy with how it looks. I no longer feel the need to make it slimmer on the finger. I hope I can find more patterns from this designer!

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