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Beaded Gift Ideas for Men and Boys


It can be very hard to make beaded gifts for men or boys, a topic that has come up in weekly bead chat more than once.
In my family, my son loves jewelry I've made. When he was little I made him a pin based off a character in his favorite video game using brick stitch and lots of necklaces using beads he picked out at the local bead shop.
He still has most of them. The necklace above is one I made him last night using 18 gauge copper, some steel hex nuts, and a lampwork bead. Our local lampworkers frequently have bowls of "seconds", beads that didn't quite meet their standards at bead show. I let the kids go through them and pick out beads to use for projects they make themselves or for necklaces like the one above.
Hardware stores have lots of options for masculine necklaces for younger men and men who like an industrial look. Washers instead of gemstone donuts made of things like neoprene and steel are very nice looking. Hex nuts and square shaped nuts are beads with nice big holes and come in packages with several. The necklace above could have been made with a bigger nut instead of the lampwork bead for a very industrial look. Simple is usually better for jewelry for young men.

You can also drill guitar picks, or make cages like the one here to hold pebbles or polished stones. To make it more masculine, use a heavier gauge of wire.
My husband is less interested in jewelry, but I've found hair pipe pieces work well for him, as do tie tacks. A brick stitched monogram works well just cemented on the tie tack finding with a good glue like E-6000. A lot of earring patterns done in size 15 Delicas work very well for tie tacks as well.
Seed bead bracelets with geometric patterns using bigger seed beads look good for men as well. Instead of a delicate clasp, I usually stitch the bead weaving to leather and add snaps.
Unless you know the man very well, get them involved in the design process as well so you know that you're making something he'll appreciate and wear rather than something he'll appreciate that winds up in a box.
For getting a young man interested in beading, well, I can't offer much for advice for that. I opened a thread on the beading forum for suggestions.
If you're interested in joining in the weekly bead chats, they happen on Friday nights at 6 pm Pacific and Sunday at 8 am Pacific in this chat room, no information other than a log in name is necessary.




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Content copyright © 2013 by Shala Kerrigan. All rights reserved.
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