Blue seed bead snake mounted on a silver-plated bookmark

One of the easiest seed bead bookmarks to make is a snake. I make these in a variety of colours, patterns and lengths and use a jump ring to connect the snake to a silver-plated or Tibetan silver style bookmark, so it dangles prettily down the spine of the book when it’s being used.

To make a stripy blue 8cm long seed bead snake you will need:

■50cm silver-plated copper beading wire, 0.315mm diameter.

■2 bright red seed beads for the eyes

■15 dark blue seed beads

■40 light blue seed beads

■One silver jumping and one silver bookmark.

■Pliers for opening and closing the jumpring.

■Sharp scissors or beading wire cutters.

 Time needed: 20-30minutes depending on your experience.

Make me!

Start by folding your wire in half and giving it a couple of little twists to hold the loop in place. This is the loop at the head end of the snake that you will attach to the bookmark later on. If your snake is going to be a free-roaming creature you can snip thought the tip of the loop at the end to give him a forked tongue!

 Row 1:                 2 light blue

 Row 2:                 red, light blue, red

 Row 3:                 4 light blue

 Row 4:                 3 light blue

 Row 5:                 2 dark blue

 For the next 19 rows, use 2 beads for each row and build up a pattern of stripes:

 Rows 6,7,8: 2      light blue

 Row 9:                 2 dark blue

 Rows 10,11,12:   2 light blue

 Row 13:               2 dark blue

 Rows 14,15:        2 light blue

 Row 16:               2 dark blue

 Rows 17,18:        2 light blue

 Row 19:               2 dark blue

 Rows 20,21:        2 light blue

 Row 22:               2 dark blue

 Rows 23,24:        2 light blue

 Row 25:               1 dark blue

 Row 26:               1 light blue

 Row 27:               1 dark blue

 Row 28:               1 light blue

 Row 29:               1 dark blue

Now twist the wires tightly together after the last bead to close the beading. Cut the ends to 3 mm long and push them up between the last two beads in the design so they don’t stick out.You should now have a long, patterned, beautifully straight snake! Give him a bit of life by bending in some sideways zigzags just below the head and a further down the body so he looks wriggly, then attach home to the silver bookmark using a jump ring. Nicely done!