Bead A Handmade Evil Eye Talisman!

Today's tutorial is in the nature of a personal protection device.  To wit, a powerful Evil Eye talisman for your home.

Traditional Evil Eye beads have a dark blue rim, then white, then light blue, with a black dot in the center.

I decided to see if I could do it in beads and wire.  Gee whizbangs!  It turned out kinda cool.

Hung anyplace you might need protection, it wards off all kinds of badness.  Plus it's blue, and we all like blue, right?

Care to make one of your very own?  Here comes my fun, beady DIY!


Coil up one end of a short piece of craft wire.  (The coil is important for later - don't make just a loop.)  Then string your light blues.

 Wrap the free end around the base of the coil; snip off the extra.  Now you have your innermost teardrop.

Make white and dark blue ones in graduated sizes.  Check for size as you go, so the three colors will nest together.

Put a black bead on a headpin.  Make a large loop, and attach it in the center of the smallest teardrop.

Now comes a very interesting step!  Uncoil about 1/4" of wire on the smallest teardrop.  Uncoil about 1/8" on the middle one.  Leave the outer teardrop coiled tight.  Like this:

Add all three to a big jumpring.  (You could also simply tie them together, threading your string through all three little coils.)  To get the teardrops to nest properly, you might need to adjust the 'uncoilings' just a bit. 

All done!

Add string or ribbon and hang it up.  Breathe easy!  You are now perfectly safe from evil.

It's quite charming made with simple glass beads.  Of course you could amp it up with something more schmancy, like these millefiori... 

Or even semiprecious beads, mebbe?  Hmm, what's out there in the right colors?  How about lapis, quartz crystal and turquoise!  Ooh, I like the sound of that.


And say!   Father's Day approaches; also graduation time.  A personal protection device could be an excellent gift...

...for the rearview mirror of any honored dad or grad.

Hope you liked this idea - please let me know what you think.

Note to crankypants skeptics and partypooping doubters: I might not be 100% serious about the mystic, evil-fighting properties of beads, but I am quite serious about this: stay safe out there, everyone.