Copper Ziwei Talisman Spacer DIY Charm

A spacer bead is not there to accompany the main beads. In a string, the main beads set the key and the spacers set the rhythm: they break it into sections and give the eye somewhere to rest. Without them a bracelet looks the same from end to end and grows dull to look at. A spacer has to be small, precise, and able to bear close inspection, because the wearer looks down and sees it. It does not catch the eye, but it sits in view whenever you glance down, and rough work drags the whole string down a grade.

The Ziwei taboo character is a composite form: a rain radical on top, the character for gradual in the middle, and an ear element closing at the bottom, three parts stacked and read as Ziwei. Ziwei refers to the Celestial Worthy of the Purple Tenuity of the North Star at the centre of heaven, one of the four Daoist emperors, dwelling in the Ziwei enclosure. In Daoist usage a taboo character turns a god's name into a secret script, not the name written plainly but the name dissolved into a form. Such characters appear on scriptures, command tablets and ritual implements. The Ziwei enclosure lies near the pole and was treated in old star charts as the centre of heaven.

The size of the spacer has to sit between the main bead and the accent bead: a size down from the main bead and a little wider than the cord, so the string does not rattle. The hole must be true; set off-centre and the whole string leans. Copper spacers fail first at the hole edge, where a burr will saw the cord, and one broken cord scatters the entire string, so both ends of the hole need chamfering and polishing. The bore needs polishing too: the cord runs back and forth through it, and a rough bore is a file.

Two colours, gold and silver. Gold is warm and holds its own against wooden beads and bodhi seeds; silver is cool and suits cool stones such as clear quartz and lapis lazuli. Dark wooden beads with gold and pale stones with silver is the least troublesome pairing. A single bead at the top position, or a pair flanking it on both sides, are the two commonest arrangements. A single bead is freer, since the position is yours to adjust, and a few tries will show where it sits well.

Copper spacers rub against their neighbours and in time develop a bright ring, which is normal. Take them off for showers; shampoo and soap collect in the bore and turn green over time. Store them with the main beads rather than loose in a drawer corner, because a piece that small is hard to match again. When stringing, leave the cord end a little long before finishing it; cut too short and the whole thing comes apart at the first slackening.