Wednesday 10 April 2013

Bracelets tutorial: stack them up (1)


These silver bracelets are really easy to make! (The black ones- leftmost- are slightly more complicated but still not difficult) Individually they're quite ordinary, but I do like the look of them stacked up. 

What you'll need (rightmost bracelet)

1. silver-coloured beads (like those shown below)
2. elastic thread

What to do

1. Cut a piece of elastic thread- it should be long enough to go round your wrist once with about 7 cm to spare. (This can vary depending on how loose/ tight you like your bracelets!)
2. Thread the bead caps on, as shown below, till you have your desired length.
3. Tie 2-3 knots then cut off the excess elastic and you're done!

If you have other beads in stock, such as crystals or pearls, feel free to throw them in and you can get something like the bracelets below. In such cases, do make sure that your knot is next to a bead with a fairly large hole so that you can hide the knot in it.




Feeling inspired? 
Get the beads to make the bracelet in this tutorial- 40 beads for SGD10/ USD8.35
(I used 54 of the silver beads (not sure if you can tell but they're actually meant to be bead caps!!) but that's because I'm big-boned and I like my jewellery loose. With 40 beads alone, I can go round my wrist exactly once.)

Or get a random mix and create your own design:
- Random mix of 40 silver-coloured beads only (SGD10/ USD8.35)
- Random mix of 40 silver-coloured beads and crystals and/or glass beads (SGD11/ USD9.20)

Here's what I made with the random beads I had leftover:

TIP
Working with pearls .....
I had to use the nylon coated wire and hook to make this bracelet because holes on pearls are pretty small, making it difficult to thread the elastic through. If you prefer easy-to-wear elastic bracelets, you could get round this by threading the elastic through a fine needle.

Choosing elastic...
Try to use an elastic that is made of many fine plastic strands instead of a single thick elastic plastic cord as the latter hardens and loses its elasticity/ breaks more quickly, especially in hot and humid countries! Pictures of the 2 types of elastic to come soon.



1 comment:

  1. Hi,
    Thanks for your comment on my blog, a bead soup sounds like great fun! I've not done one before. The best way to get in touch is to email littlekoojewellery@gmail.com so I look forward to hearing from you soon!
    Rachel x

    ReplyDelete