Bracelet: It's a charm (2)

Here's something I made out of an old bracelet. Didn't like the brown cord as it was (plain), so decided to add on some charms as well as a gold chain to spruce things up.

Was so happy with this bracelet decided to wear it out the next day, paired with some other stuff I had lying around and a new turquoise dress :)

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.

Project: difficulty rating (?)

Not sure if the project is too ambitious for you? Here's a lil guide to help you decide!

1: Beginners. Doesn't involve use of any tools, just beads, cord, string... so no pliers, glue, lighters required!
2: Medium. Basic use of tools (E.g. use of pliers to manipulate jump rings and create basic hooks)
3: Experienced. Might involve wire wrapping, weaving and more

I've been debating whether to keep it to 3 levels or make it 5- less is more, in this case, so let's start with 3 and see how we go :)

Oh and the difficulty rating will be indicated in brackets in the post title :)

... became a gold statement necklace! (1)

Here’s what I made! To achieve a chunky look suitable for a statement necklace, I decided to use 2 cords and double up the hoops (I alternated threading the hoops in 3 batches:

1. through the 1st cord

2. through the 2nd cord

3. through both cords

4. repeat the above 3 steps

After I was done, it still looked like something was missing, so on the spur of the minute, I decided to add those 3 big teardrops 

Quite pleased with this piece- overall difficulty rating I’d say is 2 (pliers are only necessary for basic manipulation of jump rings. Click here for projects’ difficulty guide). Hope you guys like it too! 

I should have put on step by step photos as well as a picture of what the necklace looked like without the teardrops- a little lazy to undo it now- so will save that for the next project! 

The 1st project...

Organising my beads and came across some golden hoops and purple cord that I’d like to use up. Let’s see what we can do with them!