A perfect segue way into any craft project, as what I love about crafts is the process of making and the pride of completion. If I or someone else can use it, then its reason for existence has been met. It does not have to be the "best" craftsmanship or design, just something that "works".
I have been thinking for a little time now about bracelets and also expanding from my earring projects. I don't wear much jewelry, and what I do wear is almost constantly on (a ring and a necklace). So earrings and bracelets are areas where I find most flexibility for expansion. A problem I have had with many is that many one size fits all bracelets run too large for my wrists. For my first bracelet project I wanted to make something that I could slip on and off when I wanted to but did not fall off easily.
I decided to work on a design that was similar to the wire wrapped earrings I've gotten into making in the last year. Perfect because I already had most of the materials. I considered purchasing new bracelet sized wire that is made not to lose its shape, but decided just using thick wire wrapped twice would work just as well for my purposes, and better yet I had some among my supplies. As it will be completely covered in the finished project I was not concerned with material content.
Supplies (previously purchased at Beads on Fifth or off Ebay):
- Wire cutter
- 18 gauge wire (gold color copper; tarnish resistant craft wire from Bead Smith)
- 28 gauge wire (14kt gold filled)
- 6 Semi-precious rough cut strung stones (garnets)
*TIP: When the measuring tape has gone missing (or never existed in your too box) always helpful to keep string around to check measurements.
I looped the 18 gauge strand around twice with just over an inch overlap. The nice part about 28 gauge wire is that where you start really just disappears into the project. I began with a decent strand unwound from my spool and wound that end to completion, then started with the longer end.
I ended up using one continuous strand of the 28 gauge, which required some carefully wrapping (to avoid tangling)--this is probably not absolutely necessary because the wire blends nicely when doing tight wrapping but I generally like to do so and hopefully in future projects I will figure out some tricks to streamline the process. A little before halfway through winding (make sure to regularly push the loops towards the already made loops), I threaded in a few beads and and anchored them with a few winds in between each for spacing. I positioned the winding so the beads would fall along the wider 3 thickness portion of the 18 gauge band. Then, I finished the project by winding the 28 gauge around the remaining half of the band.
