Sunday, December 28, 2014

My experience with friendship bracelets

Hello guys!
I apologise for not posting anything here for a really really really long time, but now the wait is over! :P

Today we will talk about friendship bracelets :) You probably remember them from your childhood – everyone used to make them at school, very much as kids now make rubber band bracelets.
(Click on images to enlarge)

Friendship Bracelets

Embroidery Floss I kind of never made or received friendship bracelets when I was a kid, I'm not entirely sure why :D. My encounter with friendship bracelets was this spring, when my friend Joana over at MaliNova Crafts taught me the basic Candystripe bracelet pattern. Needless to say, I was instantly hooked. I bought a few colours of embroidery floss and I was ready to go :)

Sevda from WindySunset photoshopped as Don Draper
Sevda "The Ad-guy" Draper,
straight out of the 60s :D
When I mastered the Candystripe, I looked online for tutorials on other kinds of friendship bracelets and I stumbled upon this wonderful Youtube channel – BeyondBracelets – which covers everything you ever need to know about friendship bracelet making and also tutorials for lots of nice bracelet designs. I know I sound like an ad-guy (not unlike Don Draper from Mad Men), but I am really and honestly grateful that such people exist out there :)

Soon enough I learned the Chevron, the Diamond and the Alternating Leaves patterns (I'm not sure what is the official name, but you will see what it looks like in the pic below). So far my most favourite patterns are the Alternating leaves and the Diamond (in the top picture - second from left to right), and when I learn more, I'll let you know if my preference has changed :P

Friendship Bracelets
Friendship Bracelets
Friendship Bracelets

Although the Chevron is one of the super basic patterns, I did my own twist of the pattern. If you're not familiar with the Chevron pattern, check this link, and then continue.

Friendship Bracelets I had a lot of seed beads at hand, so I thought what would be the way to integrate them into friendship bracelets? Every few rows of the Chevron, just before I finish each row by tying the two center strands, I string a seed bead on both of them simultaneously, instead of tying them together. Then I continue with the next row as per usual and no distortion of the shape of the bracelet occurs. You can see the result on the picture to the right.

In the beginning when I was making friendship bracelets, I would cut off their ends and put crimp ends (and glue) on the bracelets. When I started making the Alternating leaves pattern however, I decided to try a more classical approach on finishing friendship bracelets – with two braids at one end, and a loop on the other. To learn how to make them, check this and this video by BeyondBracelets.

Friendship Bracelets
Friendship Bracelets

I will continue making friendship bracelets as well as the other things I do, and I hope you found this blog useful and inspiring, and have started to consider taking up this easy and relaxing craft :)

My next blog post will be next year, just after the start of the new year and it will be a long-awaited polymer clay full tutorial! Stay tuned and of course, don't forget to stay sunny!

Have a great week!
Sevda (WindySunset)

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