All about jewellery making

Having become rather fascinated by the use of tiny macrame knots to make jewellery I decided to incorporate some colour in order to make pattern the main feature of the work.  Many of you will recognise this technique as that of the ‘friendship bracelet’, a South American inspired method sometimes also known as the ‘Brazilian bracelet’ (although its true origin is much broader than that and would probably be more accurately described as Guatamalan or Peruvian).

I used to make these brightly coloured bracelets many years ago and enjoyed wearing them en masse up my arms loving the bright jewelled colours and stained glass like patterns.  During my younger years the finishing techniques that I used (simply plaiting each end) were fairly basic and with my subsequent knowledge of jewellery making and macrame I felt ready to take the humble friendship bracelet to a new level.  My knotting is much neater and I incorporate a tightly wrapped loop at one end to secure the bracelet.

There are various different threads that you can use for making friendship bracelets but I favour the stranded cotton usually used for embroidery and cross stitch.  I have recently added skeins of this cotton to my craft shop in a wide range of colours where my completed friendship bands are also for sale.  Very little equipment is needed to make these little gems.  I find a thick cakeboard and macrame pins (also known as ‘T’ pins) very useful for pinning my work while knotting.

This kind of jewellery is great for everyday, casual wear and has a wide appeal.  I love the way that Sylvie Gauche and Jacques Kammerer describe the legend of the friendship bracelet in their book:

‘Legend attributes to the “Brazilian bracelet” a lucky quality.  The person to whom it is given makes a wish at the moment it is tied to her wrist.  It should never be taken off for any reason.  Worn out by time, the threads will tear, until one day the bracelet will fall off by itself.  It is at that precise moment that the wish that was expressed should be realised.

Whether you believe or not in the legend is up to you.  But what is certain is that making yourself a true little “jewel”, whether to be given to a friend or to be worn by you, already creates a lot of pleasure.

Now just imagine for a moment, it won’t require any effor, the streets of some large city at rush hour, that kind of haze where grey and black blend, all the anonymous faces that pass each other all those gazes unaware of each other.  You can now close your eyes; approach, approach… closer still, and… on with the show.

With little brush strokes, we add some sky blue here, a touch of prairie green there…, finally a dash of mauve.  Bright and lively colors [sic] appear on the arms of the passers-by, one hundred thousand rainbows which gradually lighten up that weary gloom.

The picture starts to move, to live.  Already the first smile appears, the first mask falls, it’s a victory.

Perhaps this is it, the magic power of the “lucky charm” bracelet.’

Quoted from ‘Brazilian Bracelets’ by Sylvie Gauche and Jacques Kammerer, DMC 1988 (ISBN 2-283-58078-1)

There are a number of good resources for making friendship bracelets on the internet.  Here are my favourites*:

Heather’s friendship bracelet forum
Stefan’s friendship bracelet site
Polish friendship bracelet site with over 500 patterns (text is available in English)

*Don’t forget to check out their links pages, you will find more friendship bracelet sites there.

It is amazing how relaxing tying so many knots can be, at least to me!  To some I suppose it could be seen as pure madness.  Without question it can be frustrating when threads become tangled or you make a mistake but there is something so satisfying about neatly placing and tightening the knots to create something beautiful from what are, after all, fairly basic materials. 

With a craft such as macrame the materials used are fundamental to the result achieved.  Many will remember the hairy plant pot holders and owl wall hanging of the 60s and 70s most usually created from common household string.  Not only was such thread appealing to the thrifty-minded ‘make do and mend’ culture but it was also readily available.  Another material inexorably linked with macrame is hemp and this is one that I decided to try out in combination with wooden beads and thrifted peach buttons. 

A particular property of the hemp is its slight roughness and undulating profile reminding us that this is indeed a very natural material.  The hemp I used for this bracelet was undyed but Anchor now produce a medium thickness hemp in a range of colours called ‘Anchor Nativa’.

Following this experiemnt I tried out a size 20 crochet cotton (Anchor Fioretta) in a gloriously rich, Cadbury-esque, velvety purple.  The resultant tiny knots in combination with size 11/0 seed beads created a very fine lace-like fabric.

This is much more my cup of tea but I tend to favour more delicate work. 

Just these two micro macrame bracelets illustrate that very different effects can be achieved by experimenting with the materials used. 

Now, what to knot with next!…

I have been interested and fascinated by some of the micro macrame techniques that I have seen on the web.  A while ago I experiemented with this technique and yesterday I came across Knotgypsy’s blog where patterns for micro macrame jewellery are available.  I thought it would be fun to give it another go and so ordered a couple of patterns.  The micro macrame beaded bracelet that I am showing here is based on the micro macrame spiral bracelet/anklet pattern.  I chose a colour palette that reminded me of the sea.

Full view showing the lovely blue glass beads I found in my ‘oddments’ bead pot and the grey shiny button incorporated as the clasp.

A portion of the main part of the macrame work.

A close up of the button clasp with beaded tassel.

The days of hairy plant pot holders have truly gone!  (Although there is nothing wrong with them if that is what you like, lol!).

I thought I would add here some good macrame sites for your interest:

http://www.micromacrame.com/ - online micro macrame beading classes, member’s gallery and discussion board.

http://www.elainecraft.com/ - good resource for learning macrame.

http://www.knotgypsy.blogspot.com/ - Knotgypsy sells patterns for micromacrame jewellery in her Etsy shop. 

Here is the prototype of a recently created wire, crystal and seed bead bangle.  I wanted to create a bracelet that didn’t need a fastening and was therefore adjustable so it would fit most size wrists.  I consider this to still be at the prototype stage as it is not as sturdy as I would like.  I used 18 gauge wire for the core but all that is holding the two core wires together is the series of beads on headpins with wrapped loops on either end.  I think it would be better to use the wrapping wire to thread through these beads somehow so that the two core wires are more firmly held in place.  Will work on it.  Also, I need to find a better way of finishing off the ends (not shown in the photo because they are not great!) - they are ok but could do with some refining to make them look more attractive.

I designed this daisy bead bracelet to incorporate the polymer clay daisy beads that I made.  I thought I would share the instructions for the bracelet with you here.  You could use any other kind of flower beads or fancy lampwork beads but if you would like to use daisies like mine they are available from my shop - here.

Materials

3x daisy beads (available here)
Small amount of size 8/0 seed beads in pale green
Approx. 10g of size 11/0 seed beads.  I have used frosted white
1x beaded bead, large bead or alternative for clasp
Nymo thread
Beading needle

The first stage is to create the bracelet base or ’stem’.  This provides a sturdy basis onto which you can build your seed bead embellishment.  My bracelet is approximately 7.5 ins but you may wish to lengthen or shorten it accordingly.

Starting with your beaded bead or alternative clasp create the ’stem’ by threading your beads as follows - 18x 8/0 seed beads, 1 daisy bead, 5x 8/0 seed beads, 1x daisy bead, 5x 8/0 seed beads, 1x daisy bead, 18x 8/0 seed beads.  At the end of this sequence you need to make your fastening loop.  Make sure that it is big enough to go over your beaded bead or whatever fastening you have chosen.  Here I have used 21x 11/0 seed beads and have taken the thread back through the first and second 11/0 beads to complete the loop.  When you have done this fasten off securely.  You are now ready to add on the seed bead embellishments.

The ‘embellishments’ are really very simple as they are just loops of either 9 or 11 seed beads.  I found this easiest to achieve by adding them in 2 stages.

Taking a new thread bring your needle up between the first and second 8/0 beads.  Thread on 9x 11/0 seed beads, take your needle back through the first 11/0 added and then through the next 8/0 bead so that you are ready to add the next loop on the opposite side of the stem between beads 3 and 4.  This loop will have 11 beads instead of 9.  This alternation of the number of beads just provide a bit of variety.  Keep going like this until you reach the end of the bracelet.  Then go back the other way adding sets of 9 beads opposite the loops containing 11 and vice versa.  If you wish you could add even more loops.

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