Twisted Bead Bracelet

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I'm one of those people who doesn't want to buy a pre-made finished product if I think I can make one better, and cheaper. It only recently occurred to me, while sorting through all of my crafting supplies--beads, fabrics, and whatnot, that I've always been that way. I'm also a bit of a hoarder in the sense that I hold on to things I think will be useful later, as evident by all the fabric left from my high school sewing classes and the random assortment of beads and half-made hemp bracelets.

This instructable is for those beaded bracelets with strands that twist and wind around one another.

Using your cord/wire of choice, cut out 3-6 strands that are maybe an inch longer than the circumferance of your wrist or of how loose you want the bracelet to hang off.

For each strand, I used a bead to tie the ends so that my work wouldn't fall apart. You can also use a bead crimper.

I decided on a color scheme and which beads I would use and then I filled each strand, leaving 1/2-1 empty at the top. I also used another bead to tie off the top so I wouldn't lose the strand while I worked on the others.

After all the strands are beaded I untie one end of each strand and try to twist the ends all together so I can get them all into the closures (pictures 1 and 2). This is a good place to add a little jewelry glue to the wires before folding the edges of the closures over and crimping them with your jewelry pliers.

It's okay if strands of wire are hanging out, you'll cut them off later.

Once one end is all capped off, you can start winding your strands around each other. Depending on the number of strands you use, you can do a simple braid, or group the strands by 2s or 3s and wrapping them around each other before twisting the groups together.

Here I just kind of focused on the dark red beaded strand and used that to wrap around the other 3 strands.

When I was satisfied with how the wrapping looked, I took the beads off the ends of the strands and put a second closure on to hold everything together. Add more jewelry glue to the strands before folding the sides over and crimping.

The last thing I did was to cut the excess ends off and added a little more jewelry glue to the top of the closures.

Now you have a homemade bracelet that looks like you bought it.

These type of bracelets can be made with more than 4-6 strands, it all depends on how thick you want it.