Crystal Bracelet
Finished bracelet.
Several months ago I took out my kumihimo square
and finally tried using it to make a strip of metal braid. The square shaped tool makes a flat braid like a watch band. Using size 20 wire I made a very simple braid. This is dangerous without eye protection! While working braid the tension really needs to be as even as possible or the braid while change widths. Besides the ends trying to hit my glasses it went rather well. I ended up with a firm strip of metal that wrapped almost twice around my wrist. Then it sat where I could see it for months but I had no idea what to do with it.
Unbraiding the wire ends.
Finally I decided to clip the ends off of the braid to make a bangle type bracelet. However I still didn't know how to close the bracelet which was a problem. Unfortunately I couldn't clip through all of the overlapping wires so I unbraided the ends of the bracelet to clip each wire separately. The wavy wires were so pretty that I only cut them to even them up on both ends. Next the ends were straightened and crystals added. The crystals were secured by a simple circular bend on each end. For this I used blue and clear crystals which had AB treatments so they really sparkled!
Bracelet with crystals added.
At first I was just going to bend the bracelet ends going opposite directions. Sort of like a snake circling an arm. Then a truly creative idea came to me! Taking the first wires I interlaced them going in opposite directions and continued with all the wires. Then putting the bracelet on I sort of squeezed the braid and the wires were forced to interlace even deeper. This caused the ends of the wire to pop out and the braid to fit my wrist.
Finished bracelet.
Personally I love this bracelet! There are some down sides to it unfortunately. The wire ends really pop up and so it is easy to snag them. The bracelet seems to also be compressing the actual braid tighter and causes the bracelet to need re-tightening. Still if I was not wearing something delicate and with had short sleeves on I would definitely wear this bracelet.