It's not very often that I find something that looks good enough that I want to copy it exactly, but beadshop.com has some really great projects, and I knew as soon as I saw their
'Across Cultures' bracelet, that it was something I wanted to make. I followed the instructions on their page, and found them pretty clear, so I won't bother rehashing them here.
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| In progress. You'll actually need more turquoise beads than this shows... |
I already had most of the materials needed from past beading projects, and a past fascination with trade beads (so some of them are from various sellers on ebay), but I got the
little brass beads (called heishi) from beadshop.com, as well as the stringing materials (
tuff cord #3 and
brown leather cord) from them specifically for this, and they have just about everything you need (it is their project, after all), though I'll admit it has been sitting in project limbo for a while. The button and brass bell are from my collection, and the silver
blossom charm and gold
lotus charm are from an Etsy shop called
SweetRockCandyBeads—another one of my favorite suppliers. I also mixed it up a bit with some run-of-the-mill craft store beads I had already to give it a bit more variety—like the round silver beads in the top right of the next photo.
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| The finished loops. |
I'm sold on the Tuff Cord—this stuff is awesome!
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Getting it to fit just right requires some adjustments...
Try it on before gluing the final knots so you can shorten it if need be. |
That's my (hairy) arm, modeling just for you.
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| Voila! |
And that's it! I'd classify this as an intermediate project: you'll want to give yourself several hours for. It's also not one of the cheaper projects I've made—there's quite a few different supplies involved, but it's a good type of thing to use up little pieces of cool you might have laying around and finally give them a useful home. And it is a really cool bracelet, when all's said and done, so I consider it worth it. Check out the other color combinations they've got posted there, too, they're all great!
