DIY Statement Bracelet

1. Intro: Hi, I'm Chris, artist, designer maker and fashion industry professional for over 10 years. For the last six years, I've been designing and crafting jewelry from an artist perspective available on my website . See design jewelry dot com. In this class, I'm going to show you how to make a gorgeous statement bracelet, and it's easier than you might think. I'll go over all the tools and all the materials or needs. Then I'll take you step by step from start to finish before you'll know what you'll be wearing. One of your own this'll bracelet is size adjustable by slightly pulling it apart all the way around to enlarge it or by squeezing the bends together to make it smaller. Put it on and scrunch it down. Your risk for to get a perfect custom fit. This bracelet will look fantastic with your work outfits with your day wear with jeans or out on the town for the evening. Peace also makes a wonderful gift. Join me as we get this party started. All you have to do is quickly. You're no button. See in the next video 2. Tools and Materials: I'm going to go over all the tools and materials you're gonna need for the project. First of all, round nose pliers to shape the wire. Then you're going to need cutters to cut the wire. When we're done shaping the bracelet, you'll need a tape measure to measure your risk to see how large the bracelet will be and a ruler so that we can keep the width of the bracelet on track around. A tool is also useful in making the beds in your wire. Ah, ballpoint panel word to I use 14 gauge brass wire because it holds its shape and it's beautiful. I get my supplies from fire Mountain gems dot com, amazon dot com or etc dot com for your welcome to get them wherever you like. 3. Bracelet Sizing: the first thing to do is measure what size you're going to make your bracelet. A tape measure is the easiest way to do this. By taking it and wrapping it around your wrist, I would leave a little bit of space there, um, to pull the bracelet on and off the bracelet will be adjustable, so you'll be able to stretch it as it goes over your hand. But you still want a little bit of space there for comfort. If this bracelet is for someone else, you're going to wanna maybe borrow a bracelet from them or measure them. If you don't have a tape measure, the next best thing is to use a piece of string or yarn. It essentially does the same thing. I just want to hold it in the same spot. You held the tape measure and then cut in that exact spot so that you have the size of your bracelet there with string, and you can use it as a reference. Once you cut it, double check to make sure you've cut it. The right size can always cut another piece. Pretend you're taking it off. Pretend you're putting it on. Just see what the comfort level will be. And now it's time to start bending some wire 4. Getting Started: time to get started. First, take the wire and gently pull the end away from school. I like to pull about 12 inches, so I have plenty of room to work. Now it's time to make our first spend in the wire with the round nose pliers. Grab the end of the wire at the base of the pliers so that your bend isas large as possible . Give it a little twist. Do this slowly and methodically because some bends, if they're done to radically, can never be removed or prepared. So you just want to move it very slowly around until you have the end of your wire touching the length of your wire. Forming an islet. Feel the ends so that there are no sharp edges sticking out. After you have flattened out any rough edge it you're going to want to take a look at how you're ill. It lines up with the length of your wire. It should be straight. In this case, you can see it's bent over to the left. I'm gonna take the pliers and just finish it off a little bit. Spy. Straightening it very slowly, very gently. Been the wire so you don't over bend. Now you can see it straight against the length of the wire 5. Techniques and Tips: Now that we have our island at the end of our wire, we're ready to begin pending. Take your ruler tool, and I measure out two inches, which is a comfortable size for me, but you're welcome to make it larger or smaller. You're going to take your index fingers, put them nails together and take your thumbs and just bend the wire in on itself. You have sort of an elbow shape. Now take your index finger and your thumb on either side and give each side a little squeeze until the ends or touching. Now we're going to reposition our Eilat so that it is perpendicular to the direction that our bends will be going in. Take your round nose pliers, grab your islet firmly at the base and give it a firm little twist in the correct direction . Then, once again, take your islet and the length of your wire and give it a little squeeze. So there, touching or almost touching. Now we're going to continue with on to our second band. Put your bend at that two inch mark and just gently, slowly, methodically take the length of your wire and wrap it around your tool. Now we have our second bend, but you can see that it's a little bit short of the two inches. This is super easy to repair by just on bending it slightly. So you're right. It that two inch mark and then re bending it from that higher position. Conceal. Put my thumb right at that point, and we'll just gently start bending it back. Once you have the point, you can grab the end of your wire and just bend it down toward the rest of the work until it's touching or slightly touching. And now we've completed our second band. Continue on either with your tool or your fingers. I'm very comfortable using my fingers, so I'm just going to put my index finger at the two inch mark and continue making those bends. At that point, it's very important to keep the rest of your work intact while you're making your new bends , so grab it firmly in the hand that's comfortable for you. While you're making your new bends as you're going along, squeeze your work so that you can keep perspective on the correct width and the correct length of your bracelet. You will reap. Keep repeating this and check the size as you go to stay on track. You can see right here my bend at the bottom is a little long. Gently undo the wire and bend it back at that two inch mark. Could see. I've created just a little bit of ah kink in the wire and I'm gonna show you how to straighten that out. I'm going to use my players just to be able to grab it really strongly while I just gently on kink that wire very, very slowly could see the kink has just been taken out of it now and we can bend the wire back again toward the bracelet. 6. The Body of the Bracelet : So now that we've gone through all the tips and techniques, we're ready to go out the rest of our bracelet. I am going to get going on mine and play a little music while I'm doing it and I'll see you guys at the finish. It's 7. On to the Finish: Now that we have the body of our bracelet complete, we're going to want to measure it, to be sure it's the right length according to what we measured in the beginning with your tape measure. Just measure the length and mine's a little long. Um, I wanted it about seven and 1/4 so I'm going to just simply take out a couple of Ben's to make it the right length. I'm just gonna re measure just to be sure that's about right on the money. So now we're ready to begin shaping the bracelet gently start twisting it into a circular shape. But do this slowly and gently do it a little bit of time by just twisting it around until you have shaped it into a circle all the way around. Slow correction. So you don't make any kinks in the wire, and now you can see we have a circle shape. Now we're going to take the islet at the other end of the bracelet and bend it so that it is twisted, kind of in a scroll shape right at the center of your bracelet. The next step is to cut off the end of our wire. We're gonna do that. The base of the last bend. Grab your cutters and with cutters, you want to use the thicker side side where the blade is, um, coming to a point. It just adds strength, and it's a little bit easier to cut that way than the other way. You also want a position, your wire at the base of your cutters again that will add life to them. If you cut the top, it will tend to spring them, and then they won't cut well anymore. So position the wire at the base and give it a sharp cut. Now, notice my cutters are perpendicular with the direction that the wire is going. That is to create a cut that will flip over into the island and not create sharp edges that you can catch yourself on later. So now we're going to pull it away from the brace it a little bit, and we're going to place it inside the other islet and you're gonna lift the other side up a little higher. It's gonna look uneven, but you're gonna wanna have a little room to create the last eyelet. So you're gonna need to do that with your round nose pliers, grab the end of the wire with the end of the pliers so that you have maximum space to make the right size islet and slowly start curving it. Make sure to keep that per particular edge going up into the side of the bracelet to keep the sharp edges away from where your skin is going to be or your clothing could catch on it . Now we're going to keep that rare twisting around into a circular shape and you could see were almost completed with our island. So it's time to check to make sure everything's lining up properly before we finish. Just slide the island back where it would be if it was finished and then closed the gap we made to create the Eilat and then just twisted around Double check it to make sure everything's lining up, and it looks good. It looks like everything is as it should be, So now we're going to go on to closing the gap of the Eilat. Just take the wire and complete that islet once more, feeling around to see if there's any sharp edges that will catch on your skin or clothing? Um, close any final gaps that you might have, but all should be complete. Now you have now finished your bracelet, and it's time to try it on. I'm not feeling any sharp edges. It's fitting. Well, I wanted it a little bit of a loose fit, and this works just great. 8. Conclusion : I hope you enjoyed making this statement braces as much as I did. I can't wait to see your take on this design. I invite you to share your projects in the project gallery. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have. Big or small. I would also appreciate your review. Thanks for joining.