How to make friendship bracelets? There are many different ways to make friendship bracelets! When we first started exploring the different ways of how to make friendship bracelets (only very recently) we were amazed at how many different ways there are to make these lovely bracelets. We love them! (the bracelets and the different ways to make them) 🙂

Why did we become interested in making friendship bracelets? Well, we started our little beachy venture off by making little garden ornaments with sea glass, wire, and driftwood, then we started to make some sea glass earrings and necklaces, so it was natural to follow up with “what other kinds of homemade jewellery can we make?”

We also both enjoy browsing through many images on Pinterest, images of all sorts of different things – but in particular images of beachy subjects, beach house decor ideas topics, beautiful beaches, beach crafts, sea glass topics, beach photography, and anything else related to the ocean or beach.

It was on Pinterest that we found many beautiful pictures of beautiful and creative friendship bracelets. The link that comes with each picture on Pinterest is very useful in that when it comes to homemade jewellery that link often leads to a website page that has a tutorial on how to make the item (the homemade jewellery item that appeared in the picture on Pinterest.)

We were also keen to think of ways to use all the threads (different kinds and different thicknesses of thread from thin strands of cotton right up to flat shoe-lace thickness) that we’d bought at an auction for R50 (we got about 3 big black dirtbin bags worth of an assortment of threads, including some ribbon, cord for curtain tiebacks, and flat shoelace thread, for R50) – some of the threads were really short, or tangled up, but it was still a wonderful and useful “lucky packet” and bargain for just R50. Enough thread and cord there for over 100 friendship bracelets – and the money back from the sale of just one or two.

I was also particularly keen in learning how to make friendship bracelets or macrame bracelets since I’m useless at the intricate wire work that goes into the making of the sea glass necklaces and earrings – Tony says I’m not useless, just impatient, and he’s probably right, but all the same, I wanted to contribute more to the homemade jewellery making than just through helping find sea glass and through the marketing of what we’re doing, and with making friendship bracelets, I can (can contribute.) I can use the square knot macrame technique to make friendship bracelets and Tony can add the wire work and sea glass. I look forward to learning more about other techniques of making friendship bracelets soon, too.

We wondered how we could mix our interest in sea glass with making friendship bracelets, and so a new little beachy craft adventure began.

Now there are easy ways to make frienship bracelets and then not so easy ways. Beginner friendship bracelet makers may have to get used to following friendship bracelet patterns, and we haven’t even tried friendship bracelet patterns yet, or adding beads as we go along, but we did decide to try and make some macrame bracelets instead. Macrame bracelets resemble friendship bracelets in many ways. Tony knows some macrame techniques, but I didn’t, so off I went to learn macrame techniques, online, for free. I found one method of making macrame friendship bracelets quite easy to follow, and referred to it for my first two macrame bracelets, then I was fine to continue (making further macrame friendship bracelets) without looking at the step by step instructions and photos anymore.

The first square knot macrame technique I found online was fairly easy to follow, but it didn’t have as many steps as another version of the square knot macrame technique I found online, plus this second place had a great step (step 16) that I really needed. Step 16 of this macrame square knot technique for a bracelet showed how to know which side thread to use next, if you forgot what you did last – as a beginner (and as a dizzy blonde at times) string (or other thread) bracelet maker I needed that! So it was this second place that I used to learn how to make my first two macrame bracelets.

In addition to making friendship bracelets or macrame bracelets – or whatever they are called! – we’ve also made some bracelets using just black waxed cord, without any special technique of friendship bracelet weaving or macrame, but just attaching a piece of sea glass.

I haven’t really been all that creative with the friendship bracelets yet – I’ve stuck to so far only using the square knot macrame technique, although sometimes I have first knotted my two main straight threads at roughly equal intervals apart, down the length (the two threads one wraps the other threads around and that one doesn’t do anything with – other than knot at the ends and add a clasp if one wants to) – I quite like adding some knots in the two main straight threads as the finished item then looks like it has beads where those knots are – the knots sometimes even look a little like roses or flowers. The only other creative thing I have done is to add a mini-friendship bracelet thread to the main bracelet, to dangle down alongside the three little pieces (charms) of wire-wrapped sea glass Tony added to the same bracelet.

Tony is the one that has so far been the most creative with the friendship bracelets that I make, when he adds wire work for the clasps, and adds one or more sea glass pieces as decoration or as charms.

Making homemade jewellery is fun, and making homemade friendship bracelets is particularly fun – and relaxing at the same time. Try it yourself!

© Copyright Teresa Schultz 2013