Tuesday, December 11, 2012

How to Make Anchor and Infinity Bracelets

I can't believe I haven't written anything here in 2 months! It's been crazy with school and work but I'm back now so you don't have to be sad anymore. So you pinners know that the Anchor and Infinity Bracelets are spreading like wildfire...well I decided to make some myself! They are so easy to make once you get the supplies and I've been selling them on Etsy to make some extra cash. They sell like crazy and I have already run out of supplies (more soon to come). But here it goes...here's how you can make them just like mine.
First off you will need leather cord in any color or style. I went for a mixture of braided leather and plain leather. You can get these anywhere! Honestly, I buy mine at Walmart (it's technically suede) and it's so much cheaper.







These are the brands I use.










You need small clasps and jump rings so that you can take your bracelet on and off. You will also need anchor and infinity charms. I buy these on either Ebay or Etsy, depending on how fast I need them. If you buy on Ebay, you can get them for very cheap with free shipping...however they are usually shipping from China so be prepared to wait about a month to receive them. Otherwise, Etsy sellers are usually pretty quick at shipping!

Lastly, you will need these clamp thingys. If you order them online, they are usually called ribbon crimps or something along those lines. Make sure you pay attention to the size, as you need to fit lots of leather cord in these little things. I buy 16mm crimps and they work just fine. Usually the bigger they are, the better they will look.
So here's how you put it together. Start cutting your leather cord into 8" strips. For these bracelets, I needed 8 of the regular leather and one of the braided leather. The bracelet itself will be 7" long, but we'll fix it later. I usually have to iron the strips so that they lay flat. Next, we will put the charms on. I'll try to describe this the best that I can. We'll start with the infinity charm. Fold the cord in half and loop it through one side of the charm. Bring the two ends of the cord through the loop and pull it tight. Do this to the other side as well.

Next, we will put the anchor charms on. The top of the anchor is easy. Just string it through the hole. Sometimes I need to use my needle-nose jewelry pliers to get it through the hole. On the bottom of the anchor, create another loop (similar to the infinity charms) and string the ends through. Like this:

Guess what? You now have all the pieces to your bracelet now, you crafty lady, you. Next, we will measure our bracelets to be 7" long. 7" is the standard bracelet length, but if your wrists are bigger/smaller/kids size, you can adjust as needed. What I do is line up the charms at the 3.5" mark (half of 7") and cut off the ends.
Once you have this done, we will put them in the crimp/clamp. Line up the end of the leather strands in your hand like so, and place the clamp over top. Then, use your pliers to pinch them shut. This may be a little difficult to keep the leather in one place, but I promise it can be done.
Do this to both ends of the bracelet. Next we will attach jump rings and clasps to the bracelet. The final stage! Woooohooooo. Take your handy dandy beading pliers and attach the jump ring to the end of the bracelet. Before closing up the jump ring, you will place your clasp to the jump ring, as well. If you do not know how to attach a clasp and jump ring to your jewelry, click here for some great instructions. The section of the video you will need starts at 1:15. It will end up looking like this:
Do this to the other side too. On the second side, however, make sure your bracelet cords line up when you lay them on a flat surface. If they don't, just trim them to be the same length.
And SHAZAM. You made yourself a bracelet.

Love these things. You can make them for gifts or sell them in your own Etsy store! When you get really good at making them (like me...I'm a wizard at making them. Just sayin') it will only take you about 10 minutes to get through these steps!

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