Making Bracelets Unique

© by Rena Klingenberg; all rights reserved

Making bracelets more unique can involve using handmade clasps, unusual design elements, or a new technique.

A multi-strand style that mixes a variety of similar elements can provide a lot of visual interest.

In the photo above, silver chains of different weights and link styles combine pleasingly with white pearls of many sizes. The design is basically silver and pearls - but the mixture of sizes, shapes, and textures keeps it from being an ordinary bracelet.

I also have a rustic, multi-strand leather bracelet, where each leather strip has a different size and quantity of beads scattered across it. The matching leather strips pull the whole design together, while the bead variety gives it an artistic flair.

Multiple strands give you more of a "canvas" for your creativity than just one strand does.

Try something unusual for wrist jewelry.

Here, fabric with bead embroidery makes an attractive, elegant alternative to ordinary metal or bead designs:

I've also seen jewelry artists using offbeat materials like:

• papier mache
• knitted or crocheted thread
• ribbons
• repurposed bicycle tires
• buttons
• hardware store odds and ends, etc.

Consider anything that's smaller than your fist as having potential to be used in making bracelets!

Bracelets are a nice size for getting artistic with surface treatments.

Below, two different brushed gold designs combine to form an elegant, artistic series of bracelet links:

Other ideas for creative surface treatments:

• collage
• words, letters, or numbers
• engraving
• oxidizing / patina
• carving
• hammering
• antiquing or ageing creatively
• images
• painting, etc.

Use a classic design as a starting point - and then update it with a creative new twist.

For example, most charm bracelets are an eclectic collection of charms of various shapes (and sometimes various colors). But how about a charm bracelet where all the charms are the same design but different sizes, like this one:

Instead of standard jewelry metals (gold, silver, copper, brass, etc.) - how about something really unusual?

This design uses safety-pins that have been beautified with beads and other things:

Use pieces of your scrap wire to create artistic clasps.

This is something you can easily do while watching TV. Just get out your container of scrap wire, plus your pliers and a pair of cutters - and let your creativity run free.

Turn your scraps into a variety of sizes and shapes of artistic hooks you can use in future jewelry projects. When you're making bracelets it's nice to have a selection of handmade clasps already made that you can choose from.