How to Make a Claspless Beaded Bracelet

Claspless elastic bracelets are an easy addition to any outfit.

Beaded bracelets go in and out of fashion, but they are always an easy fallback when you need to accessorize to spice up an outfit. Claspless elastic bracelets are the perfect way to add a little splash of color and style to a very casual outfit. You can create your own claspless bracelet with acrylic or glass beads and then just slip it onto your wrist when you decide you want to add a little something to your look.

Things You'll Need

• Spring

Instructions

1. Purchase your materials. Buy regular elastic cord for a very casual bracelet. Purchase clear elastic cord if you want your bracelet to look a little more professional. Clear cord is made of plastic materials and will not stretch out like regular elastic. In addition, the clear color allows you to make smaller and less conspicuous knots.

2. Cut a length of elastic cord about 2 to 3 inches longer than your final desired length. The extra inches will give you slack so that you can tie knots.

3. Bend a spring sideways to create gaps between the individual metal rings that make up the spring. Insert your beading cord in between two of the rings and let the spring snap back to normal, trapping the cord inside. Now you will be able to string beads onto the cord without worrying about them falling off the other end.

4. String your beads onto the cord. Do not hesitate to change your design at this point if the three-dimensional version of your bracelet does not look like you want it to. It's always good to have a plan in mind, but you should feel free to modify your design as necessary.

5. Release the end of your cord from its trap inside the spring.

6. Tie a small knot at the ends of the cord, making sure that your knot is as small and tight as possible and sits between two beads. Do not allow any slack in your bracelet, or there will be spaces between your beads. You may want to secure your knot with a small drop of superglue.

Tips & Warnings

• Think about what outfits you may want to wear this bracelet with. You can even take a shirt or dress to your local craft store so that you can look at its bead selection and pick something that exactly matches the shades that you plan to wear. When you make a claspless acrylic bracelet, there is no separation at all between the beads, so you will either want to pick a group of identical (or similar) beads to string together, or a few focal beads that will be separated out by simple spacer beads.