Styles of Friendship Bands

Make a loved one's wish come true with a friendship bracelet gift.

Friendship bracelets are tradition crafts of Central and South American Indians that are now popular in other cultures. The giver ties a friendship bracelet around the wrist of a friend, or loved one. Some believe that if the receiver wears the bracelet continually until it falls off, then a wish made when the bracelet was given will come true. Others wear the bracelets until they fall apart simply to respect the work gone into making them. People often make the bracelets to give as gifts.

Embroidery Floss

Embroidery floss friendship bracelets are the most common. They are easy and cheap to make with colored embroidery floss, which is thicker than thread but lighter than yarn. There are two main styles of this bracelet. The normal has the rows knotted diagonally, while the alpha style has the rows knotted horizontally. It's difficult to use more than two colors for alpha type bracelets, but normal types often include several. Some normal styles include chevron; double, inverse and bordered chevron; Chinese staircase and candy stripe. The patterns run at angles across the width of the band. Bracelets with uniform shapes like hearts and crosses repeated around the length of the band are the alpha type. Alpha is short for alphabet, so named because this style is also useful for lettered designs.

Wire

Wire friendship bracelets are long-lasting. They are usually made from craft wire or memory wire. Wire is shaped into the desired pattern and bent into a band-shape to fit the wrist. Strands twisted together make thicker, stronger bands and sometimes a bead caps off the wire, or wires, at both ends.

Gimp

Gimp, or boondoggle, is a plastic kind of lace. Friendship bracelets woven from this plastic lace have been around for more than 20 years and are still popular with youngsters today.

Hemp

Hemp is an organic, environmentally friendly material. As such, it makes a popular choice for friendship bracelet makers. Hemp has coarse fibers and is naturally gray/brown, so it is sometimes dyed in brighter colors before use. Hemp twine strands knotted together form the friendship bands.

Beaded

Beaded friendship bracelets can include beads that are symbolic of a loved one's special qualities. Ordinary, small, colored beads threaded on lengths of knotted thin plastic or twine make patterned beaded bracelets. To use beads symbolically, set a few larger ones around bands made or woven from other materials, such as hemp, suede, or leather.

Leather or Nylon Cord

Friendship bracelets made from leather lacing or nylon cord are simple and quick to make. Two or three colored lengths of these materials are sometimes braided together to make the band. Otherwise, single lengths with alternating beads and knots make attractive and easy friendship bands.

References

• How-to-Make-Jewelry.com with Christine Gierer: How to Make Friendship Bracelets
• Medical Alert Bracelets: Bracelets -- Types of Friendships Bracelets
• Friendship Bracelets.net: Welcome to Friendship-Bracelets.net
• Bead and Button: Explore color variations with ladder stitch
• Craft Junior: Camp Crafts -- Friendship Bracelets Tied with a Sliding Knot

Resources

• Friendship Bracelets; Friendship Bracelets; Marina Ulmer
• AHC Arts and Crafts -- Helping Kids with Arts: Friendship Bracelets Instructions and String Bracelet Patterns for Kids -- How to Make Your Own Friendship Jewelry with Directions for Children, Girls, and Teens
• The Beading Gems Journal: How to Make Friendship Bracelets Tutorials