Handmade Birthday Bracelet

Bracelets should match the personality of the person wearing the jewelry.

Handmade birthday bracelets create a personal touch for the recipient. By making the bracelet, the giver can customize each detail to make the jewelry special. There are many ways to hand make pieces of the bracelet or you can use standard beads combined in patterns or designs that you know the recipient will like. Usually jewelry is a combination of standard materials and custom materials.

Preferences

If you want to make a handmade birthday bracelet, you need to begin by asking yourself what the recipient likes and wants. Usually you can start with favorite colors, materials, shapes, and designs. Talk about favorite things without giving away your gift idea. Watch what the recipient wears and the style of jewelry they favor. Keep a good list so that when you're designing the bracelet you have a lot of information to work with.

Colors, Shapes, Designs

The next step is to sort out what you think they would like based on what you feel comfortable creating. Pick the main colors and any theme that you want to incorporate. Locate your basic construction materials, such as wires, head pins, findings, jump rings, common beads and tools that you will need to manipulate those items. Think about ways to make the bracelet special. You can choose to spell out a name or include handmade flower beads or hand stamp metal with a favorite poem.

Custom Items

If you want to add unique and custom items to the bracelet, think about using a material such as polymer clay. This clay allows you to easily shape unique beads, pendants, patterns, and designs based on your imagination. The clay bakes in a kitchen oven and can then be painted with artist acrylic paints to any color or appearance that you want. These kinds of custom beads or items can make a bracelet special without being expensive. Other choices are wrapped wire beads, woven wires and items made of other materials.

Making the Bracelet

Give yourself enough time to make the bracelet more than once. Sometimes the first effort may not turn out exactly right. This will allow you to make adjustments so that the finished bracelet is exactly the way you want it to be. Look for a small cardboard box. Wrap the bracelet around a small fabric pillow that shows off the design. Tie the box in a cute ribbon and hand letter a birthday card for the special person. This will unify your gift and announce that it is special and handmade.

References

• Jaed Works: The Polymer Clay Spot