-
For this type of cuff bracelet, you'll need what's called a "cuff blank." This is an aluminum strip that comes in various colors and widths. You can buy blanks from a jewelry supply store. Either buy them prebent into a cuff shape or put them against your wrist and bend them gently to make them fit you. Their edges may be sharp, so you might need to file them with a metal file; if you do this, wear a respiratory mask. You can also round the ends of the blank, using metal snips, and then file them smooth.
Glue some soft leather onto the cuff blank, using strong fabric glue. Make sure the leather's a color that coordinates well with the color of the beads you're using. This will be the base for your bracelet.
Prepare your strip of beads for attaching to the bracelet base. You'll use nylon bead thread to sew your beads onto a strip of stiff fabric such as buckram, which is acrylic-backed fabric stiffener that's used to reinforce clothing. It will provide a sturdy base for your beading. Once you're done sewing the beads on, you'll glue the buckram to your cuff blank. Make sure the buckram strip is smaller than your leather strip, so that when you put the buckram on, the leather will show at the exposed edges of the bracelet, rather than the buckram or the aluminum showing. To prevent the buckram from showing between the beads, sew lots of beads on, making a dense bracelet; you can also sew larger beads on so you don't have so much ground to cover. -
To make a wire-wrap cuff bracelet, take two pieces of sturdy wire. They'll need to be about 6-gauge each, but still a little soft so you can shape them. Put each piece against your wrist and bend it gently so it molds to the shape of your wrist; leave a little room so you can put it on and take it off. Use round-nose pliers to create a small spiral at each end of both pieces of wire; make sure you end up with both pieces of wire being the same length. When deciding upon this length, factor in a small gap so that the ends of the bracelet don't touch; that's what makes the bracelet a cuff.
Take several small pieces of 20-gauge wire. You're going to connect your two large wires using these small pieces, onto which you'll thread beads. You can use as many or as few connecting pieces as you like, as long as you use at least two so that the large wires can stay evenly spaced apart. The connecting pieces can be as long or as short as you like, as long as they're all the same length, again so that the large wires can stay evenly spaced apart.
To add the connecting pieces, take your 20-gauge wire and wrap one end around your large wire, making two or three tight circles. Push in the tip of the wire with flat-nose pliers so that it doesn't stick out and hurt the wearer of the piece.
Thread your beads on, keeping your connecting piece perpendicular to your large wire. When you've added all your beads, wrap the bottom end of your 20-gauge wire around the other large wire, making two or three tight circles, and trim the excess wire. Push in the tip with flat-nose pliers. -
You can make a beaded cuff bracelet by crocheting fine-gauge wire and adding beads as you go. You need to be a fairly competent crocheter before you attempt to crochet wire.
For a variation on the wire-wrapped bracelet detailed above, use home-made paper beads. Thread just one barrel-shaped bead per wire connector. Make these beads using any paper you like the look of; cut it into strips and roll it up into a barrel shape, adding tiny amounts of glue as you go. When the beads have dried, you can begin threading them onto your cuff.
