The cool product and caveats - String weave tapestry bracelet tutorial part 1

Part 1 The cool end product and a few caveats

This series shows how to make this taprestry weave bracelet from simple materials. This is a project for intermediate to advanced crafters who are familiar with some basic techniques including hand dying cotton string, setting up a simple loom, and a technique I call "needle weaving".

For this project a series of cotton cords are wrapped with lightweight dyed string to create a colorful flexible cuff bracelet. A special custom made clay bead is used to create a simple toggle closure.

Note that this project requires some custom materials and a small loom. These items are shown later on in the tutorial photos.

The wrapping string is ordinary cotton twine you can find at a local hardware store. It's a #24 so it is quite lightweight material similar to kite string.

The colors shown are made by dying the string in a water based dye bath. This is a special technique required to prepare the materials.

Read more about the dye process here.

Other materials you will need: a few tapestry or needle point needles. These are the blunt type with a large eye.

A small pair of pliers is useful when manipulating the work.

You will also need about 36" of 3 mm cotton cord and a button. The button used in this demonstration is a custom made clay button but you may use an ordinary plastic button instead.

You will also want to have on hand some rubber bands and other basic crafting tools. This tutorial covers the high level techniques which you can adapt to your own designs.

This is part 1 of a multi-part posting, more to come in the coming weeks.

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design, photos, and descriptions copyright 2017