simple one button rope bracelet 2577

 This is a very simple design made with a few scraps of cord, a small plastic button, and 48" of nylon thread.

The outside cord loop is the framing cord which secures the button and forms the loop. The colored cords are the infill and can be any color or combination you like. This one is a mix of grey and green/blue which is a common color in my resource storage box a.k.a. "scrap box".

The construction technique is shown starting with part one of a seven part tutorial.

 Detail of the button and loop which shows how the cross stitching tightens the loop slightly enabling a secure but easy to open toggle closure.

A single piece of nylon thread can be used to secure the button and bind the fabric. The infill cords are doubled and the loop end placed inside the loop of the framing cord. In this example there are four cords on each side.

Here's a similar design made with black and blue synthetic materials.

 The materials are hand dyed cotton cord including some of the twisted cable cord. This adds a subtle texture alongside the smooth braided cords.

The binding process reduces the layout size about 50%. This example is about 7/8" wide.

See this design and others like it in the fiber art design section of WhatKnotShop on Etsy.

design and photographs © copyright 2012 WhatKnotShop

beaded spiral bracelet 2536

 Another experiment using a heavier braided cotton line to make a simple two pass helix that is held together with cotton floss. The spacers are irregular glass beads culled from one of those "mass-o-glass" pots of beads found at Michael's.

These bead collections are about 30% unusable due to cracking, rough edges, and other defects but the variety of color, shape and sizes makes them perfect for use in these projects.

 As with many other of these cuffs the layout is done on a tube using thin needles to position the beads. The cotton floss is threaded through the cores of the beads and wrapped around the framing cords.

The loose ends are secured with green cotton floss using a traditional whipping or binding. This work was often done on the ends of hemp ropes to prevent the fraying of twisted cordage. Now a days synthetic lines are melted or burned to fuse the fibers.

This is a pretty flexible shape measuring about 8 5/8" (219 mm) inside circumference. The beads are all glass (no plastic)

Design variations: add more parts to the helix to increase width; Adjust spacing of beads; use single color beads; add whipping to the spaces between the beads; oversize the cord and use larger beads; infill the spaces with contrasting color beads.

design and photographs © copyright 2012 WhatKnotShop

Spool bracelet two button cuff beaded tribal style bracelet 2535

 Continuing the series of tribal inspired cuffs this design is all whites, off whites, and grey. The beads are all clear glass some with a hint of purple color. The edges are a heavier hand dyed braided cord and the center area is made from the twisted cotton cable cord.

 There is an extra braided center cord that is bound into the thinner shell between the edges. Overall this one came out about 2" (51 mm) wide.

The off white buttons and loops come apart to make this 7 1/2" (191 mm) inside circumference wearable for people with bigger hands.


                Available here


More like this in the fiber art design section of WhatKnotShop on Etsy.

design and photographs © copyright 2012 WhatKnotShop

beaded cable tie concept bracelet challenge 2546

 Would you rather an Arachnid? Looks something like a spider but more symmetrical and without the head thorax or abdomen...

This is a whimsical construction of black plastic cable ties, the kind you find at the hardware store, and tiny doughnut shaped green glass beads, the kind you find at the bead shop.

There is a cultural distance between these two shopping venues. I'll leave it to another post to discuss this or you may comment if you like...

 This example is only about 2" diameter which is small but the design can be expanded in two ways:

Add more beads to each tie increasing the segment length: -|||||||- to  -|||||||||||||||||||||-

Add additional ties to form a nine or ten or even eleven part polygon.

Design variation: Place an uneven numbers of beads on each tie, and color of beads and ties.

In this closeup you can see the beads are placed on the ties then the tail of one tie is placed in the ratchet of the next tie.

For the people who do numbers theory the ratio of beads to chords might be interesting. Post your suggestions.

Lastly if you have an idea on how to gracefully terminate the ties please post a comment.

design and photographs © copyright 2012 WhatKnotShop

beaded cuff tribal statement bracelet grey, blue, green 2516

Another fabric cord cuff based on the Kuchi cuff form with the massive outer ribs and the thinner infill panel in the center. This one is grey with slate blue, light chocolate, and pale green cords offset by glass seed beads in cream, pearl grey, and brick red.

It is not as wide as a traditional Kuci cuff. the design measures only 2" (51 mm) wide instead of the 4" to 6" in some of the traditional cuffs.

The beads are placed in the cord matrix as the bracelet is assembled. Here you can see the beads in the infill cord which are a #30 cotton twine (about 1.5 mm diameter).  The bead color is more subtle than the photograph suggests.

When the nylon thread is tensioned the cords compress and the beads are held tightly together with the cord.

The ribs get a row of seed beads after the tensioning of the fabric is complete

The loops and buttons make this design open for people who might have hands that wont fit through a 7 1/2" (191 mm) internal circumference.   The weave and compression process left an open loop which was filled with a clear glass bead.

                         Available here

More like this in the fiber art design section of WhatKnotShop on Etsy.

design and photographs © copyright 2012 WhatKnotShop