Friendship Bracelets and My Friendship Bracelet Maker

You know those ideas that you wish you had? My Friendship Bracelet Maker is one of those. If you've ever knotted a friendship bracelet, you remember trying to keep strands separate while you were knotting, putting a safety pin in the knee of your jeans, or using duct tape to tape the top to a table while you were working. I used to make friendship bracelets for extra money and did all those things.
It really does travel well, and you or your favorite tween or teen can use it on a lap, it can be set down when you need to take a break without having to fuss with the threads. I made a couple floss type bracelets, but then decided to try it with my favorite hemp knotting technique. It worked like a dream.

To make the bracelet shown in progress above, you'll need:
.5 mm hemp twine
beads with a hole big enough for 2 strands of the twine. I used Czechoslovakian 5 mm fire polish crystal

Cut two strands of hemp, one 20 inches, and one 2 yards. Fold both strands in half and tie an overhand knot a half inch from the fold. Then string the beads on the two short strands. Those will be your core strands. If you're using the Friendship Bracelet maker, you clamp the loop under the butterfly, then the two core strands wrap around the center peg at the bottom.

Then you'll start tying the knots. I decided for mine to tie 7 knots between each bead. The knots are worked around the center cord like this.

Tie 6 knots which will create 3 "bumps" on each side, slide a bead up the core thread, bring the two working threads around the bead, and tie 7 more knots. Continue until it's long enough to tie around your wrist, ending with a knot section. Knot one working thread and one core thread together, and do the same for the other two threads. Trim evenly. When you're ready to tie it on to a wrist, thread one set of threads through the top loop, and tie in a square knot.

Making these using the Friendship Bracelet Maker works quickly compared to traditional methods because it's so easy to keep all the threads in right alignment, and I found the same was true for regular floss type bracelets. 

The My Friendship Bracelet Maker also has a case built in to hold your floss.

Check out lots of patterns on their Friendship Bracelet Maker's Facebook page.

The Friendship Bracelet Makers are available at Michaels. There are other versions including a smaller Traveler version and a Clipboard version.

A side note- My friend Teri has been considering getting one as a gift for a mutual friend. After seeing this one, she decided it was just perfect. My daughter is eager to teach the friend how to make friendship bracelets. Teri, who also tied a lot of bracelets back in the day agreed this was just brilliant.


I received a complimentary My Friendship Bracelet Maker to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Reclaimed rubber bracelets

The people at Alaska Bicycle Shop have been very kindly saving damaged bike tire inner tubes for me. When I went to pick them up they had 37 in a basket for me. More than enough to make lots and lots of bracelets, but given how versatile this material is for crafting, I suspect still not enough.

If you have a bicycle tire inner tube from your own bike, or can get them from a local bicycle shop or friends, these bracelets are very fast and easy to make.

You will need:

A prepared piece bicycle tire inner tube

snaps and snap setter - I used Dritz snaps

scissors or craft knife- I used tiny sharp scissors that aren't quite sharp enough anymore for my beading thread, but still in fine shape for the rubber

a light colored gel pen

rubbing alcohol

stencil

To prepare a piece of the inner tube, cut off a length that's an inch longer than the bracelet you want to make. Cut it open and with hot soapy water and a dish scrubbie, scrub off the white powder residue from the inside of the inner tube. Let dry.

Prepare the stencil. I just printed it out on paper and cut out the pieces. Click on the image for the full sized version. You may need to modify it somewhat for the width of the inner tube you are working with, making the flower petals a little closer or maybe a little bigger. 

Using the stencil, trace the design on the back of the inner tube using the gel pen, then cut out the negative spaces. 

Cut around the whole design leaving about 3/8th of an inch border around it and tabs on either side to attach snaps to. Double check the size on your wrist before cutting the tabs!

Attach snaps following the instructions on your package of snaps. The gel pen marks from the back can removed with a bit of rubbing alcohol.

On, these look almost like tattoos. The rubber may try to curl some when it's lying flat, but once it's on it's flat. Some of the inner tube may have printing on it, and that adds a nice bit of character to these sorts of bracelets. My son plans to do some mystery braid bracelets using the same material. Absolutely one of the best reclaimed materials I've ever worked with.

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