Wednesday, February 22, 2012

DIY Hex Nut Bracelet- My Solution for a Clasp

I am sure you have seen the DIY hex nut bracelets all over Blogland. I think they are really cute so when Amber wanted to have another crafting afternoon and make some I was excited!

The original tutorial, as far as I can tell, come from this blog. It's been repeated all over the Internet, but I think we ought to give credit where credit is due. Amber showed me this picture of a hex nut bracelet made from gold hardware and strips of leather-like material worn with a gold watch. I fell in love and had to copy. If you head over to Pinterest to see the original, you'll see that I didn't do too bad.

What I couldn't figure out was how to make it wrap around my wrist, stay on, and not have a huge knot on the back. After a few minutes of experimenting, this is what I came up with.

I started by tying a large jump ring into the first knot. After completing the braiding, I kept the strips at the end of the bracelet really long and looped them through the original jump ring.

(This is another view of the same thing.) I put the bracelet on my wrist and pulled it tight to know how much extra tail I would have. I wrapped the tail around the wrist and measured how much of the tail I would need to save for it to go back around and hook into the jump ring.

On the end of the tail, I tied another knot with a jump ring in it, and attached a lobster clasp to the jump ring.

Now, I can slip on the bracelet, wrap it around my wrist again, then attach the clasp to the first jump ring and it won't fall off!

I love it! Amber also made some with silver hex nuts and red strips. So cute! I want to make one with silver and turquoise.

I hope those directions made sense. Let me know if you have questions! (aubreelarsen@gmail.com)

I'll be linking up to some of these parties!