Introduction: Beaded Macrame Bracelet

About: (Educational) Designer, Researcher, and Developer

I've been making a lot of macrame lately and also experimenting with different combinations. I was searching etsy for different things made with macrame when I saw a cute macrame bracelet, so I clicked it. When I zoomed in, it didn't look how I thought it would. But, in the related products, I saw an other bracelet.  I thought it looked great, but I thought: shouldn't I be able to make something like that myself? When I looked at the picture again, I realized, although it wasn't called macrame, it was macrame.
I didn't use small beads in mine, because I really love these beads and I think their size is perfect for this bracelet. I hope you like it!

Step 1: What Do You Need?

To make this bracelet, you will need:

- Yarn, I used white yarn because of the coloured beads.
- Scissors.
- Beads, just a little bit less then twice the amount for a normal bracelet
- Glue, I used all purpose glue

Step 2: The Base

Wrap the yarn around your wrist twice and cut it off. Cut off another piece of the same length. Tie the two strands together with a knot.
The macrame will be knotted around this part of the bracelet. When you use one strand, you get a really thin bracelet, that's why I prefer to use two strands.

Add a bead to the base, on both strands.

Step 3: The Yarn for the Knots

Again, take your scissors and your yarn. Wrap the yarn around your wrist twenty times and cut off. (about eightteen will probably do, but I didn't want to risk the yarn ending when the bracelet was almost finished. So, If you want to go for safe, just wrap it twenty times.)


Step 4: The First Knot

So, now you have your base and a reeeeeaaaaally long strand. Fold the strand in half. Place the middle behind the base, where doesn't matter at the moment. Take hold the middle in place, for example with your thumb. Put the right strand over the base and under the left strand. Put the left strand under the base and up through the loop on the right side. Pull both strands at the same time, but not as tight as possible. Before you pull them tight, position the knot beneath the bead with the distance shown in the pictures.    (the ruler shows guidelines, they are not exact measurements)
When the knot has the right position, Pull both strands to tighten the knot.

Step 5: The Second Knot

When you look at your knot, you can see the yarn crossing the base on the right side and a vertical line on the left side. From the side where this line is, at this moment the left, put the strand OVER the base. On the other side, put the strand underneath the base and up  trough the loop on the other side, just as you did in when making the first knot.

Step 6: Beads and Knots

Start by adding a bead to both of the strands.
As you can see, the vertical line is now on the right side, so you have to start with putting the right strand over the base. Then, put the left strand under the base and up trough the loop, just as with the regular knots. You just have to keep the beads in position, the position is shown in the pictures.

The next knot is just a simple knot, as explained in step 5. Because you just added the beads, it can be hard to tell what the vertical line is, that's why I put an image note on the last picture, showing what the vertical line looks like now.

Step 7: Repeat

Keep repeating the two small steps explained in step 6.
You can use one colour beads, I chose to go for different colours in an arranged row.

yellow-orange-red-pink-purple-dark blue-light blue-green

Repeat until, when you measure around your wrist, there are just a few centimeters left without beads.

Step 8: Work Away the Yarn

Take the two outer strands (the long ones) and knot them, as close to the bracelet as possible. Take the strands and put them through the knot of the second-last beads (Yeah, you should look at the pictures)
Turn the bracelet around and make a simple knot with the two strands. Pull it tight, add a dab of glue and cut off the strands.

Step 9: Closing the Bracelet

Put the bracelet around your wrist and mark the place where the strand without bead is at height of the beginning of the macrame.

Take one of the pieces of yarn you cut off in last step. Fold in half to find the middle, just like you did with the first knot. The following part is also the same as the first knot, except now you have four strands. Place the middle behind the marking and behind the beginning of the macrame (these should be aligned) Now make the knot, just as you did with the first knot.
Make eleven more knots, that gives you a nice piece of twelve knots. You can just follow the instructions given earlier in the instrutcable for regular knots.


Step 10: The Finishing Touches

Cut off the strands you just knotted with and glue them to the piece of twelve knots. Just make sure NOT to glue this part to the base, when you do your bracelet won't be changeable in size. Also cut the end of the base, making the length about the same as in the beginning. You can add a bead and a knot here, too. 

Step 11: Done!

The first two pictures show how far you can change the length of the bracelet, the others are just some more pictures.

I hope you liked this project, if you have made it, please share a picture, I would love to see it!

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