How to make Bangles

So yes. You want bangles. Hooray for you, you've found me and you've found how to make them.

Step 1 Step 1: Gather supplies.

You need:

A mold, something the right circumference. A soda can could work, or any bottle. I used a bank-thing I had lying around.

Wire, obviously. It should be something you can tell is sturdy enough not to bend when you've actually made the bangle, but flexible enough to shape. You could use any color.

Pliers and a wire cutter. A wire cutter especially.

A soldering iron and solder: Only if the wire you have is solder-able. Mine wasn't, so I just used hot glue.

Beads. Optional.

Nail polish the color of your wire.

A hot glue gun. This is very important.

Music to make bangles to. Zombie Nations happens to be very good bangle-making music. Music is optional, but recommended. Cutting and gluing wires gets tedious.

Comments

[Kima_23]

You could also use a very thing gauge wire and braid, adding bead as you go. That way you could use see beads as well. Or simply use different colors of a smaller wire and braid. Thanks so much for the tutorial!

[bespectacled]

The problem with that would be, if the thin wire was strong enough to keep the shape of the bangle, it would probably be pretty difficult to braid.

[sbrown1]

cool !

[ArcticLiz]

Hey!
ehm.. I love the way bangles look.. like a lot of bracelets.. so.. why to cut them? one by one ? can't you just leave it as it was in past steps? just saying(:

[LilaSmiley]

Well, bangles are just a bunch of different bracelets. I think what you were referring to was those memory wire bracelets, right? Where it resembles a slinky? That would be a cool idea too though, maybe I'll try it.

[cutecrammings]

Why dont you just put the bead on the hot glue when you are sottering(or hot-glueing) the ends together? Just a suggestion : ) ...

[artgurl]

this is great

[polettdaniel]

Will be a great gift for my niece! Thanks for the idea!

[stykzorz]

I really like this tutorial. I love making jewelry, and bangles is something I haven't tried yet.. I have and idea that I'm going to use to modify the closures, and I thought I'd pass it along..

...yes, it involves twisting wire... Hear me out, lol.


If necessary, get a slightly smaller gauge of wire - like, only one size smaller than what you make the bangles out of, but again, not so small that it's really fragile. Like I said, if necessary.. You might be lucky and be able to use the same wire.

Anyways, bring back the glue, but probably you want to use super glue or gorilla glue, not white glue or hot glue. You don't want to use a lot, and you'll want to glue as you go..

Use the other wire and wrap it around the closure very tightly. Like coil it up.. And you can do this in such a way where you leave enough on the ends of the coil to tuck them down inside the coil so it's not all poke-y on your wrist.

Basically it would kind of look like this, but obviously metal, not hemp..
www.thejewelryworkshop.com/images/hemp_necklace_closure.jpg

But, like I sed, it's just an idea.. I'm going to try it when I use make my own bangles.. Thanks for an awesome tutorial!

[bespectacled]

That could definitely work, if the wire was right. Unfortunately, what will probably happen when I make ones with a lower gauge, the wire will be soft enough to get squished.

I'm going to go try and twist them one more time. Maybe I'll get lucky and figure out how to do it prettily.

[Homemadeslop]

Ive actually done this with a very fine gauged wire, twisted at the ends along with the small beads. I then took a even more fine wire twisted and knotted the thiner wire pieced the wired bangles together in certian places. It worked for the job, although the last wires used was so sooooo fine that it broke eventually after several on's and off's but at least it hide alot better than the other wire.

[Anathema_Herem]

Perhaps for a more streamlined connection you could use a larger bugle-type bead, fill with hot glue, and connect both ends inside? 

Excellent 'ible.  I will have to try this.

[gwl123]

Good. Keep it up. From http://www.deccansojourn.com

[ahbdesigns]

If you truly prefer to glue them, why not use the beads to hide the glue? Slide a bead ( or however many needed depending on size over the "weld point". I make jewelry too and this has saved me from a few unfortunate blemishes.

[gudenuf]

Why not slide a bead over the ugly glue joint - it will reinforce the joint and hide it?

[tbcross]

Very cool thanks for sharing!