Introduction: Summertime Style: Watermelon Friendship Bracelet

By
About: Heya!

Hey guys!

Summer's here. I call it friendship bracelet season. Or the time where you most especially crave a huge watery slice of watermelon.

I followed this pattern (pattern #41121) on friendship-bracelets.net that seemed just perfect. It's a great site to find different patterns for making friendship bracelets, so if you want to see more from there you can check it out

Again, it's not my site or pattern, but great for bracelet makers to learn, use, and follow.

Time to get started!

Supplies

For the bracelet:

  • String: (I used embroidery floss, each 100 cm or 40 in long)
    • 6 red strings
    • 2 black strings
    • 1 light green string
    • 1 dark green string
  • A clipboard and/or tape to make knotting easier
  • Jewel:
  • Yellow aquarium stones in a semi sphere shape
  • A 30 cm string & 20 cm light green string
  • Small rubber band
  • Light green precut lucky star paper (or cut regular paper and cut it to lucky star paper size)
  • Small scrap of plastic
  • Watermelon Slice Button:
  • Small bit of air dry clay
  • Acrylic paints
  • Needle & thread

Step 1: Making the Buckle

I drew some diagrams for you to look at because I thought they'd be easier to understand than pictures.

Cut all the string first with the light green 7 cm or so longer than the others since you'll be using it for the buckle. Put all the strings together on the clipboard, leave a bit off the beginning for tying the loop around and tape that up to the clipboard to keep the string in place.

Now for the bit where you actually start the buckle. You'll just be doing single knotted forward, then backward knots repeatedly using the same string over all the other strings.

Keep going until the buckle is your desired length.

Lastly, take the tape off the strings, then tie the beginning of the strings under the end of the buckle with a strong knot. Cut off any excess string sticking out from the knot, but don't cut it too close to the knot in a way it would unravel.

Step 2: Ordering the Strings

Now, you just order the strings as it is in the picture. Light green, dark green, red, red, black, red, red, red, red, red, and black.

Here are what I'm going to call some of the knots and colors for short starting from the next step since there are a lot of levels and such to explain and go through.

Forward knot : F

Backward knot : B

Forward-Backward knot: FB

Backward-Forward knot: BF

I'll call dark green as DG and light green as LG for short

Anyways, let's go and knot!

Step 3: Lines 1 - 5

From here we make the bracelet. Remember to knot only the pairs together in each line, since bracelets done with a bracelet pattern are usually done that way- unlike the usual chevron or striped ones.

Line 1:

Knotting:

  1. B knot with DG over LG
  2. F knot with red over red
  3. F knot with black over red
  4. F knot with red over red
  5. B knot with black over red

The first line of the bracelet is complete!

Line 2:

Line order should be:

DG (alone), LG & red (pair), red & red (pair), black & red (pair), red & black (pair), red (alone)

Knotting:

  1. Skip the 1st string (DG)
  2. F knot with LG over red
  3. F knot with red over red
  4. BF knot with red over black
  5. F knot with red over black
  6. Leave the last string (red)

The second line of the bracelet is complete!

Line 3:

The line order should now be:

DG & red, LG & red, red & black, red & black, red & red

Knotting:

  1. Take the 1st string (DG) and F knot it over red
  2. F knot LG over red
  3. F knot red over black
  4. B knot black over red
  5. F knot red over red

The third line in the bracelet is complete!

Line 4:

The line order should now be:

Red, DG & red, LG & black, red & black, red & red, red

Knotting:

  1. Skip the 1st string (red)
  2. Take DG and F knot it over red
  3. Take LG and left knot it over black
  4. FB knot red over black
  5. F knot red over red
  6. Leave last string (red)

Line 4 is complete!

Line 5:

The line order should now be:
Red & red, DG & black, LG and red, black & red, red & red

Knotting:

  1. F knot with red over red
  2. F knot DG over black
  3. F knot LG over red
  4. B knot red over black
  5. F knot red over red

Line 5 is complete!

Step 4: Lines 6- 10

Line 6:

The line order should now be:

Red, red & black, DG & red, LG & red, black & red, red

Knotting:

  1. Skip the 1st string (red)
  2. F knot red over black
  3. F knot DG over red
  4. F knot LG over red
  5. F knot black over red
  6. Leave last string (red)

Line 6 is complete!

Line 7:

The line order should now be:

Red & black, red & red, DG & red, LG & red, black & red

Knotting:

  1. BF knot black over red
  2. F knot red over red
  3. F knot DG over red
  4. F knot LG over red
  5. BF knot red over black

Line 7 is complete!

Line 8:

The line order should now be:
Red, black & red, red & red, DG & red, LG & black, red

Knotting:

  1. Leave the 1st string (red)
  2. B knot red over black
  3. F knot red over red
  4. F knot DG over red
  5. F knot LG over black
  6. Leave the last string (red)

Line 8 is complete!

Line 9:

The line order should now be:

Red & red, black & red, red & red, DG & black, LG & red

Knotting:

  1. F knot red over red
  2. BF red over black
  3. F knot red over red
  4. F knot DG over black
  5. F knot LG over red

Line 9 is complete!

Line 10:

The line order should now be:

Red, red & black, red & red, red & black, DG & red, LG

Knotting:

  1. Leave the 1st string (red)
  2. B knot black over red
  3. F knot red over red
  4. F knot red over black
  5. F knot DG over red
  6. Leave last string (LG)

Line 10 is complete!

Step 5: Lines 11- 15

Line 11:

The line order should now be:

Red & black, red & red, red & black, red & red, DG & LG

Knotting:

  1. F knot red over black
  2. F knot red over red
  3. B knot black over red
  4. F knot red over red
  5. F knot DG over LG

Line 11 is complete!

Line 12:

The line order should now be:

Black, red & red, red & black, red & red, red & LG, DG

Knotting:

  1. Skip the 1st string (black)
  2. F knot red over red F knot red over black
  3. F knot red over red
  4. B knot LG over red
  5. Leave DG

Line 12 is complete! You should see that the zig zag in the watermelon is starting to change direction.

Line 13:

The line order should now be:

Black & red, red & black, red & red, red & LG, red & DG

Knotting:

  1. B knot red over black
  2. FB knot red over black
  3. F knot red over red
  4. B knot LG over red
  5. B knot DG over red

Line 13 is complete!

Line 14:

The line order should now be:

Red, black & red, black & red, red & LG, red & DG, red

Knotting:

  1. Skip the 1st string (red)
  2. FB knot black over red
  3. B knot red over black
  4. B knot LG over red
  5. B knot DG over red
  6. Leave the last string (red)

Line 14 is complete!

Line 15:

The line order should now be:

Red & black, red & red, black & LG, red & DG, red & red

Knotting:

  1. F knot red over black
  2. B knot red over red
  3. B knot LG over black
  4. B knot DG over red
  5. B knot red over red

Line 15 is now complete!

Step 6: Lines 16-20

Line 16:

The line order should now be:

Black, red & red, red & LG, black & DG, red & red, red

Knotting:

  1. Skip the 1st string (black)
  2. F knot red over red
  3. B knot LG over red
  4. B knot DG over black
  5. B knot red over red
  6. Skip the last string (red)

Line 16 is complete!

Line 17:

The line order should now be:

Black & red, red & LG, red & DG, black & red, red & red

Knotting:

  1. B knot red over black
  2. B knot LG over red
  3. B knot DG over red
  4. B knot red over black
  5. B knot red over red

(Huh, everything were backward knots in that line! Cool!)

Line 17 is complete!

Line 18:

The line order should now be:

Red, black & LG red & DG, red & red, black & red, red

Knotting:

  1. Skip the 1st string (red)
  2. B knot LG over black
  3. B knot DG over red
  4. B knot red over red
  5. F knot back over red
  6. Leave the last string (red)

Line 18 is complete!

Line 19:

The line order should now be:

Red & LG, black & DG, red & red, red & red, black & red

Knotting:

  1. B knot LG over red
  2. B knot DG over black
  3. B knot red over red
  4. B knot red over red
  5. B knot red over black

Line 19 is complete!

Line 20:

The line order should now be:

LG, red & DG, black & red, red & red, red & red, black

Knotting:

  1. Leave the 1st string (LG)
  2. B knot DG over red
  3. B knot red over black
  4. B knot red over red
  5. F knot red over red
  6. Leave the last string (red)

Line 20 is complete!

From here, you repeat doing lines 1-20 until your bracelet is as long as you want it to be.

Step 7: Tying the Bracelet's Ends

This is similar to making the buckle from earlier, except you use 2 strings to make the knots.

First, divide the remaining string into 2 groups and tie a knot on each.

On each end, take 2 strings. On the left end, use red and black as the main colors. On the right end, use red and light green.

On the left group, make a single (not double!) knotted forward knot with black, and make a single knotted backward knot with the red string you chose.

Just keep going with a single knotted forward, then single knotted backward over the other strings until it's a bit longer.

You then do the same with the red and light green on the right group.

Step 8: Preparing the Jewel

Now for the jewel!

First, we're going to give the jewel a diamond-like look by baking the marbles.

Take some glass semi sphere aquarium stones and put them in a baking pan. Bake them at 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes or so.

When the glass stones are close to done, prepare a heat resistant bowl of cold water and a few ice cubes.

When the marbles are done, carefully pour the glass stones in the bowl of cold water. You should hear a satisfying crackling sound as the insides of the glass form cracks- which give them a sparkling diamond effect.

Now you just have to choose a nice yellow one for the jewel of the bracelet.

(Note: I didn't have the right shape of aquarium glass stones, so I had used marbles. When I put the baked marbles in the cold water, some of the weaker ones broke. Luckily, I found that some broken pieces were semi sphere shaped and chose a nice yellow colored one. But I recommend aquarium stones to make your life easier!)

Step 9: Creating the Jewel Case

Main Part of Casing:

Take a thin piece of paper and use it to wrap around and measure the edge of your jewel. Cut off any extra paper. Hot glue the tip of a 30 cm long light green string to the end of the paper.

Now, it's just like making the buckle for the bracelet way in the beginning! Use the string to tie a half forward, then a half backward knot repeatedly until it covers almost the whole paper.

Hot glue the both ends of the paper together. Continue tying half forward and half backward 1 or 2 times until the tiny on the paper gap is covered.

The Attachable/"Ring" Part:

Do the same thing to a small light green rubber band. Hot glue the tip of a 20 cm light green string onto the band and tie half forward and half backward knots repeatedly until the whole band is covered. Tie a knot at the end and cut off the excess string.

The Case's Backing:

We still need to create a back for the case, so the jewel won't fall off. Trace and cut out a circle from some green plastic in the size of the jewel. Fit the jewel in the case and hot glue the circle onto the back of the jewel's casing to seal the jewel in.

To make it attachable to the bracelet, hot glue rubber band onto the back of the jewel casing. It should look like a ring. Then, slide in the casing into the bracelet as if you were sliding a ring onto it (that's funny). If the rubber band is too big for the bracelet, you can measure how much of the rubber band bit was extra and try to use the excess string from making the case to tie it smaller.

Step 10: Watermelon Button

Take a tiny bit of clay and shape a tiny watermelon slice from it. Since I made my buckle a bit small, I made a very tiny, cute button to fit it. Use a pin to push through and make a button hole in it. Let it dry.

Paint on the red, then the green rim, then use the tip of a pin to gently dab some watermelon seeds onto the slice. I recommend waiting for each color to dry before putting the next color on.

After the button dries, sew on the button, and the bracelet is done!

Step 11: The Final!

Now your bracelet is done! Just button it up and enjoy. This is a great project for kids and grown ups interested in friendship bracelets and watermelon. It's also a great way to show your love for watermelon and your summertime spirit.

I hope you guys enjoyed this instructables! Please leave a vote for this project in the Summer Camp contest below- it would be really helpful!

Happy making, have a great summer, and go enjoy some watermelons!

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