The bracelet below started life as a… well, actually I’m not quite sure. In the Thanet Animal Group charity shop, I found a perfectly flat, oval filigree thing set with a carnelian cabochon. It was stamped on the back with “Israel 925” and there was no bale or anything, so I have no idea whether it was intended for use as a pendant. Being filigree though, it did have plenty of holes – a fact I made use of when converting it to a bracelet.
I g-e-n-t-l-y bent the “thing” around the contours of my wrist. Then I threaded three thin black lengths of waxed cord through each end, and then plaited them. I had six strands of cord to do the plaiting, which of course divided neatly into three lots of two. When the time came, I created a buttonhole by splitting the plaiting off into two lots of three, and then joining together again a couple of centimetres later.
At the other end, I bent back the ends and sewed them together to create a base on which to sew a button. More views here:
I did consider sewing the focal piece onto a backing – a piece of black velvet was my original thought – but I vetoed this idea on the grounds that the filigree work (which is really nice quality) would lose its impact. As with most of my jewellery projects the focal piece can easily be returned to its original state, in this case by cutting the cord.
And here are some more pics below. For some reason, my camera didn’t like taking pics of the bracelet laid out flat.
