Wednesday 2 December 2015

Upcycled Sari Silk Bangles Tutorial

I started this some time ago and have only just got round to finishing it. I hope you enjoy the tutorial.

Back on September 2nd I was reading Pearl Blays blog 'The Beading Gem'. The post was all about how to make thread wrapped thick cord or rope jewellery at the time I wasn't making jewellery but when I saw these cute tasseled bangles I was hit with some inspiration to make some sari silk ones.

I even did a blog post about it http://earth-shinedesigns.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/my-poor-neglected-blog.html

The furthest I got was to buy some cheap bangles from a charity shop, these were a bargain at 25p each
and there they sat until Saturday when I had a look at the Etsy Trends for October email. I must admit, I very rarely look at these things but for some reason this time I did and I was inspired by this picture of Boho Fabrics and it reminded me of the sari silk bangles that I had the desire to make.
I also bought this funky pair of boots at the same time.



I've got a load of hand-dyed sari silk, chiffon ribbon and yarn that I've bought. Some were a job lot from Ebay and then rest is from Smitten Beads, they have a lovely selection of colours and I use this a lot in my work.


Aren't the colours just yummy scrummy!

I took one of the wooden bangles and attached some hand dyed chiffon and attached one end with my glue gun

Then I wound it round and round until the ribbon was overlapped.

and then I glued that end down with the glue gun too.

The glue from the glue gun does show a bit but I don't think it matters that much because it will be covered with beads. I might in future sew on the end instead of gluing it.

Next I selected some small beads in shades of pink and lilac from my box. I like to buy jewellery from charity shops and break it up so I have lots of strands of small beads.
I keep my beads in these boxes, similar colours in each box.
I took some antique brass coloured thin wireand threaded on some of the beads in a random fashion. I wasn't sure how many I would need and soon got bored doing this so I cut off a length of wire - not enough it turns out and folded over 1 end so that the beads wouldn't fall off.

I wrapped the wire around a couple of times to fix it and then threading 5 beads so that they laid onto the front of the bangle wrapped them on. Then I did a plain wire wrap and so on.....

As I said I ran out of wire, so I re-joined some more and then continued. I actually found it easier to thread the beads on as I went. Without taking it apart I have no idea how much wire it took but it was quite a lot.

To fix the wire, I threaded it though the existing wire several times on the inside of the bracelet so it wouldn't show.

Then I made some disc headpins like these

 and then wrapped them around the bangle. I bent the wire flat, wrapped it around the bangle once and then around the head of the pin.


For my next bangle I chose some more chiffon ribbon and a necklace from a charity shop.


I wrapped the ribbon round as before and then took some strands of the necklace and wrapped them around the bangle. This time I sewed everything in place. I had some bellflower headpins left from another project and used them in the same way as the disc headpins. This is the finished piece.

For the 3rd one I repeated the steps but added a wrap of coloured yarn and then made a tassel with the ends. I used some more bellflowers and made some dangles.


Here are the finished bangles together.




I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Thanks for looking.

Linda x

13 comments:

  1. Oh I love these! Thanks so much for putting together a great tutorial!

    ReplyDelete
  2. They are beautiful. Thanks for a great tutorial.

    ReplyDelete
  3. These are very pretty, and inspirational. Thanks for taking the time to do a tutorial to share. I do have one question, and that is how much does the inside diameter of the bangle change when you wrap it with the sari ribbon and wire?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thankyou Donna, I am glad you like the tutorial. It doesn't change very much as the ribbon isn't very thick. I suppose it would depend on how big the bangle is in the first place and how big a wrist you have as to whether they would fit or not.

      Linda

      Delete
    2. I'm a plus size so I make them for myself using the rim from a powdered drink can or Pringles can.

      Delete
  4. Those bangles are really pretty Linda, thanks for sharing!
    Jackie

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for this tutorial. I Love the fact that you have written it out, instead of a video. I can look at it anywhere and not worry about the sound! These are beautiful. How did you make the head pins? They are a perfect addition

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you like it, I did this a long time ago. I'm a lampworker and made the headpins from glass. I have an Etsy store but I think the link is broken on the blog which is a old one. Here is the link: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Earthshinebeads Linda x

      Delete
  6. If you were to sell a bracelet like this, what would you price it for?

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...