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Go to www.beadaholique.com to purchase beading supplies and to get design ideas!
Hi this is Megan with Beadaholique.com
I'm going to show you how to make a macrame
link bracelet. So we have two different styles
in our exclusive kit. We have a style that is the
crystal encrusted infinity macrame bracelet and it has this
crystal encrusted infinite link
and then we have the arrow link macrame bracelet and it
has this arrow link. So the construction on
the two different styles is exactly the same and I'm going to go ahead and
demonstrate one of the arrow links but it will be
just the same if you use the infinity link. So the supplies that you get in your
kit
are a bobbin of
knotting cord and this is one millimeter knotting cord
you'll get one link and a tube of E6000 glue
and the infinity links come with the same bobbin of
knotting cord and the same tube of glue and then they come with the
link. See
this one here, we're gonna make another one of these to show you
and other tools you're going to need is a pair of scissors
a ruler and then a piece of scratch paper
and something to use as an applicator for the glue. You can you describe a wire you
can use a toothpick
you do want something to help you spread the glue
pretty precisely because you're going to be using it just in you're knots and you
don't want to get everywhere
I've made them all the same size
and they are adjustable. So if you hold on
you can hold onto the sides and pull
open that up. You're gonna be able to fit that over
about and nine inch diameter
if you measure it around the knuckle part of your hand
and it's nine inches or less this size will work fine for you
you just put it over your hand and then pull it back down
and it's going to adjust anywhere from about six and a half to eight inches
bracelet size so that's going to fit
a large percentage of people. So I'm just going to show you
the instructions for that. If you need to make it longer
you would just add extra square knots in. There will be some
cord left, some extra from the pieces that you cut so
if you're only making it a little bit larger you should be able to stick with
the measurements that I give you
if you're going to be making it significantly larger then you want to
cut some extra cord.
I'm going to cut all my cord first
find the
end of you're knotting cord. You're gonna cut one
1 foot piece and set that aside
now you'll cut
two 2 foot pieces
and then we need two 3 foot pieces
and that's all the core that we need for this bracelet
you can see we have a lot of leftover cord so you can
buy yourself new focals, new links and
make yourself more bracelets or you can just keep to bracelets that are just
knotting
and you have all you need right here because you'll have leftover glue as well
so the one other thing that I forgot to mention that you will need is
some way to affix your work to your work table
of your surface. I'm just going to tape my onto my work table
if you have a really nice table you definitely don't want to just tape down
to your table
you can tape to the underside of your table or you can
use a clipboard, you can also use a macrame board which is a really handy
tool if you do a lot of knotting
to invest in. For the purposes of simplicity I'm just going to
tape my work down. First thing we're going to do is take
the two 2 foot lengths
of your cord fold one in half
take your link
and take that folded end
go up from the bottom to the top, pull the loop
through until you have a couple inches, then
open a loop, reach through
and grab the cord from below and pull it tight
that's a Lark's head knot
tie the other end on to the other side exactly the same way
fold in half
take that folded end
go up from the bottom through the loop
pull a couple inches, open that loop and
pull the end cords through and I'm gonna go ahead and do those first so that I
can use the
second end to secure my work. I'm actually going to tape
that part down
spread
the cords and tape it down and you want to use
something like masking tape that isn't gonna leave anything
yucky on your cords. Don't use duct tape
just use something that's gonna be a little bit more gentle
now take one of your three foot lengths and fold it in
place
the center of that fold right behind
the cords that are attached to the link
so that we're going to be doing macrame square knot. Macrame square knots are
always made with two
long after cords tied onto two shorter inner cords, the center cords
so often they will be both attached
to the piece that you're knotting from but I like the look of having
just the center cord attached to the link, it keeps it a little bit cleaner and
it's a little bit more low profile
so I'm actually just going to start
my macrame knot onto the center cord without attaching the center cord to
my link.
The first step in the square knot is to take the left
cord and bring it under the center cords and
don't yank on it. We want that center to stay right there
be careful not to disturb that. Take the left cord under the center
cords
then take the right cord underneath that cord that we just moved
over the center cords and down through the loop
on the left. You wanna keep that knot
fairly centered
pull its snug. You can hold on
to those center cords on scoot it up until it meets
that lark's head knot. Pull down
on the center cords and push up on that knot and kinda really snugged up
the second half of our macrame square knot
is going to take the left cord over the center cords
take the right cord over that, under the center cords
and through the loop and pull snug. You wanna make sure your center cords don't get
twisted. Pull that nice and tight and again
snug it right up against the link in that knot there. So each
macrame square knot has two steps I'm going to repeat those two steps
take the left cord under the center, take the right cord
under that, over the center and
through the loop and pull tight
the second half will be taking the left cord
over the center
taking the right cord over that cord we just moved
under the center and through the loop
that's our second macrame square knot
it's like little sideways V's
it's going to go down down and a little V
that's one square knot and that's the second square knot. You
need to make sure to alternate whether you go
under or over with your left cord first. If you
just keep going under or just keep going over it will twist. So to keep it nice
and flat you
wanna make sure that alternating. I'll do it one more time
take the left cord under, under
over and through
and then over, over
under, under
continue
until you've made 17 square knots. So one easy way to do that is
each square knot has one little bump
down the right hand side. You can just count when you have seventeen
complete square knots. You'll have 17 little bumps there
then you're going to flip your work around, tape the other side
and do 17 knots exactly the same way on the other side
so here I have my bracelet and I have
17 square knots on each side
I've flipped my work around and on both sides
you can see I do have a fair amount of cord leftover
I always would rather have extra because you can't add more
so the measurement of two and three foot
segments is gonna give you a decent amount so
you don't have to worry if you do want to add a few more you will have enough
now I'm gonna finish the knot. So flip the
bracelet over to the back side
so that the back of your focal is facing up. When you open up your glue
it has a foil sealing you just need to use the little
point in the cap to puncture the seal
go ahead and put some glue out on your scratch paper
now I'm going to
take the two side strings, leave the center strings along, you're going to actually
use them
to complete the clasp. We just wanna finish the side strings
so we're just going to tie a knot
with the side strings. Before you pull it tight
use your fingers to open the knot up a little bit
so that you can see between the two strands of the knot
and then use a toothpick or a wire to
put a little gob of E6000 into the knot
and pull it tight
this one is a little bit less important
that you don't get glue everywhere. You don't wanna get all over but if it gets
underneath or on the ends that's fine. If it gets down onto the macrame knotting below
that's fine. Flip it over, I'm going to do the same thing with the other side
take your two outside strands
tie a knot, before it's all the way tight
just want to spread the
cords a little bit
get some glue in there
pull it tight. I got less glue on it this time
that's a little bit more of what we're looking for. You wanna go ahead and let your glue
set up, you really wanna and give it a
good hour probably to make sure that it's
not gonna go anywhere before you trim that
In the meantime you can do
your clasp.
Take your center strand
you want to overlap them to complete a circle with the bracelet
you want them going past each other
and having the bracelet in a complete circle with the
center ends pointing away from each other
now we're going to go back and take the one foot
length of cord that cut at the beginning
put the center of that cord behind
our strands and just like we did before we're going to tie
macrame square knot around the cords using this new piece
so take the left side under
you wanna make sure that you hold the center down
take the right side under that, over the center
through the loop and it's a little tricky
to get that tight while holding the other strands in place but
very doable
pull it snug. You don't wanna pull it so tight that you can't move
the other strands but you do want it to be snug so that it does stay tight
and doesn't just loosen. Now we're going to
finish the square knot
so there's one. We're going to tie a total of three square knots
with our new cord
do try to keep these center stands straight, not getting twisted and not
overlapping on each other. It just has a nicer finished look to it
so there's my three
square knots. 1, 2, 3 now I'm gonna finish
that outside cords on my clasp
just like I did the other ones. So go ahead and
flip it around so that you have the backside
I like to work with the
ends at the top
now we're gonna tie a knot. We're gonna put glue on this. In this one
it is extremely important that you're really careful with your glue
your glue can only touch the strands that your gluing
these loose outside strands and maybe this
macrame knot piece right here but if touch these center cords with your glue
your bracelet will not slide to adjust so
pull you're knot pretty tight without
pulling it too snug. Just gonna get it down to where its gonna
sit. If you need to get new glue
If your glue has dried too much, get yourself some new glue
mine is still fine in the middle. Just go in with
a sparing amount and just get it
on the cords that you're knotting
and not below it and pull that snug
you're gonna wanna let that
really setup before you trim it. You wanna have
all your glue set for about an hour before you trim just to be sure that
you're not gonna
have it unravel. So now we're going to
trim our ends. Get our ruler
I'm going to be measuring from the place where the knot end
the macrame knotting and I want my
ends to be about two and an half inches. Other easy way to make this bracelet bigger
if you don't want to add more knotting is to simply make this
piece longer and it will adjust to bigger
so I'm going to just tie
a regular overhand knot, making a loop
and bringing the tail through the loop and then holding my
strand up to the ruler I'm just going to
tighten the knot and adjust at the same time so that I get the knot
sitting right about two and a half inches
then I'm going to make a knot on the other side
the other strand on the same side rather
and I want it to
sit in the same place. So I'll just match it to that piece
flip my work over
this is another reason why
you wanna make sure you don't use too much glue because
if you do, you need to wait till it's totally dry before you move on
as it is you can let your glue set up while you finish as long as it's not getting
on everything while it's wet
tie the knot. Move it
and tighten it so that it's two and a half inches down
from your square knotting. Tie a second knot
and
you can even line it up with that next one. Now I'm going to
pull these knots really tight. The knotting cord is meant for knotting
they will stay but you want to pull them really tight
then we'll trim these close
maybe about just less than an eighth of an inch
something around an eighth of an inch from the knot
and do both sides
let
your glue dry all the way and come back to it
when it's totally dry. When you've let your glue dry
you've let it set for about an hour, then we're going to go in and just
trim
our cords and you wanna trim close to the knot
maybe about a sixteenth of an inch away from the knots. You want to trim
all three
and then to ensure that your knots
are going to be nice and secure take a little bit more
of your glue. Your just gonna go in very delicately and
glue the space where the end
of your tail comes out of the end of the knot. So just
right over the very small tip that's still there
and where it meets
the knot. So right over the ends and that's gonna
just secure that and do that on both sides
and then
on your sliding knot again you want to be very careful that
you don't get your glue into the macrame knotting below, you just wanna do
that end knot
and the sides and you wanna go ahead and let all your glue dry really thoroughly
before you wear it, before you
slide it on
to open and close all you do is hold on to your sliding knot
and pull it apart, hold on to your sliding knot
and pull on the ends to tighten. That's how you make
a macrame bracelet with an arrow
or a crystal encrusted infinity link.
Go to www.beadaholique.com to purchase beading supplies and to get design ideas!