FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS | CRAFTING | MONTHLY CHALLENGE

Friendship Bracelets Are Back With a Vengeance

And I am obsessed!

So if you are paying attention these days, you will know that friendship bracelets are officially a ‘thing’ again. I don’t know exactly when it started, but I do know that Taylor Swift encouraged friendship bracelet exchanges during her shows on her latest tour through the US. So maybe that has something to do with it.

I was about 12 when I first discovered how to make friendship bracelets. Back then us girls were constantly tying knots. We would have our current project pinned to our pants and we would work on our bracelets feverishly over recess and lunch hour, and any other spare moment of the day. We traded them with each other and we all had a bundle of them attached to our wrists at any given time.

We would go together to the fabric shop, our hard-earned babysitting money tucked into our pockets. We would stand and stare at the embroidery thread for what felt like hours, trying our hardest to choose just a few of the myriad of colors that were on display. Looking back, making friendship bracelets at such a young age was likely what taught me about color theory. I figured out which colors went well together, and which ones didn’t.

With well over 100 colors to choose from, the combinations were endless.

When I owned an art gallery in Powell River, BC, the last static place I lived before becoming nomadic in 2017, I made jewelry again. It was also done with knots, but it was different. Formally called micro-macrame, it was more elegant and wasn’t as flashy as these bracelets can be. In fact, I didn’t think much about making these sorts of bracelets again until I was in Uganda, Africa in 2021.

While staying in a small village for 6 months, I became friends with some women who had a craft group. Of course, they made all sorts of beautiful African wares that I loved and admired. But they had never heard of friendship bracelets.

While shopping in the market one day, I spotted some rolls of colorful string. It wasn’t embroidery thread, but I figured that it was small enough that I could use it to tie bracelets. It turns out that it is normally used to tie fishing nets.

I wanted to teach the ladies how to make these iconic bracelets because I figured that they would be a good thing to sell in their gift shop. They also were looking for easy things for the children to make so that they could start learning about commerce.

At first, I was concerned that I wouldn’t remember how to do it, but it came back pretty quickly and I was off to the races. I left all of the supplies that I had purchased with the local ladies before I left, but I had re-opened an urge in me to make them that wouldn’t quit.

We flew back up to Turkey in August of 2022 and I was quick to purchase some actual embroidery thread so that I could get back to making more. It was a good way to pass the time on trains and buses and I enjoyed having something to do that was creative and could fit in my pocket easily.

I didn’t think much of the stockpile of bracelets that I was carrying around until we met up with a group of people one evening in Bulgaria. It was there that I brought out my stash and I was surprised at the attention it got. People started asking if they could have them, to which I eagerly replied, “Sure!” Most of the ones I had made were gifted to random strangers that evening.

Last month a man that we are still in touch with sent me this picture and told me how gorgeous he still thinks his bracelet is. He was one of the Bulgarians we met, and we had a nice chat back and forth. It truly warmed my heart to know that he still thinks about us whenever he looks at his bracelet, and I surely didn’t realize just how much he loves it.

This is what set my latest spark in action, and I have become a bracelet-making machine these past few weeks.

I started out making a simple pattern, the same one that I had always made (like the one in the above photo) but quickly realized that I should probably branch out. I knew that people made them with diamond patterns and other designs. But, of course, I didn’t know how to do that.

However, with the advent of YouTube, I figured that I could find some instructional videos about how to do it. Little did I know what wonders I would discover when I simply typed into the search bar ‘friendship bracelets.’

A world of color and intricate patterns popped up on my screen and I was hooked!

The channel I have shared below contains 280 videos about making bracelets and most have their own unique pattern. They give slow instruction in an easy-to-learn way.

We were staying with Chris’ mom at the time and since she does a bunch of sewing, I asked her if she had any embroidery thread. She said that she did, but she had to find it first. I sort of forgot about it but then, a few days later, a bundle of embroidery thread appeared on her counter. I got busy straight away.

Of course, I quickly became bored with the color selection and knew that I needed to get more colors to satisfy my sudden need to make bracelets. A few days later, we found ourselves in Walmart and I was ecstatic to find that they had a huge selection of colors. I purchased about 12 new colors and I was off to the races again.

With my new colors in hand, I knew that I needed to take the time to sit down and watch some of the instructional videos so that I could learn some new patterns. One evening I put one on and was amazed at how easy it was to create seemingly complex patterns. And I have not looked back.

One day we were shopping with Chris’ mom and we found ourselves in Dollarama. I’m not sure if this chain exists in the US, but it is basically a cheap store full of junk from China. Back in my old life, I would shop there occasionally for cheap art supplies. As I was wandering down the aisle, I came across the most adorable little balls of yarn.

I quickly realized that they were tiny balls of cotton and also felt like they would be great for making the bracelets. Each package contained 9 colors for just $4. Talk about a bargain! I quickly scooped up 3 packages, after agonizingly trying to choose the ones with the best colors inside them.

Having this huge quantity of supplies meant one thing! I had to get busy!

Using this material made making the bracelets so much easier. The embroidery thread is great, but it tends to be a bit slippery and I was finding that the knots would slip occasionally. But this cotton has a bit of grip to it, so it makes tying the knots so much easier.

In no time at all I started stockpiling bracelets with more intricate patterns. I figured that they were a good thing to have with us as we traveled so that I could give them away as gifts.

Then, as I thought about the black-and-white challenge for Share Your Creativity this month, I figured that I would do a group of black-and-white bracelets to share.

But, of course, I quickly got bored of just black and white and had to get back to my colors! I decided that I liked making the bundles of bracelets in the same color way, but with different patterns, and got started on this group next.

And then this.

I guess next I should work on a fall color scheme seeing as fall has arrived!

I really have no idea when this latest obsession will stop, or if it ever will. It seems like the perfect traveling hobby as it is small and lightweight and the bracelets make great gifts.

I may even get serious enough to start selling some online. Who knows!

What I do know is that I am really enjoying making them, and at the end of the day, that is all that really matters!

If you are new to Share Your Creativity, I invite you to join us and show us what it is that you are working on.

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Happy Creating!

xo Jill

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