Have you ever had to work on something hard and tedious to get a good outcome in the end? How about following instructions perfectly so that it comes out right? And then after it is finished, you show it off to someone? Feeling proud of something that you have accomplished is a great feeling, such is with making friendship bracelets. 

       First, when making a friendship bracelet you need string, also known as embroidery floss or embroidery thread. I like to pick four strings, but you can go up to seven strings. The least amount of strings you can have is two. There are two different bracelets for beginners: a chinese staircase and a candy stripe.  Your string should be about two wing spans long (from one of your fingertips to the other fingers).   Do that to all of your strings. When making any bracelet you need a loop to tie the one end of the bracelet to the other end of the bracelet. Take your long strings and fold them in half. Now there is a fold at the top,  and now you should tie a knot big enough to fit your pointer finger in the loop. Now you can start to make your bracelet. 

       When making a chinese staircase you want to have one string out from the cluster of strings. You want to do this so that it looks like a 4 shape. The bent part of the 4 is that one string that you will be using to color the staircase. The vertical part of the 4 is the cluster of strings. Then you are going to tuck the end of the 4 through the whole of the 4 and pull it until it is tight. Do that ten more times, and then you can switch to a new color. Do the same thing with the 4 ten times more. After that you should have the hang of it. Do that until it fits the size of your wrist, switching colors every ten 4’s. Now if you want to add beads you should stop about halfway through your bracelet. This is like threading a needle; you need to get the strings through the hole of the bead. I like to group the strings into pairs and then string the pairs. Once you string one you want to pull the string back into the bead to make the whole bigger for the pairs to go through easier. Now that you know how to put the beads on you should tie a knot so that the beads don't fall off when you are trying to make the 4. 

       Making a candy stripe is similar to making a chinese staircase. You do the same 4 knotting, except you do it on all the individual strings versus the one cluster of strings. First you are going to make a loop at the top like you learned back in making a chinese staircase. Now you are going to make a pattern with the strings like this:   ||||||||. You are going to take the teal string and do the 4 method to all of the other strings going from the blue all the way over to the right pink. It will look weird in the beginning, but just trust the process. Doing this should make the teal string go all the way to the right. Now do that with the blue. Do it with the purple and pink too. You now have what is called a chunk. For a twelve year old girl you need ten chunks; it will most likely vary because everybody's wrist is different. At the end of both bracelets you can tie it or use a lobster clasp. Any other clips or clasps will work; you just want something that will not have your bracelet fall apart. 

       Overall, friendship bracelet making is a fun and unique talent and hobby to know. It takes some time and is tedious, but in the end you get an interesting and homemade brand new accessory. How many different designs can you make?

 

-Katy T.