The first jewellery I ever made was friendship bracelets, my Mum taught me how to make these using embroidery thread when I was about 10, she used to make them for her friends when she was in school. As I got older I started to wear more jewellery and I asked my Mum to remind me how to make friendship bracelets. (she used to make them in class when she was bored, she was taught how to make them by a Spanish foreign exchange student)
I started with the very basic style, two colours and straight across knots. It is very simple but it takes time. To see the full instructions on how to make a friendship bracelet – check out this page. You basically select your colours, you measure them from your hand to your elbow and double them, tie them together using a simple knot (leaving extra string to be able to tie the bracelet to someone’s wrist). You then take the first string on the left and tie it to the next string, two basic knots then you do the same across each string. Then you drop that string and start with the next left most string.
When I got more comfortable I started using more complex patterns and designs and trying out different knots and platis.
As the name suggests they are a representation of friendship, so I make them for my friends and I usually let them pick out their own colours.