Decorating Braided Bracelets with Antique Jade

Combining my love for braiding and my love for quirky pieces of old jade I have, over time come up with more  braided bracelet items. Each bracelet was painstakingly hand knotted by me and each antique jade ornament just as tirelessly  hand carved by craftsmen from long ago.

 

My bespoke bracelets





I used embroidery floss and braid patterns like Chevron, Chevron with border, Egyptian and Knitted to knot the bracelets.  Tiny, flat jade ornaments were then added as a centerpiece or as a closure  after the bracelets were completed.

Of the six bracelets 2 were formed by the simple pattern Chevron, shown below


 

Top pattern: Chevron embellished with jade butterfly as centerpiece
(closure button is modern)
Bottom pattern : Three color Chevron decorated with white jade polygon
as centerpiece and square jade button as closure
 

 



Chevron with border is a variation of the chevron pattern. The two bracelets shown below were made to this design.

 



Top pattern: Aubergine color chevron with contrasting grey border and
white bird as centerpiece (closure button is modern)
Bottom Pattern : Three color chevron with contrasting pink border,
 ending with a carved jade button
 

 



Last two  bracelets were made with  more complicated Egyptian and Knitted designs.



Pattern: Reverse side of Knitted pattern is used. Knitted pattern shown below
Decorated in the centre with a white jade bird. (Closure button is modern)

Knitted pattern on other side
 

The last bracelet was knotted following the Egyptian design

 

Pattern : Egyptian with spherical jade button closure





Compared with the mass produced stuff of today my self crafted, personalized accessories are real neato !

  

What a refreshing change !

 

 

BESPOKE BRACELET

 

Here's a modest handmade bracelet I knotted for casual wear. Though it calls for no great skills, more like child's play, making them is really a labor of love as each knot has to be individually tied. Maybe that is why knotted bracelets are called Friendship Bracelets as each knot is tied with love.

 

Friendship Bracelet



This bracelet is made using the simple chevron knot and six strands of  embroidery floss. 

 

 

chevron pattern



 

For the closing I have used an antique jade button as a clasp.

 

 

Jade button as clasp



 

 The little jade button can double as an ornament on the wrist side.

 

 

Jade button doubles as decoration



 

The versatile little jade button is also hand carved. 

 

 

Carved by jade master, ages ago.



 

This uniquely crafted bracelet combining handmade knots with an antique jade button really makes it one of a kind. I daresay  after searching through the net that there are not many around which makes it both original and bespoke !

 

So Bespoke !