by Rena Klingenberg.
Zen Spiral Bracelet Tutorial by Rena Klingenberg
This graceful Zen Spiral Bracelet is a wire bangle that’s fast and easy to make.
It’s a perfect companion for these pieces you can also make – Zen Spiral Pendant and Zen Spiral Earrings.
Supplies:
- 16-gauge round wire. Measure your wrist and add 4.5″ (11.43 cm) to find how much wire you’ll need.
For example: a 7.5″ wrist + 4.5″ = a 12″ piece of wire. - Wire cutter (be sure to use a cutter that’s made for heavier gauges of wire, so you don’t ruin your best cutters).
- Round nose pliers (again, be sure to use pliers that are made for heavier gauges of wire).
- A file, cup burr, or knife sharpening stone for smoothing off the wire ends.
- A round bracelet mandrel – or PVC pipe, soup can, or other hard, cylindrical object (I used an 8-ounce tomato sauce can).
- Nylon or rawhide jewelry hammer.
- Fine-tip Sharpie marker.
How to Make the
Zen Spiral Bracelet:
Cut your wire to the desired length:
Use your cup bur, file, or knife-sharpening stone to smooth and round both ends of your wire:
Use your fine-tip marker to draw a mark 3″ (7.62 cm) from one end of your wire (later you’ll make the spiral on this end of the wire):
Now use your marker to draw a mark 0.5″ (1.27 cm) from the other end of your wire (later you’ll make the hook clasp on this end of the wire):
Wrap your wire around your bracelet mandrel (or tomato sauce can, in my case!).
You can also do a bit of hammering on the wire here, to work-harden it.
We want to get our wire to stay in the shape of a round bangle bracelet:
Remove your wire from the mandrel.
Pull gently on the two wire ends to make the circle small enough that your two Sharpie marks line up – and they stay lined up when you let go of the wire:
Now we’re going to make the hook clasp.
On the wire end where you drew a mark 0.5″ (1.27 cm) from the end, grasp the very tip of the wire in your round nose pliers.
Make a slight curve, curving away from the bracelet.
This will keep the hook from catching or snagging things while the bracelet’s being worn:
Now use your round nose pliers to grasp your wire on the 0.5″ mark you drew.
Bend the wire end in the same direction as the curve you just made. Keep bending to make a nice hook:
Now we’re going to make the spiral end of the bracelet.
On the wire end where you drew a mark 3″ (7.62 cm) from the end, use your fingers to straighten out the wire – beginning at the 3″ mark, out to the to the end of the wire.
The straighter this part of the wire is, the easier it will be to make a nice spiral:
If you’ve never made an open wire spiral (or have struggled to make one), watch my 3-minute video on How to Make an Open Wire Spiral.
Now grasp the end of the wire in your pliers and make a curve; this will be the center of your spiral:
Move your pliers a tiny way down the wire, and make a tiny bend in the wire.
Keep moving your pliers along the wire in tiny steps, and make tiny bends in the wire as you go, to continue the open spiral:
Continue to form your spiral until your 3″ Sharpie mark is at about this point on your spiral:
Straighten and flatten your spiral if necessary.
You can also use your nylon or rawhide hammer to work-harden your spiral if it doesn’t feel sturdy enough.
Remove any remains of your Sharpie marks from the wire, using a few drops of rubbing alcohol on a scrap of paper towel.
Enjoy your lovely new Zen Spiral bangle bracelet!
This is a pretty bracelet, Rena! And would look so nice worn with one of the other spiral pieces. I really like it in this colour of brass too.
Bula Rena!
This is so nice and easy – is it okay to make these to sell??
Happy New Year!
Pat
So pretty! It’s fun to see how you get such a perfect spiral. Thanks for linking up at One Creative Weekend! Enjoy your weekend.
Very nice!
Thanks for sharing.
I love this! So pretty and simple. Thanks for sharing. Ive pinned this for later. I also fixing to check out your wire ring tutorial.
Lovely simple design. Nice, clear tutorial. Thanks
Beautiful!
Lovely! Pinning this.
That is beautiful! You are very talented! Thank you for sharing it at SHOW-licious Craft Showcase!
Have a fantastic weekend!
Marti
Love this simple design! So pretty!
Gorgeous!
Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
Hope you have a fabulous week!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
You make this look so easy. I have never been able to get the hang of making jewlery. I may need to try this. Thanks for sharing.
Donna
This is beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing at Mix it up Monday
Very pretty and looks easy enough for me to do. I saw your link on Creating my Way to Success. I would love for you to come by and share your creativity with my friends
Robin@ Fluster Buster
Fluster Muster Linky Party – Wednesdays
So lovely!!! Love the design! Thanks so much for sharing the great tutorial! I’d love for you to visit my blog.
Have a great Year!
Hugs from Portugal,
Ana Love Craft
Love this bracelet! You make it look easy, but I’m not sure I could get one to look that great…Thanks so much for sharing it at my linky party! Have a great week.
Leslie
Hi Pat!
Thank you so much for asking – all of my free tutorials I post on this website are for you to make these items to sell, to give, to wear yourself – to share and enjoy!
Many of my free tutorials here are things that have sold well for me, or that I feel intuitively would be good sellers – so I hope you sell the jewelry you make from these tuts and that they sell like hotcakes!
My only restriction is on the tutorial itself (the text and photos) – that it not be republished, copied, or sold.
Your photos are always so great and your tutorials very easy to follow. I’m so glad you are a regular at BeColorful’s Motivated Monday party.
p
I love this! Thank you so much for sharing on Thursday’s Treasures. I’m featuring it on Week 68. Please grab a “featured on” button when you visit my blog. <3 and hugs!
That is such a nice Simple and elegant braclet, it would go with so many different outfits as well.
So pretty! I always like simple designs that best. I found you from Ginger Snaps.
This is beautiful. I’d like to wear it on my upper arm with a sleeveless dress.
I host a link party each Thursday and would love for you to share this.
Thanks for the great post!
-Angie
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful! Found your post at Adorned from Above’s blog hop! Thanks for sharing !
This is so lovely! I haven’t done very much jewelry making but, am always in awe of what can be done. Thanks for sharing @ DearCreatives.com
So pretty! Thanks for linking up!
So pretty! Thanks for linking up! Following via Twitter, Facebook, & Pinterest!
Rena, you are just genial. Measuring that length first and marking it like that. And then, hopla, bend it around a soup can! Why didn’t I think of that?! Thank you so much for this tutorial again, and your continued contributions to ‘Time for a Party’. They are most welcome!!!
That is such a beautiful bracelet! Thank you for sharing this at the Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Hope to see your prettiness again on Monday. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
Beautiful, graceful curves — very Zen! Love it! Thanks so much for linking on Busy Monday!
What a neat idea! It turned out super cute! I’m featuring this at my link party tonight!
I’m just learning to make jewelry. I really appreciate you sharing your skills and giving us tutorials! Thank you!
Great tutorial!! I’ve also made the wire spiral pendant and wire ring, and also made another bracelet out of three large spirals linked together by two smaller ones. It’s really cool!
One thing about this tutorial, though: 0.5″ = 1.27cm; 3.81cm = 1.5″, no?
Also, for the makers:
Don’t get discouraged if you need to make 2 or 3. The instructions are straightforward but keeping the shape, making a good, good spiral, and making sure the bracelet hooks together in a place where you’ll be able to take it on and off easily (or else you’ll have to re-shape it every time you wear it)—not as easy as it looks! I’m decently skilled with all this stuff, but it took me a couple of tries. I finally have an awesome finished product. Don’t give up!
Oh! Thank you Camille, for correcting my error with the 0.5″ conversion to cm. I’ll blame it on my math dyslexia.
Meanwhile, I’ll fix the numbers up above in the tutorial.
Also, I’m happy to hear about your success in making the Zen Spiral collection of jewelry, and I so appreciate your additional tips for our fellow artists who are getting ready to do this tutorial.
Thanks again, Camille!
No problem!
By the way: this evening I posted a short video to my fb page, showing the ring and bracelet. I gave the links to your tutorials and also explained where people could get the supplies locally (and how inexpensive it really is to do this stuff). So you may have a slew of new readers very soon!
You are very generous to share all this info and your experience with everyone, Rena. It would take a LOT longer to make these projects if we had to go through the trial and error that you’ve already gone through for us. Thanks for takin’ one for the team!
Cheers