Inspiration from Buttons

Button Bracelet

Long time no post. In fact the well of jewellery inspiration has been pretty dry for most of this year until yesterday when I took a new friend on a visit to the so called Haberdashery Souk north of Dubai Creek in Deira. Tucked away by the door of one shop I found some small bags of buttons, 10 dirhams (less than £2) acquired a bag of each. An hour or so at my workbench and I'd conjured up a pretty nautical themed bracelet in blue and cream with plenty of buttons to spare for another bracelet and or some earrings. Here's how:

You'll need a length of memory wire to fit round your wrist with 4 or 5 cm overlap, I used about one and a third loops of smaller diameter wire (31-32cm). The key to this design is that the buttons overlap whilst the wire remains hidden behind them.

Cream Shanked Buttons, Blue Flat Buttons & Memory Wire

I chose some cream buttons about 1 cm in diameter with a shank that were decorated with an anchor design. As a contrast the blue buttons are a similar size, flatter so they lie behind the shanks of the cream ones but still have the thread hole at the back. The anchor buttons had been moulded from plastic and as a result the end of the shank was a bit rough but easily filed smooth with an emery board. I used 15 contrast buttons and 14 anchor buttons, if your bracelet is smaller then fewer buttons will be required.

Bend the final end back and tuck in

Make a small loop at one end of the memory wire and starting with a contrast button, thread on alternate buttons. Check that all the anchors are facing the same way. Finish with another contrast button. Once you have all the buttons on the wire check they all lie right way up then carefully bend back the last centimetre or so ensuring that the last button is held firmly in place.Tuck the wire end into the shank of the last anchor button. All that's needed now is to slide it on your wrist and wait for the admiring glances from your friends!