CHAPTER 1What Is a Friendship Bracelet?
Friendship bracelets have been around for thousands of years, and the art of making them spans multiple generations and cultures. People create and wear friendship bracelets for a wide variety of reasons. As the name suggests, many people make and gift these bracelets as an expression of friendship. Knotting a bracelet for a friend or loved one is a beautiful way of expressing how much you care for them, and wearing a bracelet made by a friend will always remind you of them.
However, many people also wear bracelets simply as a beautiful accessory or because creating friendship bracelets is a fun hobby. Self-expression and creativity are also common reasons for people to create friendship bracelets.
TYPES OF BRACELETS
There are three main types of friendship bracelets: normal bracelets, alpha bracelets, and special bracelets.
Normal patterns are knotted diagonally and all the strings work in combination with the others—all the strings are used to make knots onto the other strings—to create the design. Normal patterns can be used to create beautiful, intricate designs.
Alpha bracelets are knotted horizontally and are created by making knots with leading strings onto base strings, which are not visible within the completed bracelet. Alpha patterns can be used to create detailed, picture-like designs as well as designs that have text within them.
Special bracelets encompass a wide category of bracelets that include virtually all the other types of bracelets that don’t fit into the category of normal or alpha. Special bracelets can be created using a variety of techniques, sometimes using elements from normal or alpha bracelets, or even from both or neither. The majority of these bracelets require following a video tutorial to create since they often include modifications that cannot be easily represented within a bracelet pattern alone.
There are, of course, other types of bracelets made with thread that look similar to the standard friendship bracelets. Kumihimo bracelets, macramé bracelets, and even braided bracelets are all examples of other techniques that can be used to create beautiful designs out of strings.
In this book you will find explanations and instructions for creating normal bracelets, alpha bracelets, and some special bracelets, as well as fun inspiration for creating your own bracelet designs.
LEARNING MORE: VIDEO TUTORIALS
Video tutorials can be helpful for beginner and advanced bracelet makers. On my YouTube channel (youtube.com/MashaKnots) you will find beginner-friendly tutorials as well as tutorials for more advanced knotters on specific bracelet patterns, techniques, strings and materials, types of starts and ends, and much more!
My Knot with Me playlist on YouTube contains time-lapse videos where I demonstrate knotting various bracelets, which can help you see the decisions I make when segment knotting normal patterns, or the way I switch my colors and make sure my rows are still straight when knotting alpha patterns.
New tutorials, time lapses, bracelet discussions, and just fun bracelet-related videos are constantly being uploaded. I would love to connect with you there too!
OTHER ONLINE COMMUNITIES AND PATTERNS
The website BraceletBook.com acts as a social network for friendship bracelet makers and has thousands of active users who post new patterns, photos, photo and video tutorials, and forum discussions daily. Joining this online community would be beneficial to beginner bracelet makers as members are always happy to help answer questions and give tips and pointers about the craft.
Another great way to find fellow bracelet makers is via Instagram. My personal Instagram (@masha_knots) contains photos of my bracelets, time-lapse videos of bracelet creation, and even short video tutorials for specific patterns or techniques.
Searching through hashtags such as #friendshipbracelets and #fenechki, which is the Russian word for friendship bracelets and contains thousands of posts from the very active Russian knotting community, can help you connect with fellow knotters and inspire you to create even more beautiful bracelets.
Discord is another great place where you will find a community of bracelet makers. I have my own Discord server on which you can connect with fellow knotters about anything bracelet related—ask questions, show off your bracelets, or share your favorite patterns. For times when you want to talk to like-minded people about things other than bracelet making, there are also channels for other topics on Discord such as a pet photos channel, a fandom chat, and even a study chat.
Of course, other online spaces for bracelet makers exist but since not everything can be mentioned here, I will leave finding more of them up to you!