DIY Spiked necklace and braided spiked bracelet

SwellMayde's DIY projects never fail to inspire me and over the year, I bookmarked so many of her projects that I wanted to try! Earlier this month, I saw an awesome tutorial on her website where she transformed a simple chain necklace to a modern, timeless braided pearl necklace. Totally amazing! This was the inspiration for my DIY project this month - a braided spiked bracelet. Since it's all about rock this month, I used imitation leather cord instead of yarn and replaced the classy pearls with metallic spikes to give the bracelet a punk rock vibe.


Here's how I made my braided spiked bracelet:
Materials used: 1m of synthetic leather cord,  around 45 cm thick chain, 8cm thin chain, 4 screw on spikes and 1 lobster claw clasp

Step 1: Divided the thick chain into 3 equal parts

Step 2: Connect one end of the 3 thick chains to the thin chain

Step 3: Using sticky tape, secure the thin chain to the table. Then start braiding the synthetic leather cord through the 3 chains. There's no one good way to do the braiding and this is the time to get creative! What I did was to let the left end of the cord go through chain 1 to chain 2 and then the right end of the cord go through chain 3 to chain 2. In this way, all three chains are linked up by the cord. Alternatively, try braiding the cord through each chain. 

Step 4: At suitable interval, I will skip one ring in chain 2 and not braid the cord through it. This allowed sufficient space for the metallic spikes to be screwed on. I screwed 4 spikes on my bracelet.

Step 5: At the end of the chain, simply tie a knot and melt the ends of the cord to prevent fraying. Attached a lobster claw clasp to this end and we are done!

I also recalled her edgy spiked bracelet tutorial which cannot be more apt for our rock theme this month and decided that it's time to make one for myself. Instead of a bracelet, I made a long chain so that there's a versatility of wearing it as a necklace or a bracelet by going round the wrist a few times. And here are the final products!

This is probably my first time doing some serious jewelry making. I'm such an amateur! I would love to hear all of your comments on my first piece of jewelry. 


Ft