A New Band

Late last December I dressed three of my looms to "start the New Year off right" without naked looms. Then the looms sat, mostly untouched. Well, I finally have the smallest of the projects finished. It's just an Inkle band, but it is one I do have a purpose for.

Years ago I bought myself a medical alert bracelet that you can buy interchangeable bracelets for. They are expensive, so right from the start I was determined to make my own. Initially I tried making beaded bracelets, but they had a tendency to break and, with that, came the risk of losing them. 

I then tried making decorative Inkle band bracelets for it, and that was far more successful. I have quite a collection of them now, and often make them so that they coordinate with items in my wardrobe.

This is the newest bracelet and it's made from that recently finished Inkle band. I often get questions from Inkle weaving enthusiasts wanting new and creative uses for their beautiful bands, so I'll answer them here.

The findings I finish the bands with are available through Etsy, and if you are lucky, sometimes you can find them at local beading supply stores. The ends that finish the band are called "ribbon ends" and I connect those to the lobster claw clasps with split rings.

The tools I use are flat round pliers that I use to get a good grip on the split ring when I am turning it to feed it onto the ribbon ends and lobster claws, flat round nylon jaw jewelry pliers which I use to close the ribbon ends without damaging them, and split ring pliers used for opening the split rings. Those last pliers are less expensive if you pick them up from a fishing supply store. 

To prevent the cut Inkle band from fraying and possibly pulling out of the end findings, I use a good glue that works for joining porous and non-porous materials before I pinch those end findings closed.

My personal preference is to aim for a fit that is close enough that it doesn't move around on my arm, but long enough that it is still easy enough to do up.

In case you're curious, I wear a medic alert bracelet any time I leave the house because I have a couple of severe allergies, one of which would be unexpected by the medical community and could be life threatening if I was unconscious and could not warn them.