Beautiful Bracelets By Hand: Morse Code Bracelet

Friends, I have something to tell you about today that you are going to want to put on your Christmas wish list right now! Those of you who share my love for making your own jewelry are especially going to love this, so get excited! It’s a new book called Beautiful Bracelets by Hand by Jade Gedeon and it’s got 75 tutorials for one-of-a-kind bracelets you can create. I received a complimentary copy for review, but I honestly would have happily paid the $21.99 for all the gorgeous ideas inside…or I’d have begged someone to put it under the tree for me this Christmas.

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The author, Jade, is no stranger to creating beautiful jewelry; she’s the founder of We Dream in Colour, and her designs are sold in over 800 retail outlets across the country, including Anthropologie. In this book, she has put together a collection of DIY tutorials for some of her favorite designs that include step by step photos and instructions for each of the 75 bracelets.

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The book is divided into sections by materials, so there are projects featuring beads, metal, wood, plastic, fabric, and more! My personal favorite section is the Metal one…there are so many beautiful and unique ideas I want to try…but there are also designs I want to make in each of the other sections as well. As soon as my book arrived, I ran over to my comfy chair and started flipping through and looking at all the photos. Little Crafter can vouch for the fact that I dropped everything to look at the pretty designs, and I may or may not have drooled a little as I browsed.

There are so many things in this book I want to make, but today I’m going to share with you the first project I attempted inspired by one of Jade’s tutorials. This one comes from the Beads section and it caught my attention because besides being lovely, it contains a secret code! That’s right, the sequence of beads contains a message written in Morse Code!

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As with any tutorial, you can follow it exactly, or you can use it as inspiration and put your own spin on it. Here’s a peek at my version of the Coded Bracelet, inspired by Jade’s tutorial in Beautiful Bracelets by Hand.

Morse Code Bracelet

I didn’t have the exact beads shown in the book, and truth be told, I was too impatient to go to the store before trying this out, so I used some pretty miracle beads from my stash instead. I also chose to create my bracelet on memory wire rather than on stringing wire because this way I didn’t have to worry about trying to get my coded message to be the right length to circle my wrist. I knew I wanted to code the word “LOVE” which wouldn’t take up the entire string, so memory wire allowed me just to stop beading when I wanted to and still end up with a great finished product. Here are the exact supplies I used in case you want to make your own {these are affiliate links, so if you make a purchase, it helps me get more materials to create jewelry tutorials for you}:

Memory Wire
Memory Wire Cutters
– 6 mm Miracle Beads, Fuschia and Light Pink
– 6 mm Silver Plated Clear Rhinestone Rondelle Beads
 3 mm Silver End Caps
– Jewelry Glue or Super Glue
– Made With Love Charm and jump ring {optional}

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Step 1: Translate your message into Morse Code and string your beads accordingly.
The book had a helpful chart showing the code for each letter, so all I had to do was follow it! The original tutorial used one pearl per dot, three pearls per dash, and gold beads for pauses. For my bracelet, fuschia beads represented dots, light pink represented dashes, and the silver beads were the pauses between letters. With that in mind, you can see how I spelled out the word “LOVE.”

Morse Code Bracelet

Step 2: Slide a crimp tube onto each end of your line of beads and tighten it.
This prevents your beads from sliding around when the bracelet is on your wrist

Step 3: {optional} Add a charm.

Step 4: Glue end caps onto the exposed ends of the wire.

Morse Code Bracelet

Is that awesome or what?! I love the idea that you can create secret coded messages right there in your jewelry! What a neat way to give someone a really personal gift, don’t you think? You can code names or other words that mean something to you, and your bracelet will be a visible reminder every time you see it.

Did you like that? Well then, I can almost guarantee that you’re going to want a copy of Beautiful Bracelets by Hand because there are 74 more designs just as cool as this one! So, grab a pen and jot down that title so you can add it to your wish list this holiday season. Honestly, you’ll be glad you did!

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