
How to Make a Wrapped and Felted Bangle,
The other day I made a bangle. I have made them before but it has been a while. So long ago, I can’t find the pictures. I know I have seen them recently while looking for something else. I was not as good at labelling things then as I am now so searching didn’t help much. Anyway, for this one, I wanted to use some of my handspun. I have many little balls of yarn as I never make much of any one thing.
To start you need a piece of cord or yarn. Make it the size you want your finished bangle. It will not shrink in size. I used a scrap of yarn.
You need some wool and some yarn. I am using some very dark purple merino but you won’t see any of it when I am done. The yarns are some of my mostly wool handspun.
Wrap the roving around the string. Wrapping down through the hole and back around until its all covered.
At first, I thought I would wrap the 2 yarns side by side. The larger ball was too hard to poke through the hole all the time. I forgot to take a picture of wrapping the pattern I did but you can see here how snug I did it. It is compressing the roving but not a lot.
This is the wrapped and wet bangle.
At this point, I just wrapped my fingers around it and squshed it like making a playdough bracelet. Move the bangle around and around so it was all getting squished. I did that for a few minutes, not very long as I am impatient. I rolled it up in a rolling mat. It’s a piece of the foamy, rubbery shelf liner. I rolled maybe 10 times and then unrolled rotated and flipped it. I did that maybe 4 or 5 times. I wasn’t thinking about it as a tutorial at that point, so I wasn’t keeping track. When I was done it was flat.
Don’t panic, just pick it up and put one hand into the hole and one on the outside and roll it back and forth in the hands like making a playdough snake. Do that all around the bangle until it is round again and feels firm. You could just squeeze it for longer and then roll it in your hands if you don’t want to roll it in a mat.
It really works, it is round and the yarn has given it texture, as well as colour. The longest part of making the bangle is wrapping the yarn. If you were not as neat as I was, you could do it much faster and would have a more textured bangle.
Here it is dry.
You can see it’s a little fuzzy. I wanted more texture and more sparkle. Both Yarns have silk and some Angelina in them. So I got out my trusty dollar store disposable razor and gave it a heavy shave.
There is a lot more texture and you can see some of the minor colours and some shiny and sparkly bits. I had a really hard time trying to capture the sparkle. Most of the little pink dots are sparkle and the orange Bits are silk.
It is too large for me really It would fall off if I would it loose on my wrist. I push it up to my forearm. On a less Rubenesque person or my much younger self, the upper arm would work well. It was fun to do and I should have thought of it for the first quarter challenge.
14 thoughts on “How to Make a Wrapped and Felted Bangle,”
do you think if you used elastic instead of cord you could make one that would stretch over your hand but was small enough not to fall off?
I don’t think so, the felt would stop it stretching. If you want ti to wear on your wrist you need to make it so it just fits over your hand. they don’t take much wool and they don’t take long to make so you could try several sizes. As long as one is small enough the other wouldn’t fall off if you wear them all together.
It’s a lovely bangle! A great way of making too, and there are so many possible variations. Judging size is tricky though isn’t it?
Actually, if you made it large enough to go over your head it would make a lovely necklace!
Thanks Lyn. yes size is a pit of trial and error. I just eyeballed the size. If you had a bangle you knew fit, you could use that to measure your string. Yes a bigger one as a necklace would work well and make a nice set.
Very pretty! I love the effect after the razor!
Thanks , Its amazing what a little fuzz can hide. It is very satisfying to shave something and watch it change.
Lovely color.
Thanks, Judy
Looks vary cool! is it big enuff to cut and make it into a tork? its an urly medieval form of open metal neck coller (like a big dragon headed bracelet). you could needle felt dragons or since its pinks how about some flowers? thay could be snapdragons?
Thanks, I think you would need a piece(s) of wire in it but sure why not. you make the flower heads and I will make the other part. 🙂
Great bangle and a lovely way of using some of your gorgeous hand spun yarn. I’ve made bangles just by felting wool onto a cord but getting it even is quite difficult so wrapping yarn around it seems like a very good way of managing the distribution of the wool around the circle, as well as giving it a nice finish.
Thanks Lindsay. Having even more textured yarn would be really interesting too. If you have small amounts of art yarn it would be a great way to use them up. and maybe make a nice accessory when wearing what ever you made with the rest of the yarn.
Thanks for the explanation of how you make these Ann. The colors are really nice once you shaved it.