March 8th was the last time I visited a friend, and while Zoom and FaceTime calls are nice, I am finding myself craving the simplest pleasures: Sunday brunch, meeting for coffee, a mid-week dinner date. In my search for connection and a desire to soothe in these difficult times, I decided I wanted to make little gifts for some friends. I started looking through my studio drawers for inspiration: I found yarn I didn't remember, tubes of half-used beads, a whole bag of headband blanks and a surprising amount of glitter. And then I found a bag of hand-painted silk that I hadn't even opened yet.
When I saw it I knew what the perfect project would be: Affinity Bracelets. I came up with the idea for these years ago as a fast, easy and fun weaving project based off of the idea of the friendship bracelets we used to make as kids. Affinity Bracelets are fun because there aren't any rules: Use whatever material you want, add beads, don't add beads, braid the ends and tie them or make a clasp (the goal is to use something pretty, like silk, as warp so your warp thread can be integrated into the bracelet design).
That evening I warped up an 8" Lani Loom and got to weaving. I ended up using only silk for the entire bracelet. It was the most therapeutic weaving I had done in weeks.
It gave me another idea: Why not invite the Mirrix community in on this project? I'll provide instructions for a very basic Affinity Bracelet design in a weave-along format and we can weave and design new bracelets together and then give them away to those we miss and whose days might need a little extra brightness.
For this weave-along project you can use whatever materials you have on hand, although we do recommend some of our Spring 2020 batch of Hand-Painted Silk or our Hand-Painted Silk Gima Tape Yarn. Learn more and sign up below!
Here's the weave-along schedule:
May 12th: Warping & Weaving
This week we'll show you how to warp for this project and go over basic weaving techniques as well as some different ways of incorporating a variety of fibers and beads.
May 19th: Finishing
This week we'll show a couple of different ways to finish these bracelets.
May 26th: Your Design Ideas
This week we'll share some of your projects and design ideas. During the first two weeks of the weave-along email us with YOUR Affinity Bracelet design and/or material ideas and post pictures using the hashtag #affinitybracelet on Instagram!
What you need:
-A Mirrix Loom 5" or larger
A Saffron Loom would also work, but you'd have to make some modifications to our instructions.
-Warp
We're using our Hand-Painted Silk and our Hand-Painted Silk Gima Tape Yarn
-Weft
We're using our Hand-Painted Silk and our Hand-Painted Silk Gima Tape Yarn
-Basic supplies: a pair of scissors, a measuring tape, a tapestry needle (optional)
-Other fun stuff (optional): Beads, novelty yarn, gold thread, fabric scraps, whatever you can think of!
Here are some materials that may be fun to incorporate:
Gold Thread
Railroad Yarn
Fire-Polished Crystals
Wooden Beads
