Mini Domino Bracelets

When I first saw the mini bamboo dominos, I knew I’d be making bracelets from them. They’re the ideal size to make nice, chunky cuffs, which I adore.

To make your own mini domino bracelet, you’ll need:

• Pre-drilled mini bamboo dominos, which I’ll list for sale in the dominos section as long as I can keep them in stock.

• A sheet of mini domino-sized images, also listed for sale in the dominos section.
• Gel medium, or your favorite collage adhesive. I used Dick Blick’s Acrylic Matte Medium.
• Sealer or varnish to make the collage portion waterproof. I used DecoArt DuraClear Varnish.
• A scouring pad or sanding block to rough up the surface of the domino a bit.
• A foam sponge applicator.
• Jewelry elastic. I used .5mm Stretch Magic in both clear and black for the samples shown in this lesson.
• Glass E beads. These are the larger seed type beads.
• Glitter glue, rhinestones or sequins for decorating, if you desire.

Cut the collage sheet into strips to make the images a little easier to handle. Cut out the images you wish to use on your bracelets. Each sheet contains several sets of ten images—enough to cover dominos for a large bracelet. Those of you with tiny wrists might get by with 9 doms, or even 8.

Use a scouring pad or a sanding block to rough the front side of the dominos just a little bit. A green kitchen scrubbing pad will take off just a bit of the finish. A sanding block will take off a lot of it, and lift some of the color from the domino. Clean the dominos off with a soft cloth to remove any dust from the sanding.

Using a foam sponge or your finger, apply a tiny bit of matte medium to the front faces of the dominos, smoothing it over the surface. I worked on the doms two at a time, because the medium dries quickly on such a tiny surface.

Apply a tiny bit of matte medium to the back side of an image, and press it onto a domino, centering it. Apply just a tiny bit of medium over the top of the image. Making both sides of the image damp with medium is what will keep it from rippling as it dries.

Repeat until all your dominos have images on them. Set them aside to dry completely.

If you wish, decorate the dominos when they’re dry. I added a little glitter glue, some flat-backed rhinestones, and tiny star-shaped seqins to mine. Let all this dry completely.

Apply a coat of sealer or varnish over the finished dominos, and let them dry.

Arrange the dominos in order, as you wish them to be strung on the bracelet. I found lining them up in a row like this made them easier to string quickly.

Cut a piece of jewelry elastic that’s 10 times as long as the row of dominos—I know that sounds like a crazy amount of elastic, but seriously, it took that much to do all the stringing. Start by threading the elastic through the hole that’s closest to you in the dom that’s farthest away, and leaving tails of equal length hanging out of the sides.

Add two E beads to each tail of elastic. Thread the tails through the first hole in the next dom in line, forming a little beaded bridge between the two. The tails will cross inside the second dom, and come out at opposite ends. Pull the tails tight enough to snug the doms against each other.

Add three E beads to each tail, and thread them across the top of the second dom, and through the second hole. The tails will come out on opposite ends again.

Add two beads to each tail, and thread across to the next dom, through the holes. You’re going to continue adding beads and threading the tails through each set of holes all the way down the bracelet—two beads, add a dom, three beads across the top and bottom of that dom, bring the tails through the next hole.

When all the doms are strung together, snug up the elastic to make sure they butt up against each other, without either overlapping or leaving gaps.

Attach the last dom to the first one using the same beading pattern—two beads on each tail to create the bridge, then thread the tails through the holes in opposite directions. Add three beads to each tail and thread them through the last two holes. Send one tail across to the first hole in the next domino and thread it through, to bring both tails to the same side of the domino.

The nice folks who make Stretch Magic provided this diagram showing how to die the elastic off. Do this very close to the holes, then trim to leave a tail that’s a little bit longer than the height of the dominos. Thread the knotted tail down into a domino to hide the knots—I used a long needle to do this, then trimmed any elastic tails hanging out the other side.

I did these three bracelets in an afternoon!