Designing a Pandora bracelet can be an overwhelming (yet fun) challenge. A Pandora bracelet will be a beloved piece of jewelry cherished by women of all ages. These charm bracelets even make great, trendy jewelry presents for teens. But they are expensive. Coming up with the perfect Pandora bracelet design is essential. This article offers design tips and techniques to make your bead bracelet really special.
The Pandora Bracelet – Silver, Gold, Cord or Leather?
Depending on the woman’s preference, a Pandora bracelet comes in many varieties, including solid silver, solid gold, combination silver with gold clasp, and leather. The leather bracelets come in many colors, can be braided or plain, and can be singular or doubled. Cord bracelets are colorful, economical and trendy, and can be wrapped multiple times around the wrist. Both cords and leather have clasps or accents in a choice of silver or gold.
Although gold is a beautiful choice, it is very expensive compared with the silver alternative, and silver is currently more fashionable. Additionally, one must consider the beads and charms. Gold beads are quite high in price, and friends may not be able to afford to give these beads as gifts. But, if the bracelet will be purchased or given completely designed, gold would be an extravagant and impressive expression of love.
Clasps, Clips and Safety Chains on the Pandora Bracelet
The clasps on a Pandora bracelet will dictate how expensive it will be, and also how sturdy. A lobster claw clasp is the cheapest. The lock clasp is much sturdier and also has the appearance of a bead, so it blends in nicely with the bracelet. Both options come in silver and gold.
The Pandora bracelet has two separators that split the bracelet into three sections. These separators can be clipped so that the charms do not get caught on them. Clips look like beads and come in several different designs. Safety chains are fashionable and perform the function of keeping the beads on the bracelet when it isn’t clasped. Like the clips, the safety chain ends look like beads, blending into the bracelet design.
Combining Beads on a Pandora Bracelet
The fun part of any Pandora bracelet is the bead design. There are silver beads, gold beads, combination silver/gold beads, dangle charms, glass beads and even wood beads. There is also a special line of beads for breast cancer awareness. Combining these beads will showcase the bracelet as uniquely yours. Here are a few Pandora bracelet design ideas:
- Noah’s Ark – Combine silver animal beads.
- Green and gold – Use a combination of green glass and gold beads.
- Icy blue – Use a combination of blue enamel and glass beads, pearls and silver.
- Valentine’s Day design – Combine heart beads, red glass and charms with pink zirconia to make a beautiful Valentine’s Day gift.
- Repeat a pattern – Use similar beads in patterns of two or three, and repeat around the bracelet.
- Other themed bracelets – Try a wine theme (grapes and wine glass), tea party (cupcake, teacup, teapot), sports lover (soccer ball, football, football helmet), spring (butterflies, flowers, bunny), or a series of letter beads that spell a meaningful word or phrase ("mother", "daughter", “I love you” or personalize it with a name). Check out Creating Pandora Bracelets for more great ideas and themes for your Pandora jewelry.
Other Useful Pandora Bracelet Design Tips
There are many design techniques that people will discover during their Pandora bracelet design. Here are four good ones to consider:
- Check the design beforehand. When putting together the Pandora bracelet, charms must be screwed onto it. It will be easier and quicker to establish a design or pattern before placing the beads on. However, just putting the beads side-by-side on a countertop will not work. By sliding the beads onto a wooden or plastic skewer, the bracelet designer will be able to really see what the charm design will look like.
- Use gold accents. If the Pandora bracelet will be a gift for a gold lover, but you cannot afford solid gold, try designing the bracelet to have just a hint of gold – instead of getting solid gold beads, which are very pricey, try getting silver beads with gold accents and sprinkle them throughout the bracelet.
- Don't make the design too busy. Silver beads that have a lot of intricate patterns should not be placed together, because the bracelet will be too busy. Try interspersing smooth silver charms, glass, or bead spacers with gemstones between them.
- Highlight a dangle. Highlight a dangle bead by surrounding it with two identical beads on each side within the bracelet design. Spread out the dangle charms evenly (and other similar charms such as glass) so the bracelet will be weighted properly.
A Pandora bracelet will be a great purchase. These charm bracelets are fun, chic, and depending on how elaborate the designs, can be worn daily or for special occasions. The best Pandora bracelet design is one that expresses the wearer’s personality. Use the design ideas and tips in this article to create a unique Pandora bracelet design for your loved one.
Karen Plumley - Karen Plumley is a writer specializing in parenting and education. She works for Parenting NH and the Hippo, NH's most widely read ...
