How to Make a Wooden Infinity Bangle

This is an instructable on how to make a wooden bracelet that appears to have circular grain. It is rather simple to do and you can just use what you have around you, although I will list the exact supplies we used below. One of the (many) great things things about this project is that the only tool that is 100% necessary is sandpaper, which most people have anyway, making this the perfect lock-down project. This will take around a day to complete, the most time consuming part being the wait for drying. The actual working should take around one and a half hours. This is a good project to do with your kids or, if younger, parents. One of the first main pieces of knowledge I remember learning about wood when I was a little kid, was about wood grain. So when we first made this bracelet (we didn't have a design) I was really happy with how the grain looked like a never ending circle.

Here is what you'll need (and what we used)

A piece of wood. Any piece should work though a long flat piece will work best. We used oak, which is a hardwood, but any type should work. You can also use shop-bought veneer, or thin strips of papery bark from trees like birch, or Australian mountain Ash (eucalyptus regnans) Basically any woody material that is thin enough to be somewhat flexible.

Ca glue. This is to seal in the cracks and make it stronger. We also used Epoxy resin to get an extra smooth finish, but this isn't necessary to complete the project.

Something to make small shavings. We used a hand plane to make shavings, but is also possible to use a knife (Be careful with knives though, obviously).

Sandpaper. You will need a few different levels of grit to get a really smooth finish.

Tape. We used electrical tape because it doesn't stick to the glue, but masking tape (it comes off easily or can be sanded off) or normal sellotape should also work.

You'll need a (circular) shape. Slightly (2-5 mm 1/8"-1?/4") smaller than the inner diameter of the finished size of the finished bracelet, to form the bracelet around.

Oil. A food-safe cutting board oil is best, but tung oil, raw linseed oil, rapeseed oil, even olive or sunflower oil will be fine. Be careful about using nut oils though, unless you're sure the person you'd like to wear the item doesn't have any nut allergies.

Place your wood in front of you. You´ll want your strips to be about one millimetre thick and around five centimetres long. The width depends on the width you want your bangle to be. The strips may need to be a little more or less thick, depending on the wood you use. There a few different options here so I´ll split them between a and b.

A) If you are using wood: Hand plane the wood into your strips. Obviously you don´t need to use the whole thing (unless your block is quite small), if you do around fifty strokes and then gather the top ten strips. We only used six although it depends on the size bangle you´re making, but there will probably be a few that break, so have a few too many.

B) If you're using veneer or bark: Cut / make the strips a little bit wider than you intend the finished item to be.

Cut or sand both ends of your strips so that they taper from their full thickness to nothing, but making sure to keep the width the same. You should be able to overlay two ends and it should look fairly seamless.

Cover your shape with a protective layer such as clingfilm or tape. Then wrap your strips around your shape (we used a glass) as tightly as possible. If your having trouble holding them, use a drop of glue. The tighter, the better.

Secure the strips in place with your chosen tape to keep them as tight as possible. If the edges are uneven, now is the time to trim them.

Drip the ca glue evenly into the side of the project, making sure the glue seeps into every layer. Make sure the bangle is laid flat. Wait 10-15 minutes, then repeat on the other side.

Remove the tape, then sand off any drips or bumps. If you have any voids, use some epoxy to fill the gaps. You can even get crafty and put some colour or glitter in the epoxy. If you do choose to add epoxy, bear in mind that you once you've added it you will need to sand it again to get it back into shape. You can sand it into any shape you want, but I would recommend making the inside edges curved so its a little more comfy for the wearer.

Oil the bangle to make it water resistant and add some nice colour.

Send to loved one (or keep for yourself) because people need to know they´re loved and going over to tell them is off the menu right now.

As you can see, there are many ways you can vary the appearance of this project widely to get a completely unique and bespoke bracelet.

Hope you enjoyed it, remember to vote! :)