DIY Braided Horsehair Bracelet

As a horse lover, there is a certain charm to wearing a little part of a favorite horse around. Thankfully, horsehair is a resilient material and makes a perfect bracelet.

Here's what I used to fashion a bracelet:

1 pin
1 lobster clasp
2 jump rings
2 "cord clasps" (I don't know the actual name for these, but they are made to clasp around a cord.)

You'll also need these items not pictured: scissors
needle-nose pliers
super glue

Of course, you'll also need horsehair. A favorite lesson horse of mine graciously provided his entire mane as he was getting his long mane clipped to a respectable length. Where you'll want to take the hair depends on the horse. The best bet is usually the tail hair - it's longer and thicker. Obviously, contrary to this, though, I took hair from the horse's mane, but luckily he has very thick hair.

First thing I did was equal up one end of the hairs as close as possible and tied a knot. Because horsehair doesn't stay in a knot, I used the pin to secure the hair to a piece of wood by just pinning it right through the middle of the knot. This allowed me to braid the hair tightly. 

Braid as far as you can and tie the other end in a knot. Measure the braid around your wrist and figure out how long it will need to be to fit comfortably. Knot the hair a little above the length you'll want. Pull both knots as tight as possible and glue the ends right before the knot. Let the glue dry before clipping off the knot. This should leave a nice corded end.

Drop some more super glue on the inside of the clasp before setting the hair end into it. Take your needle-nose pliers and clasps both ends closed. I used a couple more drops of super glue on both end of the clasp to add extra security. 

I used a jump ring to attach the lobster clasp and the other to be the ring for the clasp. To clean things up a bit, I had to clip some of the errant hairs from the braid.

Super easy and I'm pretty pleased with the outcome! Now I want to make horsehair bracelets from all the horses in my life!