The bracelet studio asks for one number, your wrist in centimeters, and the usual mistake is typing a bracelet length instead. Here's how and where to measure, how to convert inches, and exactly what the BVDIY studio builds from your number.
Wrap a soft tape or a paper strip around your wrist on the hand side of the wrist bone, snug but not pressing in. Read it in centimeters and round any fraction up to the next whole number. Enter that wrist size, not a bracelet length: the studio adds about 1.2 cm for a stretch bracelet, so a 16 cm wrist gets a strand of about 17.2 cm.
How do you measure your wrist for a bracelet?
You measure your wrist by wrapping something flexible around it where a bracelet sits and reading the length where it overlaps. It takes two minutes:
- Get a soft sewing tape. If you don't have one, a strip of paper, a ribbon or a phone charging cable works, plus a ruler. Avoid yarn, which stretches.
- Find your wrist bone, the bump on the little-finger side. Wrap the tape just on the hand side of it, where a bracelet settles when your arm hangs down.
- Hold your hand relaxed, palm up, fingers loose. A clenched fist tightens the tendons and makes the wrist read larger.
- Pull the tape snug: flat on the skin with no gap, but not leaving a dent.
- Read the number where the end meets the tape. With paper or string, mark the overlap with a pen, then lay it flat along a ruler.
- Measure a second time. If the two readings differ, use the larger one.
Measure the wrist you'll actually wear the bracelet on; the two can differ slightly. If you haven't decided, the guide to which wrist to wear it on may settle it.
What number do you enter in the bracelet studio?
Enter your actual wrist measurement in whole centimeters, from 14 to 20 cm. Don't add anything for comfort, because the studio adds the ease itself: about 1.2 cm for a stretch bracelet and about 2.4 cm for a hand chain. Adding your own inch on top of that gives you a bracelet that slides around.
When the tape falls between two sizes, choose the larger. A reading of 16.3 cm is entered as 17, and so is 16.8. A reading of exactly 17.0 stays 17. Rounding up costs you less than a centimeter of extra room, while rounding down can leave the elastic stretched all day.
How do inches convert to studio sizes?
Multiply inches by 2.54 to get centimeters, then round up to the next whole centimeter. The common readings:
| Tape reading | In centimeters | Enter in the studio |
|---|---|---|
| 6 in | 15.2 cm | 16 cm |
| 6.5 in | 16.5 cm | 17 cm |
| 7 in | 17.8 cm | 18 cm |
| 7.5 in | 19.1 cm | 20 cm |
| 8 in | 20.3 cm | Outside the range; email [email protected] |
The most common slip is converting 7 inches to 17 cm. It's 17.8 cm, which means 18.
How long is the bracelet the studio makes for each wrist size?
A stretch bracelet strand is about 1.2 cm longer than the wrist size you enter, and a hand chain is about 2.4 cm longer. The bead count follows from the strand length and the bead size. Here are the figures at 8 mm, the size most people start with:
| Wrist (cm) | ≈ inches | Stretch strand | Stretch beads at 8 mm | Hand chain beads at 8 mm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 5.5 | 15.2 cm | 19 | 21 |
| 15 | 5.9 | 16.2 cm | 21 | 22 |
| 16 | 6.3 | 17.2 cm | 22 | 23 |
| 17 | 6.7 | 18.2 cm | 23 | 25 |
| 18 | 7.1 | 19.2 cm | 24 | 26 |
| 19 | 7.5 | 20.2 cm | 26 | 27 |
| 20 | 7.9 | 21.2 cm | 27 | 28 |
The studio sets these positions automatically, so you never count beads yourself. Counts for 6 mm and 10 mm beads, and the math behind them, are in the bead count chart.
What does a measured 6.5-inch wrist end up with?
A 6.5-inch wrist is entered as 17 cm and gets a stretch strand of about 18.2 cm. Worked through in the studio:
- Tape reading 6.5 in, which is 16.5 cm, rounded up to 17 cm.
- At 8 mm, the studio gives 23 bead positions.
- Alternate Clear Quartz and Amethyst, starting and ending with Clear Quartz: 12 Clear Quartz at $1.60 and 11 Amethyst at $2.20.
- Total with the $12.99 stretch base: $56.39.
The same 17 cm wrist as a hand chain at 8 mm gets 25 positions. Filled with Tiger's Eye at $1.80 a bead on the $14.99 hand chain base, it comes to $59.99. Odd counts like 23 mean a strict two-color alternation puts two of one stone side by side where the strand closes.
Do you measure differently for a hand chain or for bigger beads?
No. Measure the wrist the same way for every piece and every bead size. The studio handles the rest: it adds more ease for a hand chain and recalculates the bead positions when you switch sizes. A 17 cm wrist on a stretch bracelet gets 31 beads at 6 mm, 23 at 8 mm and 19 at 10 mm.
Bead size changes the look more than the fit, and 10 mm starts to look chunky on wrists under 16 cm. The bead size guide compares the sizes side by side.
How do you size a bracelet you're giving as a gift?
The most reliable way to size a gift is to get the actual wrist measurement, because the studio asks for a wrist, not a bracelet length. Options, from best to roughest:
- Ask someone close to them to measure with a paper strip.
- Borrow a stretch bracelet they say fits well. Lay it straight along a ruler without stretching it, measure end to end, subtract about 1 cm, and round up. Other makers use different ease, so treat this as an estimate.
- Don't measure a clasp bracelet for this. Its length includes the clasp and any chain, which tells you little about the wrist.
If you're stuck between two sizes, take the larger one. Wrists under 14 cm or over 20 cm are outside what the studio makes; email [email protected] before ordering.