Most bracelets that get set aside were never uncomfortable in the shop. They were the wrong length by five or six millimetres, or the beads were larger than the wrist could carry. Both are easy to avoid, and neither requires anything more than a strip of paper.
Measure the wrist first
Take a strip of paper about a centimetre wide, or a soft tape measure if you have one. Wrap it around your wrist just below the wrist bone, where a bracelet naturally settles. Draw a line where the paper meets itself, lay it flat against a ruler and read the number in millimetres.
A few small things make the reading more reliable:
- Keep the paper snug against the skin but not pulled tight.
- Measure your dominant wrist, which is usually the slightly larger of the two.
- Measure at the end of the day rather than first thing in the morning. Wrists change size a little over twenty-four hours.
- Write the number down. It will not change much, and you will want it again.
That number is your wrist circumference, not your bracelet size. The bracelet needs to be longer.
Adding the comfort allowance
A beaded bracelet is a closed circle of solid stone. It has no clasp to open and no give in the beads themselves, so it must be able to slide over the widest part of the hand and then sit loosely enough to move as you move.
As a general guide, add between 10mm and 20mm to your wrist measurement:
- Close fit, around 10mm added. The bracelet sits high on the wrist and moves very little. Best with smaller beads.
- Standard fit, around 15mm added. The bracelet turns freely and slides an inch or so down the hand. This suits most people and most bead sizes.
- Relaxed fit, around 20mm added. The bracelet hangs lower and is easier to pull on. Worth choosing if you have a broad hand relative to your wrist, or if you like to stack several pieces.
If you have wide knuckles or a firm thumb joint, measure across the widest point of your closed hand as well. The bracelet has to clear that measurement to go on at all.
Bead size changes the fit
Bead diameter is the part people tend to overlook. Larger beads take up more of the inner circumference of the circle, which means a bracelet made from 10mm beads sits differently on the wrist than one made from 6mm beads of the same total length.
- 6mm to 8mm. Light, low profile, comfortable under a cuff or a shirt sleeve. Sits well on slimmer wrists and stacks easily.
- 8mm to 10mm. The most common range. Enough weight to feel present without being heavy.
- 10mm and above. Noticeably heavier and wider. Handsome on a broader wrist; on a narrow one it can look like it belongs to someone else.
If you are unsure, 8mm is the safest first choice. It is forgiving across a wide range of wrists and works with almost anything else you already wear.
Weight, stone and daily wear
Different stones have different densities, so two bracelets of identical bead size can feel quite different on. Agate and turquoise tend to feel substantial. Fluorite and moonstone read a little lighter. None of this affects sizing, but it does affect whether you reach for the piece on a Tuesday morning.
Because our bracelets are strung by hand in small numbers, lengths vary slightly between pieces, and each listing gives its own measurement. Send your wrist measurement with an order and we will match you to a piece that suits it, or string one to length where the stone allows.
You can see the current bead sizes and lengths across the handmade crystal and stone bracelets in the shop, each photographed as the piece you would receive. For orders outside our usual shipping regions, the same collection is listed on our Etsy shop.