How we string, in Hangzhou

Most of what makes a bracelet feel expensive happens in four unglamorous steps that nobody photographs. Here is ours, start to finish, in our Hangzhou studio.

1 · Measure the wrist, not the size chart

Elastic bracelets need negative ease — a stretched fit, not a loose one. The workshop rule: wrist circumference plus about 1–2 cm of bead allowance, so the string sits snug enough to stay put and loose enough to slide two fingers under. The full sizing table lives in the materials and size guide.

2 · Inspect, then string

Every bead is checked against three failures before it goes on the cord: chips, colour drift, and out-of-round drilling. Cinnabar is colour-matched per batch — red drifts noticeably between production runs, so a single bracelet is always strung from a single batch. Nothing is strung from mixed stock.

3 · Knot, and hide the knot

We use multi-strand elastic, doubled where bead holes allow it, closed with a surgeon's knot pulled wet. The knot is then drawn inside the bead with the most drill room — you should never feel where the bracelet ends. On zodiac and mala pieces, a guru bead covers the join entirely.

4 · The pull test

Every finished piece gets three checks: a firm two-way pull on the strand, a stretch to roughly double rest length, and a final visual pass over the knot. A bracelet that fails any of the three never sees a gift box.

Why Hangzhou

Hangzhou has been a bead-and-temple city for a very long time; Lingyin's prayer halls are a short walk from our workbench, and the tradition of having pieces blessed is a living one here, not a marketing invention — that is why each order can include the blessing certificate card our About page describes. The rest is ordinary craft: good cord, matched batches, and four checks.

If you want the beads chosen by your chart rather than by browsing, the element quiz is the front door. Or skip ahead and browse the full shop.