Novobeads Silk Wraps Review

Light, airy and oh so beautiful. An alternative to metal or leather bracelets and a pop of color never hurts as well. Fun and flirty, I think it has a lovely Bohemian look to it.

Clockwise from Left: Twilight Black Pumpkin Wild Rose Cinnamon Red Disclosure: I was not given any gold for writing this post. I did however receive samples of the Silk Wraps, SOL Tree of Life Bangle and the following beads: Key Lime Mini CZ, Pink Lemonade Mini CZ, White & Clear Macaroon, Spring Green CZ and Apricot Crystal. Everything else, I either looted off mobs or bought with my own gold.

I gravitated towards the Wild Rose Silk Wrap first. It's summer and I happened to be wearing a soft pink shirt and an olive skirt that day. I decided to try it plain and stacked it with a SOL Tree of Life Bangle. I think it looks very pretty plain. The crinkly silk and tie dye colors appeal to the gypsy in me.

Novobeads Wild Rose Silk Wrap and SOL Tree of Life Bangle

The pink and green in this wrap brought to mind fairies and gardens, so I tried my Trollbeads Fantasy Butterfly along with some beads for an added pop and voila! I've put in some knots around my Fantasy Butterfly to give it some space from the beads and to add an interesting texture.

Novobeads Key Lime Mini CZ, Trollbeads Fantasy Butterfly, Novobeads Pink Lemonade Mini CZ

Front and Back View of Novobeads Wild Rose Silk Wrap
(Reusing picture from Trollbeads Fantasy Butterfly Review)

Some of you might be a little leery of trusting your lovely beads to flimsy silk fabric. I personally find it not to be an issue. The silk is wrapped tightly around the wrist so there is no fear of it falling off. I've also double knotted the ends and find that to be quite secure. In fact it takes me a bit of time to undo the knot when I want to take it off at night.

Dimensions: 36 inches long, 1 inch wide that tapers off at the ends.
In general, this means that the wrap goes around the wrist 3 - 4 times with some extra slack to tie on the end.
For me, I found that I was able to get the wrap to go up to 5 times around my wrist depending on how many beads I have on.

Materials: Silk, Sterling silver (Novobeads Signature N mini charm)
Markings: 925 stamp at the back of the Signature N mini charm

Each silk wrap comes with a cute little mini charm bearing the Novobeads Signature N. I think it is adorable and like to wear it right next to my closing knot. The charm is on a little jump ring and can be easily taken off. I typically take it off while putting on beads and wrapping it around my wrist. I then slip the little charm on right before I tie the knot. Of course if you don't like it, you can leave it off altogether.

On a whim, I tried putting the mini-charm on a Novobeads silver bracelet, and found that it fits. Barely. I actually wouldn't recommend doing that and it was somewhat annoying to work it on and off the silver bracelet.

Front and Back View of Signature N mini charm

So how do you put it on? Well, there's this handy dandy video -> http://youtu.be/6D5UDEsla18.
You will note that the lady in the video knotted the ends of the bead group. That makes it much easier when tying the silk wrap on and keeping the beads in position. I don't necessarily want the knotted look so it gets a little bit more challenging when tying up the wrap without knots but it can be done!

I also like to tuck in the ends of my knot, but you may decide you like it hanging loose better.
Look ma! No knots! To hold the beads in place that is. There's still a knot at the back to make sure it doesn't all come loose and fall off.

Novobeads White and Clear Macaroon, Pandora Dragon Dangle

Front and Back View of Novobeads Twilight Silk Wrap

Just for fun I tried experimenting with a few more different ways of wearing the Silk Wraps. I find the Silk Wraps are great for showcasing just a few beads. Or in this case I'm showcasing a clasp.

First I thread the wrap through the smaller clasp opening and center it in the middle of the wrap. Then I thread the two ends of the wrap through the bigger clasp opening. This makes a doubled-over wrap circle, which I then slip my hand through. I then take one end to wrap around on the right and the other end to wrap around on the left and knot it at the back.

Novobeads Cinnamon Red Silk Wrap and Maple Leaf Clasp

Fooling around with yet another way to wear the wrap. I find though that when I have my hand hanging down, sometimes the "dangle" stands up at an angle, which might not quite be the look I'm going for. So perhaps this style would look prettier as a necklace.

Novobeads Spring Green CZ, White & Clear Macaroon, Apricot Crystal

Front and Back View of Novobeads Cinnamon Red Silk Wrap

After wearing it you'll notice that the wrap gets all scrunched up especially where your knots were. To get it to spring right back into shape, I merely wet the wrap in the scruched up parts and lay it out flat (shaping it a bit) to dry.

Pro: Very light and very comfortable. I work in front of a keyboard all day and love how there is nothing to bother me on the underside of my wrist.

Pro: Can be worn as a necklace. I've always liked ribbon chokers so I thought it would be fun to try the silk wrap as a choker. Here I've actually folded the wrap in half before threading the beads through, and that left me just enough to tie it off at the back. I quite like the look. Elegant, no?

Novobeads
Cinnamon Red Silk Wrap

Apricot Crystal
White & Clear Macaroon
Spring Green CZ

 

Pro: Washable. By washable, I mean light hand washing. I wanted to know if I would be able to wash it if I were to inadvertently spill something on my wrap. I got out a white bowl (easier to see if colors run) and put some detergent in it sudsing it up, and then placed my Cinnamon Red Silk Wrap in it. I swirled it around and lightly hand washed it, and did not see any colors run. I rinsed it and patted it with a white paper towel. Still no color. Awesome!

Now, the fabric bunches up together when all wet, so initially I tried my method of just spreading it out on the counter to dry and shape it a little. But that was annoying to do when it is the whole length. So I then took it to my ironing board and ironed it out. Good as new!

Update (8/10/2014): I found that the colors on the Black Silk Wrap will run. Left black marks on my ironing board. Have not seen color runs on the Pumpkin Silk Wrap which I had ironed at the same time.

Pro: Reasonably priced.

Con: The silk wraps edges are overlocked/serged to prevent the silk from fraying. However, the overlock stitches at the ends are prone to unraveling. I had the thread tips unravel on me but this was easily fixed with a needle and thread. You can decrease the likelihood of this happening by being careful with how you tug the edges when tying or untying the silk wrap.

Con: The silk wraps can be fiddly to put on. I say "can be" because it is fairly simple to put it on plain but if you want to put beads on it, you will have to play with it a bit more. This is especially true for if you want your charm right in a particular patch of color in the tie-dye fabric or if you want beads at different heights.

I don't think most of us would mind this aspect too much. I figure we spend a lot of time perfecting a combination of beads anyway, so fiddling with the beads on the wrap shouldn't be too annoying.

From left to right:

Trollbeads Ghost Fighter

Novobeads Key Lime Mini CZ

ThinkGeek Timmy

Novobeads Pink Lemonade Mini CZ

Trollbeads Ms. Ghost Fighter
on
Novobeads Black Silk Wrap

Conclusion: I love, love the Silk Wraps. I realize not everybody loves this style, but I love having yet another way of showcasing my beads and the wrap colors are just so exquisite. Of course if you are crafty, you can probably make a similar one, but if you are feeling lazy this is certainly very reasonably priced.

And now I'll wrap up my review with pictures of the Pumpkin Silk Wrap. Sorry, just couldn't resist that cheesy pun. Enjoy!

From left to right: All beads are Trollbeads

Top row: Aqua Edge Triangle, Red Pod, Christmas Rose, Aqua Edge Pumpkin

Bottom row: Aqua Edge Petals, Mountain Flower, Orange Pod, Green Pod

Worn on Novobeads Pumpkin Silk Wrap