[MOC/DIY] 14 Dots bracelet designs!

[Exetrius]

14 Dots bracelet designs ideas!

Wearable LEGO is one of those genres that I greatly admire, but never really got into because of the many challenges it poses for beginners... until now, that is!  With the introduction of the Dots bracelet, it suddenly became a walk in the park! I ordered a versatile black bracelet and started experimenting right away when the package arrived. Join me while I show you a number of different ways to decorate the Dots bracelet!

The royal one

You'll certainly feel more important when wearing this one. Like a prince(ss), a king, a pharaoh... or maybe even Xerxes from the movie 300? Anyway, it feels good.  Tip: your kids may be able to wear them around their ankles. I bet they'll love it!


Textures & translucency

Left: Before I moved on designs with prints and colours, I experimented with textured and translucent bricks. The one with the (clear) neon orange pyramids shines rather vividly by day, and I can imagine it must glow very nicely under blacklight as well. For a more punk or goth look, you could try the 1x1 pyramids in flat silver or black. 

Middle: The Infinity Bracelet!  A subtle way to add some superhero/villain flair to your outfit. Alternatively, put some other 1x1 pieces on the jumper plates, like the pyramids, hearts or tooth plates.

Right: Silver ingots create a nice stainless steel kind of pattern, but they come in many other colours too, such as elegant white, or regal gold.


Flags & Affiliations 

This one is pretty clear right? From left to right: the Belgian, Luxembourgish and Hungarian flag.  Jokes aside, it's pretty easy to make your country's flag if it's a horizontal or vertical tricolor. Americans may consider using this tile instead. Wearing a bracelet like this could be a way of displaying your patriotism, but I could also see it being useful in an international setting, like at Skearbaek, to see who you can have a conversation with in your mother tongue. Putting nations aside, it could perhaps also be a fun way to make distinct teams in a group activity. Before the event organisers among you start ordering bracelet straps in large quantities, I should note that the bracelet does not fit every adult's wrist. Let's hope larger sizes will get released soon!


Tech devices

Left: Is there anything cooler than a sci-fi gadget on your wrist? Pretend you came from the future, or some far corner of the universe, and that your spaceship is parked just around the corner! 

Middle: Space fans are cultists. Wear a wristband indicative of your faction (and urge others to do the same), to easily identify your allies!

Right: Something to try at a convention, see if you can get people to fall for it. +10 points if a visitor asks what time it is. +100 points if it's actually close to 10:21 or 12:01! 


Fancy jewelry

What use is a bracelet that doesn't make you look better? Whether you want to look elegant, classy, cute, or pretty, there are many printed tiles to choose from that will suit your look. This tile is also very nice, by the way. Be beautiful!


On display

What to do with a bracelet when you're not wearing it (for example, if you're already wearing one of the beautiful ones above ). Consider placing it in a dedicated display! All the more important if you wish to sell it, of course.


_____

And that concludes my crash course decorating your Dots bracelet!  Originally I was hoping to make this a guest contribution to New Elementary, but there were sufficient other Dots articles in the pipeline, so I just published these images over the course of a week on my Flickr, and thereafter I never really got to writing an actual article, until now. I hope you enjoyed, and be sure to share your own designs or ideas below! 

Have fun!

Edited November 16, 2020 by Exetrius

[JintaiZ]

That is soooooo cool! My favorite is the Hungarian flag one.

Edited January 3, 2021 by JintaiZ

[Lyichir]

Nice overview! I've definitely experimented with a number of these, like the pyramids and ingots... though I tend to favor more "varied" designs like the ones you can do with curved tiles in the DOTS sets themselves over "classier" but more repetitive designs (especially since, when using a variety of different parts instead of multiples of the same ones, it's easier to "fidget" with your bracelet and rearrange it during lulls in activity). Plenty of other parts can work effectively if you're willing to go higher than one plate or wider than two... though of course, the more a part sticks out, the greater the risk of parts coming loose.

Your flag ideas are smart and I'd also mention that LGBT pride flags are another easy and effective type of design you can achieve with these, considering that most of them adhere to a standard striped pattern. Like your country flag ideas, those have a lot of potential when it comes to finding support or community on a crowded convention floor. Though the lack of conventions overall this year has prevented me from seeing those kinds of ideas take off in a physical space...

[koalayummies]

Dang Exetrius this is really awesome! Lol at the flag joke. Great designs. I never really considered these outside of the original pieces included but your designs here are so great and there's so much possibility. The black band is also the one that looks best as a base. Excellent designs and presentation, very inspiring.

[Exetrius]

23 hours ago, JintaiZ said:

That is soooooo cool!

Thanks! 

22 hours ago, Lyichir said:

Your flag ideas are smart and I'd also mention that LGBT pride flags are another easy and effective type of design you can achieve with these, considering that most of them adhere to a standard striped pattern. Like your country flag ideas, those have a lot of potential when it comes to finding support or community on a crowded convention floor. 

Ah yes, that's a great example!

20 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Dang Exetrius this is really awesome! Lol at the flag joke. Great designs. I never really considered these outside of the original pieces included but your designs here are so great and there's so much possibility. The black band is also the one that looks best as a base. Excellent designs and presentation, very inspiring.

Glad you lolled . Yes, I see a lot of potential outside of the Friends-esque colour palette of the current Dots sets. If we can have a crossover with Levi's, toen why not one with LEGO's popular themes, like Ninjago, or Star Wars? Or this: https://www.brothers-brick.com/2020/04/01/lego-spots-for-boys-revealed-as-new-extension-of-lego-dots-news/ 

[Clone OPatra]

Wow these are really cool! Great adaptation of the Dots bracelet for a more refined / mature aesthetic. To me personally I like this type of design a lot more than ones with all of the Dots tiles.

[neonic]

Looking good.
Never seen such a thing actually (I'm no girl and ... so on) but I like it. I can imagine that kids would like it very much. You can make a lot of variations, like you showed for example. the Flags are nice too. I was thinking, maybe someones name or something or ... 
Think boys could like it too, maybe more like things with flames, technical looking parts.

the Display looks great too, would be nice if you get the price for it on the pricetag 

 

[BenA]

Very cool - I'm inspired! I'd never really considered dots sets (other than for parts), but after seeing these pics I'm definitely going to pic a few up. Nice job!

[hadidi1999]

Amazing, I love it, Is it possible to wear to bracelets side by side and connect them as one bigger bracelet? Or have a chain connecting them or connecting them some other way?

[Antha]

  Excellent, my favorite is the royal one and I really like the jewelry stand, bravo :)

[Exetrius]

On 11/18/2020 at 12:26 AM, Clone OPatra said:

Wow these are really cool! Great adaptation of the Dots bracelet for a more refined / mature aesthetic. To me personally I like this type of design a lot more than ones with all of the Dots tiles.

Thank you, and thanks for the frontpage feature! 

On 11/18/2020 at 10:15 AM, neonic said:

Looking good.
Never seen such a thing actually (I'm no girl and ... so on) but I like it. I can imagine that kids would like it very much. You can make a lot of variations, like you showed for example. the Flags are nice too. I was thinking, maybe someones name or something or ... 
Think boys could like it too, maybe more like things with flames, technical looking parts.

the Display looks great too, would be nice if you get the price for it on the pricetag 

 

Hadn't thought of making a name bracelet, great idea!  Haha, yes I'd gladly sell it at that price! 

On 11/18/2020 at 10:16 AM, BenA said:

Very cool - I'm inspired! I'd never really considered dots sets (other than for parts), but after seeing these pics I'm definitely going to pic a few up. Nice job!

That's a great compliment, thanks a lot Ben! And have fun with making your own! 

On 11/18/2020 at 7:45 PM, hadidi1999 said:

Amazing, I love it, Is it possible to wear to bracelets side by side and connect them as one bigger bracelet? Or have a chain connecting them or connecting them some other way?

Thanks! I haven't tested it because I have only one bracelet, but that should be possible if your wrist and arm is thin enough. I have two holes to spare if I'm wearing it around my wrist, so I have enough room to move it up my arm a bit (+- 6 cm). The strap is a little wider than a 2-wide plate, so when working with plates you will need to leave a one-stud offset. You could perhaps minimize the gap with clips and bars, I think. 

11 hours ago, Antha said:

  Excellent, my favorite is the royal one and I really like the jewelry stand, bravo :)

Thanks, Antha! 

[TheWarden]

A long time ago, I posted a general thread in the hopes of finding anyone with ideas to extend the bracelets. I too got the black one, but as a middle age dude, the last hole is just a little too tight.
I tried some inelegant solutions - the blue LEGO rubber bands seem tough I was able to loop them into a 2x2 plate with hole on both ends so I made a clasp! But it feels like it's not sturdy enough to wear out.
I'd think two of them would be too big.
Help! Any ideas?

[Exetrius]

@TheWarden If I'm home next weekend (student life..) I may have a look. My first thought goes out to droid arms with 1x2 modified plates with bars, but I don't know if that would be good enough to bridge over the area with the holes.

[Lira_Bricks]

They look really nice! :) I think the Silver ingots one is the best.

The first flag is Germany btw, Belgium has yellow in the center.

[Exetrius]

7 hours ago, Lira_Bricks said:

They look really nice! :) I think the Silver ingots one is the best.

The first flag is Germany btw, Belgium has yellow in the center.

 

Thanks! By the way, the other countries aren't correct either... 

[Lira_Bricks]

Oh no, I got whooshed :')

[Kalhiki]

Oh, these are nice! I think Royal really shows off what can be done with Dots, as opposed to the usual "stick tiles on the bracelet." The chains really add a unique flair to the look, and if I saw someone wearing it, I don't think I'd immediately think "that's Lego!" (Though that could be said about a lot of these.)

[Exetrius]

@Kalhiki Thank you! Yes, I'm sure there's a lot more that can be done outside just using tiles. 

[MAB]

Some of those more techie/sci-fi designs reminded me of this ...

That was probably the last time I made a bracelet. Why didn't we have DOTS back in the early 1980s?

[Exetrius]

21 hours ago, MAB said:

Some of those more techie/sci-fi designs reminded me of this ...

That was probably the last time I made a bracelet. Why didn't we have DOTS back in the early 1980s?

Thanks for sharing that, basically one of the earliest 5-minute craft DIY tutorials, am I right? 

[MAB]

4 hours ago, Exetrius said:

Thanks for sharing that, basically one of the earliest 5-minute craft DIY tutorials, am I right? 

Blue Peter is classic 70s/80s TV in the UK. They often had a you can make this (insert object here) from a cereal box, a couple of toilet rolls, some crumpled tin (aluminium) foil and sticky backed plastic.

You post actually prompted me to buy a DOTS set yesterday. For myself! There's a first time for everything.

 

[jam8280]

@ExetriusThe only thing better than LEGO is LEGO with bling! Many great designs here. Keep up the good work.

BTW, I think an SBrick + Power Functions teleporter bracelet might just be possible with long sleeves for cable management. ;^}

[Exetrius]

On 12/10/2020 at 1:28 PM, MAB said:

Blue Peter is classic 70s/80s TV in the UK. They often had a you can make this (insert object here) from a cereal box, a couple of toilet rolls, some crumpled tin (aluminium) foil and sticky backed plastic.

You post actually prompted me to buy a DOTS set yesterday. For myself! There's a first time for everything. 

Hah, that's great to know! 

On 12/10/2020 at 8:19 PM, jam8280 said:

@ExetriusThe only thing better than LEGO is LEGO with bling! Many great designs here. Keep up the good work.

BTW, I think an SBrick + Power Functions teleporter bracelet might just be possible with long sleeves for cable management. ;^}

Thank you! Cool idea to add some real tech to the bracelet! 

[Hans1961]

great idea !!

[Vilhelm22]

This is brilliant!  The royal one in particular is unique and shows how you can go beyond the standard 2 stud width.  Out of interest are the studs on the bracelets open?  If so a 3 stud wide one could be done with the bracelet piece still centred.