This is a late follow-up to my posts about making a shamrock necklace for my sister's birthday and making a mushroom bracelet to use up some odds and ends from my supplies. I realized only after I posted that second one that I didn't actually discuss how to make them. What good is a D.I.Y. post without telling you how you can do it yourself?
When I started making necklaces, my projects tended to follow a very basic theme because I had very basic tools. Many beginner jewelry kits have them: round nose pliers, smooth jaw needle-nose pliers (serrations mar your work), and small wire cutters allow all the basic wire work for this project.
Supplies required:
You can make your own jump rings and eye pins from wire if you don't have those findings on hand.
The trick to forming the tidiest loop in wire is to wrap your eye in one direction, then bend the tail sharply in the opposite direction once the loop is closed. A little tidying up, and it looks almost factory-made. Clear as mud? See the helpful video someone else made to show how it's done better than I can describe.
I don't tend to use the more complex wrapped eye pin technique unless the wire is exceptionally thin or soft. Just bending copper or steel wire into shape actually hardens the metal enough to add considerable strength. This is called "work hardening," and can be a problem if wire is bent too often. Hard wire becomes brittle and will snap if bent too many times. Just bend a paper clip open and closed a few times to see what I mean.
Once one eye is formed, stack your chosen beads on the wire, and then form a second eye to lock everything in place. For this necklace, I have some glass bicone beads left over from a Swarovsky kit, and some metallic spacer beads with a similar faceted shape.
Finally, I used small jump rings to link my chain to the wire eyes. I cut two equal lengths from the bulk spool I have on hand, and carefully slipped the tiny chain link on one end of each onto the rings before bending them closed again. Another small jump ring connects the clasp to the chain on one side, and the other section has a larger ring on the other side for it to grab.
I skipped jump rings for the snowflake pendant itself, though, and just bent the eyes open in the same way as a jump ring to connect the pendant, then bent them closed again.
The whole piece is small. The beaded wires are each a bit over an inch, or only about 3 cm. I used a red terrycloth towel as the backdrop because it offered a good contrast, and the tiny beads and fine chain wouldn't slide around as much when I set up for taking a photo.
The other necklace I made was much more involved. I had some crackle glass beads in various sizes, and I wanted to use up my remaining snowflake charms, so I supplemented those faceted spacers with a special bead called a bail designed to hang a pendant or charm from a wire or cord. These particular bails are also designed to work as spacers, so they are concave where they contact the beads.
I also made matching earrings using the same techniques used in the necklace above.
Beading can be done with silk thread, fishing line, elastic beading cord, but I used woven wire for strength since the glass adds considerable weight.
Tangential note: pearl necklaces are traditionally strung with a knot after each individual pearl. They don't typically scatter hither and yon if the cord breaks like in the movies.
First, I counted out how many beads of each size I would need, including bails and spacers. Then, I threaded them onto the wire without cutting any from the spool. This meant I only had one loose end to worry about, and beads couldn't slip off too easily. It also allowed me to experiment with numbers of different beads and see how it all draped before finalizing anything.
How do I turn the wire into a necklace? Let's defer once more to that YouTuber who provided the last links.
I recommend using crimp bead pliers, but don't spring for the expensive fancy kind she showed at the end unless you're more serious about this kind of craft than I am.
I also use crimp bead covers to go that extra step and make it look almost like I know what I'm doing.
Finally, I used jump rings to add the snowflake charms, heavier chain to match the weight of the necklace, and a clasp (not pictured). This was much more tedious to assemble, but it definitely makes more of a statement, too.
What do you think of the different snowflakes? One kind is on the earrings and in the center of the necklace, while another pattern is used for the ones to either side on the necklace. Did you even notice?
Thanks to the internet, there are endless helpful videos and other tutorials to help you learns any hobby. Your local library has how-to books as well, and may have craft classes you could attend. There are also likely elders and experts in your community who can show you how to make all manner of useful or decorative things. It's never too late to learn something new, so get out there and see what there is to explore!
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