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| Have you ever bought a foot of chain for a bracelet and had five inches left over? Or made a 16-inch necklace and had eight extra inches of chain that you weren't sure what to do with? We all do this, and end up with drawers full of bits of chain. This necklace is a perfect way to recycle those mismatched pieces of chain in a beautiful necklace. Make every day Earth Day when you wear this beautiful piece made from your recycled leftovers!
Step one: Make sure you have at least six segments of chain with pairs of matched lengths. We found our chain wasn't long enough on the end, so we actually added a fourth segment to each side, linking them with jump rings. We chose to string three and four chains in each segment, but use what you have on hand to add dimension and texture that works for you. To make a 26-inch necklace, we used 4 1/2 inch lengths, in two segments, followed by a four inch segment (which we wrapped through two loops, see step two) and a five inch segment, also wrapped through loops.
Step two: For some of our links, we cut a short length of chain to approximately 1 1/4 inches and ran it through the link, attaching it to the chain lengths with a sterling silver open jump ring. To attach the other links, where we had longer pieces of chain, we just ran them through the link all together and attached them back to themselves with a single open jump ring. Either method works well. Use your longest chain in the back of the necklace, attach the blue porcelain rings, then your shortest chain and the cocoa link. On the bottom of all chains, add the turquoise links.
Step three: String three random lengths of chain through the bottom of the turquoise loop. Attach one of the chains with a jump ring and dangle the cross charm (or a charm of your choice) from it. On the other chains, we strung beads on a head pin and attached them to the ends of the chain with a wrapped loop.
Step four: Finish the necklace by attaching the other ends of the chain with jump rings to a hammered rhodium plated pewter link.
Approximate length: Your choice, we made ours 26 inches
Estimated time: Less than one hour
Difficulty level: Beginner
List of components:
Small porcelain glazed cocoa washer (CRD-ETC071, qty 2)
Small porcelain glazed midnight blue washer (CRD-ETC073, qty 2)
Small porcelain glazed turquoise washer (CRD-ETC080, qty 2)
Antique silver-plated small Celtic diamond (SA-5528, qty 2)
Antique silver-plated small Celtic cross (SA-2089, qty 1)
Rhodium-plated hammertone rectangle link (RB-3102, qty 1)
Sterling silver open jump ring (SS-OJR30-H, qty 16)
Sterling silver open jump ring (SS-OJR30-E, qty 1 to attach the cross)
Sterling silver head pin (SS-HP0X, qty 2)
Tools used:
Side cutters, semi-flush (TOOL-131)
Chain nose pliers (TOOL-106)
Round nose pliers (TOOL-108) | |
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