Jewelry Making Made Easy: Spring Charm Necklace

Making jewelry has become an addiction for me. It's a nice way to let the creative juices flow and you get to wear the jewelry, too! Another great perk of making your own jewelry is not only does it save you money in the long run, but you can make the jewelry to your standards, not the big fashion stores.

To make my latest creation, a Spring Charm Necklace, you will need the following supplies found in the jewelry and bead section of your local craft store:

Blue Moon Beads Silver Cable Chain, roughly 22" long

1 Blue Moon Beads silver lobster claw/tag connector set

Blue Moon Beads 6 piece metal charms- mini sunflowers

Jewelry Essentials 8 piece metal charms- lady bugs and dragon flies

14 4mm round nickel jump rings (the link shows gold. Nickel is not online, sorry!)

1 mini silver oval jump ring

Needle nose or jewelry making pliers

First, you will need your chain, one 4mm round nickel jump ring and the lobster claw/tag connector set. To connect the claw to the chain, take the nickel jump ring and carefully open it with your pliers. After it is open, hold the ring in the pliers and take one end of the chain and slip it into the opening on the ring. Next, take the small end of the claw and place it in the opening as well. Using the pliers, gently squeeze the ring shut. Be careful not to have the ends of the ring overlap. This is hard to do and takes some practice. You will be using many of these small rings for this project, so practice now if you need to. Now that you have one end of the necklace completed with the claw, you will need to attach the tag for the claw to hold on to. Take the mini oval jump ring and open it with the pliers. Place the other end of the necklace and the tag into the ring. Gently close the ring.

Next, take the charms and line them up on the table. Go in this order: sunflower, ladybug, dragonfly, etc. Do this for 13 of the charms. You will have one extra sunflower. Put that in your kit for a later project. It is not needed for this one. After they are lined up, take the nickel 4mm jump rings and place one above each of the charms. Keeping these organized prior to attaching them to the necklace actually saves not only time, but confusion as well.

Take your necklace and find the middle. (The easy way is to hold it by the closure and let it hang down. The end is the middle.) It doesn't have to be exact and can be a few rings off. No one will notice. Take the middle and attach a sunflower to it. To do this, use the same technique we used earlier when attaching the closure set to the chain. Open the jump ring and put the link of the chain inside; then place the charm in as well. Gently close it. The sunflower is easy because it is double sided. When you start attaching the other charms, it gets confusing because they have a front and back.

Repeat this step for the remainder of the charms, in the order on the table. You will want those spaced 7 chains apart. This will ensure they hang properly and do not overlap each other when worn.

Once you get the hang of it, it is rather simple to do. I did it this past Friday watching Perry Mason at lunch. The entire necklace took about 45 minutes to make. I also tested it at our bowling league later that night. I was worried that the necklace would not hang right and the charms would flip around or overlap each other. This did not happen and I now have another favorite necklace! I hope you do, too.

If you would like to make a matching charm bracelet, just purchase two sets everything. The chain length should be roughly 8 ¼ inches. You will need one less sunflower, too. Use the same instructions as above, but start about 4 links from the end/claw. Enjoy!

For more information on the different styles of clasps for your necklace, check out this article: Jewelry Making Made Easy: Necklace Clasps

Sources:
Personal Ideas & Experience
Michaels Craft Store
Joann.com