Jewellery Tutorial! Rings and Pendant Necklaces

Yes, FINALLY! I had a lazy day today where I spent at least 70% of my day on the sofa watching Not Going Out series 1 and 2 while making jewellery. I bought a new blouse/top yesterday and wanted something that would match the green in it... so I was on a mission to make something with green in it. I'll show you what I made after the tutorials.

RINGS
One of the easiest pieces of jewellery to make as long as you have something to stick on it. To be honest, I have only made two rings due to a lack of things I like to stick on them, but they're so simple you don't really need practice, just a plain ring with a ring back, something to stick on them and some super glue.

Just superglue the charm to the ring back and leave it to set. With both of the rings I've made I left them overnight before attempting to wear them and they were fine. I've so far only had one incident with a pendant falling off the coin ring I made, however when it got glued back on it's been fine ever since. Just make sure you glue it properly and leave it to set for long enough. You should be fine.

NECKLACES
My favourite type of jewellery to make. The tutorial I'm going to give you here is actually a more complicated way of making a necklace, but it includes the simpler way too so you'll have both ways. I'm going to do it through a series of pictures and I'll stick the instructions in the captions.

Step 1 So, here is what you need (I'll list stockists at the end of the post): a necklace chain (preferably with fastener already attached); a jump ring (you may want a few just in case it gets too pulled apart); a headpin (the thing the blue Swarovski crystal is threaded onto); a bead/pendant with two holes that can slide onto the headpin; craft pliers.

Step 2 Take the headpin and curl it round so it forms a loop at the top - do this by using the craft pliers. If you have done it correctly, the bead/pendant you have threaded onto it should not be able to be removed or fall off. Then, take a jump ring, prise it apart, thread it round the loop and then close it up again - also using the craft pliers.

Step 3 Thread the jump ring and attached pendant/bead onto the necklace chain. In order to do this, you may need to remove the fastener and replace it once you have attached your necklace charm. To do this, prise the jump ring attaching the fastener to the chain open, remove both the jump ring and fastener, thread on the charm, then reattach the jump ring and charm and close the ring up again, making sure the fastener cannot fall off.

So, there you have it, jewellery making made simple and easy (: Here are the two necklaces I made today...

This little charm was originally attached to a chunky charm bracelet the lovely Keyana got me for my birthday last year. I loved the charms but knew I'd never wear it as the chain was so thick and heavy. So, being crafty and clever ;) I decided to take the charms off (I also saved the bracelet just in case). For some reason I quite liked the little crown charm when I came across it today and decided to make it into a necklace. This is a good example of just using a jump ring and no headpin to make a necklace. Anyway, the crown is a kind of bronze effect charm - I didn't use flash as it ruins jewellery pics in my experience so you can't really tell.

I didn't use flash on this one either but for some reason it's less orange. Hmm. Anyway. This is the piece I made to match my new blouse/top. The flower is either leather or faux leather and I believe I bought two of them from Yum Yum Beads (link will be further down). The chain for this necklace is REALLY short and is no longer than it appears in the picture as the length cannot be adjusted. This was by choice as I want to be able to layer it with a slightly longer necklace when I wear it.

Here is a short list of my favourite jewellery making suppliers:

Yum Yum Beads

My Vintage Charms

Hobbycraft

[I have no idea why the Hobbycraft link won't change colour, but it still works]

Both Yum Yum Beads and Hobbycraft have shops in Leeds. Yum Yum Beads also has a shop in Dinan (Brittany, France) which I am dying to visit when I go to Brittany this summer. Hobbycraft has lots of stores here in the UK. As far as I'm aware, My Vintage Charms is only an online shop. All of these shops stock/sell both pendants/charms/beads and all of the 'technical' stuff like the chains and jump rings etc. I'm not sure if any of them sell craft pliers as I bought mine from the small craft shop at a local garden centre, but if not, I'm sure doing a quick online search will bring up lots of options.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, please let me know if you have any questions at all (plus, if there were bits that confused you, I'd be happy to try and explain again) by just leaving a comment and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Besos ♥ 
Rachel 

PS: Just want to give a quick shoutout to Joy over at Boris says... Please go follow her, I've followed her on Blogspot and Twitter for a while and love her blog. I seem to be getting a lot of visitors from there too so hello to all of you and thanks for visiting :)