Cluster Necklaces

Hi, folks!

Holy geeze, it's MARCH! Crazy, eh? I don't know about where you are, but where I am we are having the most fabulously MILD winter EVER. I've missed being able to make a snowman with my kiddo this year, but I will take more winters like this over snowmen ANYTIME! :-)

With spring inching closer and closer I find myself turning ever so slightly away from my vast collection of scarves (I LOVE scarves) and back towards my increasingly fabulous jewellery stash! (I'm not going to lie, being able to make my own and having a small sellable inventory means I am NEVER at a loss for the perfect piece to complement whatever whim I'm having; it's accessorizing bliss. hahaha)

Here is one of my most FAVOURITE styles of necklaces to make and wear. It's an easy step up from the last how-to I shared with you, and goes with just about everything.

This particlar project was done for my darling dear friend who turned 14 last week. I chose purple as it has been her most absolute FAVOURITE colour since Justin Bieber came on the scene, and, honestly, it's a fabulous colour to work with. :-D

So, here's what you need:

• chain
• a whack-load of beads, charms, whatever you're adding to your cluster
• wire - I like to use 22-guage for this, because it's so easy to work with, but occasionally I use a chain that is so fine the 22 is too thick to fit through, so I'll use 24 gauge - I don't really recommend going thinner than that for this, but that's just me. I use 26 gauge for wrapping/weaving, not really for attaching. Anyway.
• wire cutters
• round-nosed pliers
• needle-nosed pliers

You're going to start the same way you started before, cutting a piece of wire long enough to go through your first bead but giving enough room to work on either side.  I'd say give yourself at least the bead's length plus 1 1/2 inches so you have lots of wiggle room, at least while you're learning. :-)

Then, this is a bit different - grab the wire with your round nosed pliers at the very end.

Then, turn the end of the wire up so it wraps around the pliers - you're making a little loop at the bottom that's going to be holding the bead on the wire. (If your bead has a big hole, make the loop bigger to accommodate it.  Generally this loop can be VERY tiny, and the smaller it is the stronger it will be.)

I like to bend my wire back a little so the loop is sort of 'centred' at the bottom instead of off-kilter, but it TOTALLY doesn't matter.  When I'm done, it looks like this!

Then, pop on the bead!  Sometimes when I do a cluster I like to use a nice big bead at the bottom and then build my cluster up above that - that's what I did here, so I have this giant purple agate going on the bottom.

This next part should look familiar - you're going to grasp the wire at the top and do the fabulous twist we learned before!

Grasp the wire above the bead with the round-nosed pliers

Bend the wire away from you over the pliers

Move the pliers in the bend from the side to the top

Bend the wire BACK over the pliers, and continue around to make a loop. Before closing the loop slip the wire through the end link of your chain.

Finish your loop by wrapping the end of the wire around the bottom of the loop above your bead 2-3 times.

Trim the tail off the wire.

Voila! The first bead of your cluster is attached!!  Then, all you do, is the same thing over and over with different beads. SO EASY!

I like to make most of my clusters pretty full, so I keep adding beads and charms until it's packed. This one used agate, amethyst, sparkly Chinese crystals, a tiny Swarovski crystal, glass beads, glass pearls, silver plated beads & charms...  Then I slip a jump ring or a slip ring on the top of the cluster, cut the excess chain off, and then put the NECKLACE chain through the ring and make it as long as I want - usually cluster necklaces I like to be nice and long so they sit slightly lower than the bust (which is why they don't work very well with scarves and winter bundles! BRING ON SPRING! hahaha)

And this was the finished product!  Isn't it gorgeous? (Even if I do gush about my own work...I love this one!)

For my bud's birthday I used a pin to shorten the chain and attached it to Scentsy buddy Ribbert (she has a thing for frogs, and a frog that smells like baked apple pie...let's just say this was a winner of a gift! hahaha BOOyah!)

Cute, right? I KNOW! hahaha

And that, my friends, is my big secret about how I make my most favourite pieces! 

Happy crafting! 

The first thing I learned about how to make jewellery

So, a good while ago now, I went to a Christmas craft day at my church where I was teaching a few card techniques and helping the ladies put together (some SUPER cute! hahaha) Christmas cards.

Someone else was teaching a relatively quick and simple jewellery-making technique, and I, being friends with this person, was super stoked to sign up and learn.

I've been addicted ever since.

The first, and I would argue, most important technique at least in MY jewellery-making arsenal, is this fancy little loop & twist that my friend Angela taught on that craft day.

So, without further ado, you will need:

22 gauge, dead-soft wire (I usually use a non-tarnish silver plated brass - it's beautiful and affordable); round-nosed pliers, flat-nosed pliers (mine have a slight point to them); wire cutters; beads!

NOTE: you don't HAVE to use 22 gauge wire, but I personally found it a FABULOUS gauge to learn with - it's flexible yet strong enough you don't go crazy... if you can't find 22 I'd lean toward 20 gauge (thicker) over 24 gauge (thinner). For this purpose, at least.

1) Okay, so pick yourself a bead.  And then I like to slip my wire through it before I cut just so I can see exactly how much wiggle room I'm giving myself on each side of the bead:

Give yourself at LEAST an inch on either side. Probably closer to an inch and a half, at least while you're mastering it. You don't want to be caught with too little wire 'cause that's kind of super difficult to work with. And you can always trim excess off.

20) After I've cut my wire to the desired length I grab it with my round-nosed pliers,

and bend the wire over the pliers into an 'L' shape, AWAY from me. Result:

sorry about the photo orientation - working a camera with one hand while crafting with the other is harder than it looks! O:-)

3) Next, I find this is easiest done by grasping the shorter end of the 'L' with my flat-nosed pliers, and bringing the wire BACK towards me, going the opposite direction around the round-nosed pliers. You end up with:

See how the wire has moved to go back up and around that top, uh, plier? (I'm sure there are all sorts of technical terms I'm not even gracing with BUTCHERING here...)

4) Okay, now, grasp that short end again with your flat pliers, and wrap that sucker around the long piece of wire. You're making/closing the loop off, yes? Do you see?

I pulled the round-nose pliers out so you can hopefully see the loop... I can see it!

Then you're going to keep wrapping that short piece around the long piece until you've wrapped 2-3 times. Make sure you don't hold onto the wire with the flat pliers non-stop as you turn or your wire is going to get all wrapped around the pliers as you go! Wrap, open them, adjust, re-grasp. Wrap, open pliers, adjust grip, re-grasp.

The whole thing should look like this when you're done

5) Perfect. Now trim the tail off that sucker so you have a nice flush cut that's not going to stick out, get caught on, or scratch anything with your cutters.  Yup, just like that.

And now you're ready for your bead! Pop the bead on the unfinished end, and then start the whole thing over again on that side!

Slip the bead on the wire...

Make your loop and twist around...

 And you're done your attachments for your first bead!!

voila!!

Now, there are different options for attaching this to something - you can just keep looping through beads and string that together, or add chain, or you can use jump-rings or split-rings.... really anything you want. If you WANT to slip something directly into the loop, you need to do it immediately after step 3 BEFORE step 4 - you've begun your loop but haven't started wrapping the wire around itself yet, slip the chain/other loop/charm/whatever-the-heck-it-is into what's becoming your loop. Capice? Excellente!

This is it! This is the one thing I learned how to do on that first day! With this skill you can make this

http://www.leifayre.ca/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=21

Or this

Design by Angela Chung Jewellery Designs. Bracelet at http://www.leifayre.ca/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=4

Or something like this

http://www.leifayre.ca/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=198

Well, you get the idea. You can make OODLES. And with a slight variation on this technique, you can make even more.

So go, get yourself some pliers, some wire, and some beads, and welcome to the jewellery-making craze! You're going to love it' I know I do! :)