Jewllery making techniques

Making your own jewellery can be a great hobby, you can make beautiful pieces that you can wear yourself or you can even start your own jewellery business. Below are some techniques that can help you to create beautiful pieces of jewellery.

Turned loop: This is a loop in an eye pin, head pin or wire. Hold the tip of the wire or pin in the tip of the pliers, turn the hand holding the pliers away from you, this will form the beginnings of a loop. Hold the pliers in the middle of the top of the loop and close it so that a circle is formed.

Jump rings: Hold one half of the ring close to the join in a pair of pliers or tweezers, hold the other side in a pair of pliers, pull one side towards you. Try not to pull it left to right as this will alter the shape of the ring and make it uneven. It should remain as circular as possible.

Cutting chain: Heavy duty chain will sometimes require a chin cutter, but more often than not you can pull the links of the chain apart using pliers. Hold one half of the link in one pair of pliers and the other half in another pair. Grip tightly and pull the links apart. Very thin chains can be cut with household scissors. Wire or chain cutters will work best and give you the cleanest cut.

Ear wires (findings)  Pull the free end of the loop towards you slightly, attach whatever you will be putting on and close with the pliers.

Sealing: If you make jewellery with ribbon then you will need to seal the ends, you can buy chemicals that will do this, but matches work equally well. Run a match along the end of the ribbon for about 2 seconds per end. This only works with synthetic ribbon, natural materials will catch fire!