Sterling Silver Bracelet Kit instructions

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This page is image-intensive to make the instructions as clear as possible. Please be patient.

There is something about the swing and motion of a charm-style bracelet — with dangles hanging off it. The soft jingle of it on your wrist, ringing a merry little chime, providing your own soundtrack as you move through the day. A distraction for the dull moments on the bus, in those interminable meetings, waiting in line. A great icebreaker too — especially when you say, "Why thank you! I made it!"

Supplies

• 1 sterling silver bracelet kit, including:
  • 8 inches of heavy, sterling chain, with fairly open links, so that you can put the wires through it. This is a very weighty and substantial chain!
  • 15 Bali silver decorative headpins
  • 30 Bali Silver daisy spacers
  • 15 round seamless sterling beads
  • 1 sterling silver toggle clasp
    
    There are a few extra headpins and spacers in the kit in case you have to cut a bead off to re-do it, or if you drop it and can't find it.
    
    
• 6 lampwork beads (available here)
  
  
• 7 coordinated Swarovski and/or large sterling beads (optional, available here as the enhancement set.)

Tools

• flush wire cutters
• chain nose pliers, two pairs are best
• round nose pliers
• crimp pliers

Start by opening the link that keeps the two halves of the clasp together.

Grasp one side of the link, just next to the opening in it, with your chain nose pliers, and hold it firmly.

Grasp the link on the other side of the opening, and twist the link open sideways.

Never pull a link open, it will weaken it and make it impossible to close up nicely.

Take off the one side of the clasp. It doesn't matter which side. You are going to reuse the link you just opened.

To determine how long the bracelet should be, you can measure it against your wrist.

Take into account the length that the clasp will add, and where you like to wear your bracelets. I like mine to drape across the top of my hand when I put my arm down by my side, but many people prefer, apparently, to wear them tighter and higher up on the wrist.

As you can see in the illustration, I will cut this for myself at the blue arrow, but if I were making it for someone else, I would probably make it shorter and cut it at the pink arrow.

You can also measure it against a favorite bracelet that you like the fit of.

Or, you could use a measuring tape. (whottaconcept!) Seven to seven and a half inches is common for bracelets. The kit comes with eight inches of chain, so that you can get it right for you!

Determine which link you are going to cut to remove the excess chain, and cut the link with your flush cutters.

Hold the link firmly with your chain nose pliers, and twist the link open.

Remove the excess chain, and put the other half of the toggle clasp onto the link.

Twist the link closed.

Now you have the basic bracelet assembled.

It's time to make and add the next part, the lampwork bead dangles.

Each bead will go on a headpin with a decorative end.

• Then add a daisy spacer
  
  
• the bead
  
  
• another daisy spacer, and finally,
  
  
• a sterling round bead

That's a towel in the background, not a shag carpet. Really!

Slide the beads to the end of the headpin.

Grasp the wire, with your round nose pliers, just above the bend, with the long end of the wire sticking out towards you.

Take this long piece of wire with your left hand (or right if you are left-handed) and wrap it away from you around the top jaw of the pliers until it looks like this -->.

Don't go all the way around the pliers.

The reason the hand in this picture is backwards is that I need my right hand to take the picture.

The basic idea is to get a rounded hook in the wire.

Hook the headpin onto the chain.

You have to hook the dangle onto the chain before closing it up, otherwise, there is no way to get the beads onto the chain!

Proceed to take the end of the wire in the thumb and forefinger of your other hand, and wind it around the wire . . .

Keep a very firm grip with the pliers, and try to go around at least twice for a nice look.

As the wire wraps and gets shorter, it is harder to bend. This is why you get headpins that are much longer than you will actually use.

Do the same for the rest of the beads.

I usually do them "assembly-line" style, putting all the beads onto the headpins first, doing all the first bends next, yada, yada, yada.

And there we have it! I space the beads fairly evenly, but I do it by eye. You could count the links and space them evenly that way too.

Be sure and get at least one bead close to the toggle to make sure that you don't have a "hole" in the beads when it is finished. (Which is what I did with this particular bracelet, and had to go back and add another bead afterwards! Learn from my mistakes!)

This bracelet looks much fuller when it is actually on your wrist. But still, I like to jazz it up a little! More is more, I always say!

For adding the enhancement, the process is the same.

Assemble the beads on the headpins, with spacers and rounds.

Bend in the hook, add to the bracelet, wrap the wire, cut, and smooth.