Tutorial: Copper Spike Necklace

I made this necklace a little while ago and put together a tutorial to show how I made it after a lot of interest when I showed it off on pinterest and other places. Let me know if you try it out in the comments below, I love seeing peoples takes on my tutorials.

What you need: 

1: Heavy Gauge Copper Wire (I've used 3mm Here)

2: Glass Beads (Choose your colour)

3: A Ruler

4: Hammer and Metal Block

Measure out one piece of wire to 1.5 inches, two pieces to 1 1/4 inches & two final pieces to 1 inch in length. 

Cut the pieces of wire to the required lengths.

Hammer flat about a third of the way up each length of wire.

Add a bead onto each length of wire deciding which pieces you want where. If the bead falls too far over the hammered piece then extend the hammering slightly higher.

Make a loop at the top of each piece of wire and slide all five pieces onto another piece of copper wire about 1.5 inches long. Loop the ends of this piece also. You can now attach chain to either side of the pendant and your done. 

Tassel Bracelet

I picked up the April issue of Make Jewellery Magazine yesterday and was having a look through it today when I came across Fiona Eastmond's Tassel Set Tutorial.

It calls for bead cones, a clasp and different sizes and colours of chain. I have all of these sitting in boxes so decided it was a great way to use up all those bits of chain I pick up but am never to sure what to do with! Also I'm trying to force myself into making things that are different from my usual pieces so mixing chains and colours like this is very unusual for me. So I went through all of my stash and pulled out all the bits and pieces I needed and 20 minutes later I have this lovely bracelet on my arm!

Fiona uses black and silver chain for her piece but I had a beautiful piece of purple aluminium chain I picked up at the Creative Crafts show in Belfast last November that I love the colour of but had no idea when I would use it. This seemed like the perfect piece to put it into! The black aluminium chain I used is recycled from a broken necklace my sister gave me to use up. All of the silver chain and findings are silver plated.

I used slightly different sized bead cones to Fiona's directions because its what I have here and I used a toggle clasp that I thought went well with the bead cones rather than a lobster clasp. I'm really happy with the end result and I can already see myself making a few different bracelets on the same style using different coloured chains and findings!

Purple Pearl Necklace

My sister spotted these glass pearls in the Yellow Brick Road bead shop a few weeks ago and decided she wanted me to make her this necklace which is almost identical to the Gossip Girl Inspired necklace I made for her last summer using the Gold coloured pearls. The pearls are available in beautiful colours and are great quality and an even better price!

We picked out a nice 3 strand filigree clasp in gold and I made this piece as my sisters birthday present.

I love the plain front to this necklace and the fussy and elegant back.

Large Bead Bookmarks

So I bought some really nice large glass bead mixes last year and had already used some to make bracelets and necklaces and wasn't sure exactly what to do next. So I thought I would make some bookmarks with them.

I kept a colour scheme for each and used silver plated engraved bookmarks that I bought online. I think they turned out very well and add a little bit of jewellery to a book when its being used.

Byzantine Bracelets

I made these bracelets as Christmas gifts using the Byzantine Weave. I really like this weave it can be a bit time consuming but isn't as hard as it looks at first. Some of the jump rings I used I bought ready made but the purple ones I made myself using wire I already had. Every bracelet looks different depending on the colour of the jump rings used. I used toggle clasps on my bracelets but any type of clasp can be used to give the bracelet a different look.