About the Butterfly Pendant
About the Butterfly Pendant
The inspiration for this necklace was this beautiful butterfly pendant. It came from Soft Flex (item number BBB-10391) and it retails for $11.76 each. When I saw it, I thought about how nice it would look with some fire-polished red crystal beads I had.
(Note: Eager jewelry makers can skip to the end of this project by clicking on the link to step 10 below.)
Back of Butterfly Pendant
If you look on the back of the butterfly pendant, you?ll see that it has three bales ? one in the center and two on either side of the wings. This is great because it gives you a number of design options. For this necklace, I decided to use the bales on the wings.
Materials and Equipment:
Sterling butterfly pendant (BBB-10391)
34 ? 4mm fire-polished red crystal beads
5 feet of 22-gauge soft sterling round wire
2 ? 6mm sterling jump rings
3 to 4 inches of 20-gauge half-hard round sterling wire
Wire cutters
Jeweler?s file
Flat or bent-nosed pliers
Round-nosed pliers
*Nylon-nosed pliers
*I find nylon-nose or nylon-jaw pliers really helpful when I'm working on a project like this that uses a lot of wire, but they aren't 100% necessary to complete the project.
Make the Clasp
1. Start by using 20-gauge wire to make the ?S? Hook clasp using my ?S? Wire Earrings instructions. As you can see, this component can be used as a decorative or functional piece of jewelry.
Start the Wire Chain
2. Now you are ready to start making the bead and wire chain. I prefer to work with about six or so inches of wire at a time. For me, it is much easier to manage than deal with lots of little pieces of wire, and I also think I have much less wasted wire. Using about six inches of wire then, use flat-nosed pliers to bend the end of the wire at a 90 degree angle.
Make a Loop
3. Grasp the bent area of wire with round nose-pliers, and make a small loop on the end.
4. Thread on one 4mm crystal bead, and again, with make another 90 degree angle with the wire on the other side of the bead.
Make Another Loop
5. Grasp the bent area of wire with round-nosed pliers, and with your fingers, wrap the wire around the nose of your pliers.
Trim Off Wire
6. Use wire cutters to cut off excess wire. (Note: I find that if I have a good pair of wire cutters, I usually don?t need to file the ends of wire when I make a chain like this. However, after making the chain, it?s usually a good idea to double check if there are any rough spots on the chain and file them.)
Connect Beads for Chain
7. Repeat steps 2 through 6 and as you make each beaded piece, attach the loops together. Use flat-nosed pliers to close the loop around each other, and make a chain that is 17 beads in length.
8. Attach the last beaded wire piece to one bale on the butterfly?s wing.
9. Repeat steps 2 through 8 to make the other side of the necklace, and attach jump rings to the ends of the chain pieces. These will slip onto the ?S? hook previous made to complete the necklace.
The inspiration for this necklace was this beautiful butterfly pendant. It came from Soft Flex (item number BBB-10391) and it retails for $11.76 each. When I saw it, I thought about how nice it would look with some fire-polished red crystal beads I had.
(Note: Eager jewelry makers can skip to the end of this project by clicking on the link to step 10 below.)
Back of Butterfly Pendant
If you look on the back of the butterfly pendant, you?ll see that it has three bales ? one in the center and two on either side of the wings. This is great because it gives you a number of design options. For this necklace, I decided to use the bales on the wings.
Materials and Equipment:
Sterling butterfly pendant (BBB-10391)
34 ? 4mm fire-polished red crystal beads
5 feet of 22-gauge soft sterling round wire
2 ? 6mm sterling jump rings
3 to 4 inches of 20-gauge half-hard round sterling wire
Wire cutters
Jeweler?s file
Flat or bent-nosed pliers
Round-nosed pliers
*Nylon-nosed pliers
*I find nylon-nose or nylon-jaw pliers really helpful when I'm working on a project like this that uses a lot of wire, but they aren't 100% necessary to complete the project.
Make the Clasp
1. Start by using 20-gauge wire to make the ?S? Hook clasp using my ?S? Wire Earrings instructions. As you can see, this component can be used as a decorative or functional piece of jewelry.
Start the Wire Chain
2. Now you are ready to start making the bead and wire chain. I prefer to work with about six or so inches of wire at a time. For me, it is much easier to manage than deal with lots of little pieces of wire, and I also think I have much less wasted wire. Using about six inches of wire then, use flat-nosed pliers to bend the end of the wire at a 90 degree angle.
Make a Loop
3. Grasp the bent area of wire with round nose-pliers, and make a small loop on the end.
4. Thread on one 4mm crystal bead, and again, with make another 90 degree angle with the wire on the other side of the bead.
Make Another Loop
5. Grasp the bent area of wire with round-nosed pliers, and with your fingers, wrap the wire around the nose of your pliers.
Trim Off Wire
6. Use wire cutters to cut off excess wire. (Note: I find that if I have a good pair of wire cutters, I usually don?t need to file the ends of wire when I make a chain like this. However, after making the chain, it?s usually a good idea to double check if there are any rough spots on the chain and file them.)
Connect Beads for Chain
7. Repeat steps 2 through 6 and as you make each beaded piece, attach the loops together. Use flat-nosed pliers to close the loop around each other, and make a chain that is 17 beads in length.
8. Attach the last beaded wire piece to one bale on the butterfly?s wing.
9. Repeat steps 2 through 8 to make the other side of the necklace, and attach jump rings to the ends of the chain pieces. These will slip onto the ?S? hook previous made to complete the necklace.
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