How to Use the Third Hand Tool to Make Jewelry with Bar Chain

SKU VID-1702
Designer: Alexandra Smith
In this video, you will learn from start to finish how to make the Scalloped Bar Chain Earrings using 18mm scalloped chain links. First you will see how to use the third hand tool to assist in the design process. Then you will see how to attach the chain links in the configuration shown using 3x4mm oval jump rings. You will also see how to attach an earring hook. The video offers additional tips for designing jewelry with bar chain using the third hand tool.
Audio Transcript
Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
hi this is Alexandra at beadaholique to show how to use the third hand tool to make jewelry with bar chain so here I have one completed scallop bar chain earring and we'll be making the companion to this earring in this video at the end we'll take a quick look at another project that I've started and the third hand tool comes in very useful for all of this so it comes with a magnifying glass and that could be very handy for what we're doing here but I happen to be nearsighted and we're gonna be zooming in so I'm gonna set that aside and for materials I've got some 18 millimeter scalloped bar chain some two millimeter cable chain I've got a dagger shaped earring post and some open oval jump rings that are four by three millimeter I have a couple tools over here I'll be using some of fine chain nose pliers and some bent chain nose pliers and to clip the chain some flush cutters so to begin I'm going to bring in some lengths of the bar chain that I've prepared by separating out links and each of them has a little jump ring on either side I'm going to need a seventh link to complete our earring and so I'm going to bring in my tools to demonstrate how to separate these links so in-between these are little open jump rings and I'm gonna go ahead and grip with my bent pliers and also my fine tipped pliers and just whoops it's sort of like performing surgery I'm gonna open that up and slip off the link actually you'll notice that this link happens to not have any jump rings at all so I want to make sure that I'm keeping both jump rings on there so having separated that one off I'm gonna go ahead and close this up again and take the other jump ring on the other side and separate this link and that will be my seventh link for the project and you'll find that you have quite a few of these extra little ones that you can save for future projects alright so there's my seventh link go ahead and put these off to the side I also have to prepared links of the cable chain and these are one-half inch each which in this case is ten ten links so to begin what I'll do is bring in a couple of these four by three millimeter oval jump rings and I'm going to put one on the end of each of these lengths of chain these bent nose pliers are great for gripping and they also help with muscle fatigue in the hands so I'm really glad to have discovered these sliding on that end link and I'm gonna close it up close the jump ring up do the same thing on the other side get my grip slide on my link and closes it up so what that's gonna do is give us a little bit of an easier opening on the end that we need to work with and with the other side of each of these chains I'm going to grip them on to our third hand tool just tucking one or two of those links in and then I'm going to close the little pinchers kind of to the distance that matches the length of my scalloped chain so I'm ready to add on my first link and to do that I'm gonna go ahead and bring in two more four by three millimeter jump rings and I've found for myself but the easiest way to do this is to find the opening of my jump ring and slide it on to my previous jump ring and then bring up the little ring on the edge of my link I'm gonna reposition my pliers again on either side of the opening of the jump ring and close that up make sure that my closure is very tight and I can lift that down while I'm pulling up my other jump ring so again I'm gonna link on to my previous jump ring up here and here's where I want to make sure that my little scalloped link is looping downward in that draped configuration and then I'm ready to close up the jump ring once I just let the other one on our first link so you can see that having attached that first four by three jump ring kind of facilitated the attachment of the next one without having to work our way through a tiny link of chain so I'm ready to add on my next link and for that I'm gonna keep going with the jump rings take another oval and this time I'm gonna slide it on to the little two by three millimeter jump ring that comes on the scalloped bar and then I'm gonna slide on a little jump ring of my next scalloped bar close the jump ring like so and repeat it on the other side I've also got my jump ring coming with the open side toward me and that's gonna help me with the placement of my pliers to make that closure sliding on my jump ring gripping on either side what it slipped off let me try that again that'll happen it's definitely a process this is like a little bit of jewelry surgery in fact this tool is traditionally used for jewelry repair but it does come in varied whoops excuse my hand here very handy for these sorts of detail detail heavy works okay so we've got the two connected and I'm gonna continue that process for five more links to complete my seven links of chain and then I'll come back with you and we'll attach the top and put on our earring hook so I'm just finishing up my final chain link here and close up this final jump ring now we're ready to attach our earring hook so I'm going to take my piece off of the third hand tool and lay it down I'm gonna bring over another oval jump ring and I'm going to slide on the end link of each of these top chains it close that up bring in my earring post I liked how the dagger shape of this went with the very clean curved lines of the piece opening up the loop on that earring hook and sliding on my top jump ring closing it up I want to be sure to remember our earring back so now we have two pairs of scalloped bar chain earrings now for my other project here it's a necklace that uses some thirteen point five millimeter bar teen I just want to show you how nicely this clips on for the work I'm going to continue to do on this piece what this does is it holds it up nice and straight so that when I attach my last little triangle which I've got the link ready for here I'll be able to set the jump ring right next to the previous jump ring here and onto the bottom of that one there and that's going to let them lay nice and straight down that bottom side of the chain I also want to make note here that these little two by three millimeter jump rings that come on the chain may be too small to attach the back loop of your clasp so just be aware you may need another size of chain jump ring rather for that so I hope you enjoyed this video all of these supplies and tools are available at beadaholique.com and please also subscribe to our YouTube channel for all the latest updates thanks for watching

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