How to Make Wrapped Wire Loop Bead Links and Connect to Chain

SKU VID-1616
Designer: Julie Bean
In this video learn how to create bead links that feature a wrapped wire loop on each side and which are then connected to a length of chain. This technique allows you to create your own beaded chain that is incredibly strong and durable. In addition to using crystals, you can also use gemstone beads to create your own gemstone chain. In the video it is demonstrated how to use this technique when creating a necklace and the necklace construction is shown in the video.
Audio Transcript
Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
Hi, this is Julie with beadaholique.com - chain now this is a really versatile technique you can make your own betta chain make your own gemstone chain you can really put whatever you want between the two wrapped wire loops and if you see because it is a wrapped wire loop and we are just catching that last chain link in there this is really strong this is not going to come undone so that is a great way of creating a really sturdy chain and a sturdy link now I'm actually going to show you this whole project here but in a different color just so you can see how you can use it with one application but of course you can adapt it to a lot of other ones I'm gonna be using bicones which I think are really pretty and sparkly they are Swarovski crystal and then as my focal I actually did the same technique just a little bit longer and this is a fine rocks tube bead by Swarovski crystal so what you're going to need first off for tools and then we'll go into their supplies tools you'll need a chain nose plier either a round nose plier or a wire looping plier I'm going to be doing a wire looping because I think in instances like this where you're creating a lot so little loops they come in handy and then just your regular flush cutter now in terms of your beading supplies to use for the little links we're going to be using wire I'm using 24 gauge and I like this because I can cut it to any length that I want and 24 gauge is super soft and pliable I'm actually going to be using a finished chain necklace you can use just a regular cut chain but it's fun when it's finished because it does some of the work for you it'll be the same exact technique if you were doing finished or unfinished chain I do want to use another one of these Rock tubes as my focal and I'm gonna use the one in the crystal light chrome because it's so sparkly and this is the 30 millimeter size and I did pull out some other ones they do come in more colors than this but you could do one that was 15 millimeters or you could do a little tiny one that was eight millimeters same technique and they are so pretty but we're going to do the 30 millimeter now I'm also going to be using the 4 millimeter by counts this is crystal like chrome 2x which means it is fully coated and then I'm gonna use these as my little end caps and these are actually haishi spacer beads and they are six millimeter in size which is the same diameter as the fine rocks tube beads and then in this one just to show you a little something different I did use a little bead cap that was six millimeters so a lot of choices but you really want to show you this technique which is so handy and easy to work with and then you will want a ruler as well and we'll be using that here in a minute we're going to start by creating our focal and we are going to be using this technique so cut yourself a length of your wire and I'm gonna probably do oh this is probably got 5 inches I'm just eyeballing it and I am gonna also cut my chain for the first time so I'm gonna find where the clasp is right here and I'm just gonna straighten it out and look for the middle link of the necklace and this is a 16 inch chain the gold was done with an 18 inch chain we're just gonna cut that middle link and you'll see what we have now we've got these two ends it's important to cut that before you do your wrappings so now we're gonna create a little loop on one end so about an inch or so from the end we're gonna go ahead and pinch it with our wire looping pliers bend it down rotate it up and crisscross your wire just like that now what we're gonna do is we're just gonna take our chain nose open it up a little bit and slide in the end chain link now we want to pinch it closed and we're gonna do a couple of wraps so just we're taking the wire and we're going around the stem just a couple times you don't need to do a lot you can if that's the look you want but it is going to be nice and secure with just a couple then we're gonna trim it now what we're gonna do is we're gonna take our little spacer bead put it on here then we're gonna take our rock tube string it on here as well you see how that creates a really nice little end cap it finishes it off we're gonna take our other little end cap and now what we're gonna do is we are gonna grab the wire right where it exits the little spacer bead and we're gonna give that little pinch this is nice because these wire looping pliers do a lot of the work for us all right and we're gonna crisscross and again before we do any of the wrappings we are gonna slide on our other chain link from the other end just slide it down and pull it so it sits in that loop okay now what we're gonna do with this end is we're gonna wrap as well so we're just wrapping it around that main stem a couple times then trim it and if you need to you can take your chain nose and push in that little end so it's nice and secure and this could be a finished necklace so if you look at what we have here that could definitely be a finished piece of jewelry but I actually want to do the little segments up the side so to do that I'm gonna do one side on camera here and then the other side will be the exact same technique I'm gonna cut a length of about three inches or so I'm actually gonna cut two of these for one side and then what I want to do not take my ruler and I find it easiest just to do this as you go you could pre-cut everything but I don't know I found it just as easy to really just do it kind of walking my way up the necklace I'm gonna look to where the 1 inch is and I am gonna cut okay now I've got these two ends available and I find it easiest if you are using finished chain to just go ahead and keep that clasped one less thing to think about so same technique just create your little loop crisscross and then sometimes it's open enough that you don't need to use the little plier the little chain is to open it up but I like to do it anyway so here is my little and chain link just link that guy on close them on up so I got that nice loop and I'm pinching the loop I'm just gonna do a couple little wraps shrimp tuck it if you need to sometimes you do sometimes you don't you just don't want any little scratchy ends and then in this case I do want to use three bicones okay slide them down and now I'm gonna make another little loop okay criss cross open it up and that's the hardest thing of this whole process it's just to make sure that you link on the chain before you do your wrappings and the nice thing is if you are just using wire lengths to do this then it's no big deal if you make a mistake you have to cut it off okay do your wrappings I would try to do the same number of wrappings on each one just for consistency or the overall design so there we've got one of them and I want to do one more of them to show it so that's like the example here that we did and then I'll do the other side and then show you the finished design so again we're just going to go ahead take our ruler find where the one-inch mark is cut it take our other piece of wire make that first loop open it up slide on your chain pinch it shut do some wrappings trim it tuck it and put your beads on and you can imagine that if you do a lot of these let's say you're doing an entire chain and like every quarter inch or half inch there's a little segment it will take a little while but you're gonna get so used to doing this process but it's just gonna be really a breeze okay so here we go this is gonna be the last one to show you on camera because this will have been for and I know that's a lot to look at but I did want to show you how to actually apply this to a project okay your wrappings I do highly recommend 24-gauge if you were doing simple wire loops that didn't have wrappings I would recommend a heavier gauge but because you are doing your wrappings this is gonna be really secure and it is much easier on the fingers when you're doing all these little wraps okay one half of our necklace is done so this is what we've got again here was the sample and I want to also show you in this particular case when I'm all finished the length the difference between a premade 16 inch chain and I pre-made 18 inch chain but let me go ahead and finish this and then I'll show you what we've got so I finished the necklace and you can see how this looks with those little beaded links and just really quickly if you are considering using them in the similar application where you're cutting the different finished chains I do want to show you the overall length now of what was a 16 inch chain and what was an 18 inch for this particular necklace style because this is a pretty fun necklace to create alright so this necklace chain unadorned just started out at 16 inches and with all the little links in the focal it is Oh 20 inches long so we can then go ahead and measure the next one but if I did everything right it should be about 22 inches long let's see and this started as an 18 inch chain yep and now it is a 22 inch chain so it adds what I did here with the four side links and the focal which was a thirty millimeter focal it did add about four inches to the overall design if you wanted it to be shorter all you would have to do is just snip your chain towards probably one of the last links you do and just cinch it on up so that's very very easy to do but it is something to keep in mind when you're our purchasing chain whether it's a regular bulk chain that you buy by the foot or a premade chain remember your little links are gonna add to the overall length so just keep that in mind but really a fun versatile technique I hope you enjoyed it I hope you love these little fine rocks tuba beads by Swarovski crystals we're having a lot of fun with them so thank you for watching and please check out all our other videos at beadaholique.com

You recently viewed

Clear recently viewed