How to Embed Wire and Rhinestone Chain into Epoxy Clay and Make a Cuff Bracelet by Becky Nunn

	Crystal Clay 2-Part Epoxy Clay Kit 'Black' 25 Grams SKU: TRC-230 $12.99
	Eurotool Bench Block Helper - Rubber Base With Interchangeable Steel And Nylon Blocks SKU: XTL-0250 $21.99
	ImpressArt Brass Hammer For Metal Stamping - 1 Pound - 1 Piece SKU: XTL-0277 $20.00
	Artistic Wire, Copper Craft Wire 20 Gauge Thick, Tarnish Resistant Brass (6 Yard Spool) SKU: WCR-2033 $4.59
	Nunn Design Silver Plated Channel Cuff Bracelet - 2 1/2 Inch (1 Piece) SKU: JB-2677 $17.99
	Sharp Flush Cutter Pliers - For Cutting Beading Wire (1 Piece) SKU: XTL-5600 $23.99
	Nunn Design Wire Frame, Hoop Drop 31x38.5mm Antiqued Silver Plated, Pair SKU: FEA-1106 $5.99

Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
hi this is becky nunn with nunn design i'm here in the studios with beadaholique to show you how to make this hammered wire cup chain in epoxy clay cuff bracelet what you'll need for this project is a pair of flush cutters a hammer a bench block some wire we're gonna need about a foot of a 20 gauge gold wire some crystal clay I've already pre-mixed mine and about half an inch or so of cup chain for the first part we're gonna go ahead and take our 20 gauge wire and we're going to hammer it to give it this nice textured look like you're seeing in the cuff bracelet to do that you're going to want to take off about a foot or so of the wire have your bench block and your hammer holding your hammer tight like such and you're just going to slightly tap it and this will provide a nice texture and flatten out the wire so just go ahead and continue on to do that until you have mmm about let's just start with a good six inches or so there we go so after I have my wire hammered out I'm going to cut various links to kind of make it look like that grassy look so hmm just go ahead and just cut some pieces and then we can decide where we're gonna use them you see how I'm using my flush cutters and I'm holding my wire with my finger that's to prevent that wire from shooting off across the room so just go ahead and cut a couple of links some short some long until you have a variety once you have your pieces hammered I just did a couple of them but you think the idea you're also going to want to go ahead and cut your small pieces of cup chain cup chain comes already on a retractable chain like on this and so I'm going to go ahead and cut off six of the various cubes but here's the tricky part you see how that what it little guy right here he'll retract back up he's got an extra little bit in there so you want to try to make sure that you cut the check cut chain flush to that so that extra little tongue that slides back and forth in there just cut completely off here it is let's see if you can see it on this one yep well he retracted back up let's try the next one it's okay if he does but if you can get that little retracted piece cut off here's one on this one I'm just going to go ahead and trim that off so for this bracelet I used six of these tiny little pieces of cup this is a great way in which you can use extra little bits of rhinestone chain that you might have had from a previous project now I have my six pieces of my cup chain up see there's one of those little tongue pieces I was talking about you have six little pieces of the rhinestone chain which is also referred to as cup chain you'll have a bunch of pieces that you've hammered and cut into various lengths like you see here and now we're ready to put the epoxy clay the crystal clay down into the base of the cuff bracelet so I've already mixed this piece right here and this is probably going to be too much but we'll see so I'm just gonna pull off I just took half of that because I just have a hunch that this might be enough and what I like to do is roll it into a nice sized ball and then I like to roll it kind it into a snake this makes it easier to apply it into the cuff bracelet and so once I have that I'm going to start to Pat it down and I'm using my thumb and kind of this kind of motion to spread it to the side edges I'm gonna use that in a little bit and now I'm going to just go so I'm moving this way and I'm using my thumb in that same action to push the clay out to the sides getting over to that side edge and moving it slightly forward so I'm using my fingers underneath to rotate and my thumb on top to push that clay whoever it is that I want it to go and if you didn't have enough clay so example we had just that amount just work with what you have and then if you need to make more by mixing the two parts of the epoxy clay together you can go ahead and add some more and this is showing an example of how see how I added that extra bit in and you just blend it together and so it's seamless you have 90 to 120 minutes to work with the epoxy clay until it starts to harden so you have a lots of time to do this right now I'm using my thumb to push it that way cuz I had a kind of a blob there I'm trying to get a nice even surface all the way around here at first this might feel a little bit awkward but with time you'll start to get the hang of it I pinched off a wee bit more I know I have an extra little bolt right here so I'm using my finger on my thumb to press it this way then then as I get to that end I can pinch off that excess I was pretty close this is how much I was off all right once you have your epoxy clay filled into your base we've got a little excess right here I'm going to pinch off that you want to you're going to want to use a wet wipe to go in and make sure that you don't have any of the clay on your hands or on those side edges so I have a little wet wipe on my lap and I'm gonna go ahead and take that clay off my hands and now I'm gonna go in and remove any of it that might have got on the sides of the piece why this is important is because when this clay hardens it's like cement and you won't be able to clean it up so it's best to clean it up as you go and it's best to always make sure that you get that clay off of your hands so that you don't transfer it someplace where you don't want it and sometimes that can show up on fingerprints on the metals all right so there's a good idea of what we're looking for is a nice smooth clay laid inside and you can always go back in when you're all finished and clean up even more all right so now we have that all in there we're ready to start putting in our little pieces of metal and this is just something that you're going to need to experiment with and see what looks right but you're going to want to pick up your little pieces and I am going to try to figure out what size is my flat side the flat side that's textured and then you just lay it in and if it looks like it's going to be too long or you can always cut it again into the shape or the length that you like let's just save all of our little bits because who knows we might use them all right so then you just lay it in and I'm moving it so it's flushed down to the base and then just gently starting to press it in and then you're going to just build out a pattern with all of these small pieces that you cut making a little organic sort of design okay I think I'm ready to lay in one more tiny piece right there it's not on its flattened side right there so I'm trying to get it to be on its flattened side actually I'm not totally crazy about that piece altogether because look at the flush cut mark showed up so you would want to use like a a toothpick or something to remove that or you can use another bit of wire if you get any clay underneath your fingernails you're going to want to make sure that you remove that because just like anywhere else that's gonna be hard to remove once it's cured you have 90 to 120 minutes before it hits that place just good to keep on checking all right so that it's going to be too long to put mmm it's way too low let's go ahead and trim this one off and then this is going to be the piece that we add our cup chain on to the little rhinestone piece let's go ahead and see where that little opening is that's the part we're going to want to just press right down in there and then you just keep on continuing your pattern over and over again and kind of trying different options as far as the length of the grass this is that piece that I didn't care for earlier because it had a little bit of a cut mark that was showing that I didn't really like but if I flip it over the other side it will be showing as much then after you're done you're going to want to check again by going over it to make sure that all of the clay the excess clay is off of the side pieces and it's nice and clean and tidy and then you will have a fun bracelet like you're seeing here this is becky nunn on location here at beadaholique.com you