How to Make a Chain and Clasp from Wire

	Wire Elements, Tarnish Resistant Gold Color Copper Wire, 26 Gauge 34 Yards (31 Meters) SKU: WNT-2633 $10.45
	Artistic Wire, Copper Craft Wire 20 Gauge Thick, Tarnish Resistant Brass (6 Yard Spool) SKU: WCR-2033 $4.59
	Eurotool Dual Utility Bench Block 3 x 3 Inches - Steel Anvil With Wood Base SKU: XTL-0264 $23.99
	The Beadsmith Jeweler's Chasing Hammer - 1 Inch Head - Metal Smithing SKU: XTL-2152 $13.99
	Wubbers Bail Making Jewelry Pliers - Small 2mm And 2.5mm Size SKU: XTL-0030 $31.99
	Wubbers Bail Making Jewelry Pliers - Medium 3mm & 5mm Size SKU: XTL-0031 $29.99
	Sharp Flush Cutter Pliers - For Cutting Beading Wire (1 Piece) SKU: XTL-5600 $23.99
	Xuron Jeweler's Super Fine Pliers Chain Nose Flat Nose SKU: XTL-5450 $25.99
	Beadalon Large Beading Mats - Prevent Bead Rolling 13 X 18 Inch (Set of 2) SKU: XTL-9935 $6.75

Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
Hi! This is Julie with Beadaholique.com and today I want to show you how to make your own chain out of wire. So I have a chain here that I've made and this is on the ambrosia necklace which is in our free project section of Beadaholique.com's website and I made my chain. I was doing all wire work and I really didn't want to put a premade chain on it, I wanted to continue with the theme of all hand-made components so I made my chain I made my little clasp so I'm going to show you how to do this, it is so easy a couple of the tools you need, well first off you need wire. I have twenty gauge artistic wire here which is craft wire I've got a bench block and a chasing hammer I've got a couple different sizes of bail making pliers I have to pair of flush cutters and I have some chain nose pliers I also have a ruler here to measure because one thing when you're making your chain is you want all the links to be uniform this is really quite easy to do. Put the necklace aside for right now so I'm going to cut myself several one inch lengths of wire If you're doing a project for yourself you don't have to keep it to one inch you can make it whatever you like just laying the wire against the ruler and snipping I got four pieces. That's going to make me four links so what I'm going to do to make these so I'm going to take my bail making pliers you see there's two sizes. I'm going to use the smaller size for this particular project I'm going to grasp the wire between the two noses and I'm just going to bend around that smaller nose just like so so now I want to do the other side and I want to bend in the opposite direction in this particular design. So again I'm grasping it bending so there's a start of one link. I'm going to do this with all of my little sections so grasping between and you can either push the wire around the pliers themselves or you can use the pliers to do the work for you. So here I've got it going this way, this one I want to go the opposite way rotate my pliers if I need to get a better grip I just move the pliers and adjust I've got my links and if you cut your pieces to one inch they should all be pretty uniform see what that looks like so now to make them a little bit more finished and polished I'm going to hammer them with my chasing hammer this is going to flatten them. It's going to work harden them and give a really nice, professional touch to it so it's going to tap it, hold it carefully in place so it doesn't go flying but I don't to hurt my finger of course flatten it out now if you're loops come apart you can go ahead reinsert the smaller head of your bail making pliers twist it back around a little bit just to close it I'm going to show you the difference between a flattened one and a regular one it just looks a little bit more polished. I'm going to do this to all of them if any of those loops separated a little bit go back tighten them up we got four chain links that are identical so to make these into a chain we're going to connect them with jump rings I have a little four millimeter open jump ring right here I'm grasping it with one of my chain nose pliers on one side. Grasp it with the other chain nose pliers on the other side and twist open link it through one of my loops go ahead and you can either choose how you want this pattern to be, if you want the loops to be facing the same way like so or if you want them to face the opposite direction, totally up to you just make sure you're consistent in whatever you choose link that on so they're both linked together to close our jump ring twist it back in place and we have a start to a chain. Do that with the other ones as well. Make sure that I pay attention to the orientation I want this one to go like that this first one point goes this way, the other one went to the right, this one's going to the left you can really do what ever way you like open up a jump ring link them together close the jump ring and one more this one will go to the right and when I say the right I mean the bottom loop is swirling to the right I want that to go in direction just open another jump ring and there you have a chain that we have made so now we need to make a clasp. So that was how you do the chain as long as you like for the clasp in this particular project it's gonna be two inches of wire that we need so again lay it against the measuring tape or ruler. Whatever you might have Snip it off I want to show you what we're making here that is going to be our clasp and to make this we are going to take again the small part of our bail making pliers. Grip it rotate around, make a loop and then in this instance we want both loops facing the same direction and to make this nice curve which is going to take a larger bail making plier first off we wanna make sure our loops are pretty even twist it curve around and there we have our loop for the other side we're going to the same another two inches of wire make two loops both facing the same direction take your larger bail making plier curve it around and now we want to hammer these as well go back, make sure that the loops are closed up and in this case I wanted one to be open at the hook and one to be more the eye. So I'm going to squish it together with my fingers like so and now these two can loop together they make a pretty sleek clasp and to attach it to your chain you just need another jump ring open it up the same way link it onto your chain you got the start of a chain and you have a clasp and this is a great way of finishing off the piece if you're doing a lot of wire work and you want your chain to not only match exactly the color of the wire but also to have custom components like the rest of your piece. Go to www.beadaholique.com to purchase beading supplies and to get design ideas!