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Hi, my name is Tam Tran and I am a designer living in New York City. I also have a jewelry store and a workshop called Lost Wax Studio on Elizabeth Street between Spring and Kenmare. My thing is sort of more about ancient jewelry, and trying to find the perfect connecting point, between my past work with fabrics and color and drape and applying to metals technique.

So that’s sort of my own exploration. I have a store that we recently opened and that’s sort of a culmination of all my interests, of finding raw materials, because I feel like there are so many cool things that you find that you could make into jewelry. So the whole idea is just, you can come there, find something cool and just put it on a piece of leather cord, and wear it out.

Another really great segment of our business is actually the workshops, and I think that came out from wanting to share my experience with people, because everyone always asks, “Where do you get your inspiration from?” And I think my perspective is different from most jewelry makers, because I come to it from a design standpoint. My approach is more unique, because it’s based on my experience in the design world.

So if you’re interested in finding out more about what we do at our workshops at the store or to check out more of our jewelry, come to our store called Lost Wax Studio, at 171 Elizabeth Street between Spring and Kenmare, and it’s a great little neighborhood for just fun shopping. You can find us online at lostwaxstudio.com.

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We’re going to make a pair of jade drop earrings and these are great just because they add a little color to your outfits. You can wear this with an all black or you can wear this with a sort of green top. It will just pick up the green in your top and a lot of people ask the question, “How do you choose colors?” My advice is to go into your closet, open it and the first color that pops out, that’s your favorite color because intuitively, that’s what you buy all the time.

You need a piece of wire and this piece of wire is about 2 inches. I determined that because the bead goes onto the center of the wire and I just want to make sure I have enough room to wrap it. I’m going to make the crimp to hold one side then I’m going to make the crimp on the other side and I’m going to make sure I do some spacing as before on the side. With both ends, I’m going to make the loop and bring them together. And then I’m going to wrap. One end is a little shorter, but I think I have enough to secure the wrap.

Now you see how it’s all a little messed up, your loop. You’re just going to take around those pliers and gently reshape the loop by just going all the way around the loop to reshape your loop. Then I’m just going to trim this tail. Make sure you have your safety goggles on when you do that. The other tail here, I don’t think I need to trim that. I’m just going to close it a little bit more with my pliers. I’m just going to reshape the loop. It’s basically ready to put it on to your ear wire then you’re going to open the ear wire loop.

I have a little piece of wire that’s sticking out so I’m just going to fix that quickly. I’m going to close the ear wire and then I’m just going to flatten all of this by using a wooden against the metal will make it flat without stressing the wire.

That’s it. Now, you have a finished earring.

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Now that we’ve sorted the piece and it’s cooled off, we’re just going to clean up the seam. So now see, by adding heat to it, because it’s sterling silver, it’s turning black, it’s oxidation, so using sand paper, you can pretty much shine it all back up again. The solder went really nicely over the seam so if you want to put some on that, Okay?

Then, I’m going to put it on my Wing Mandrel and basically I’m just going to brace it and I’m just going to. And I want to hammer over that seam just so that it runs again, so then we really don’t see a seam anymore. So then, there’s a lot of different kinds of hammers that you can buy. I just have the ball-peen here, but you can buy one with a sharp edge and then it gives you a more serrated look, like a corrugated look on your band. So, I’ll just add a little bit more.

So, you’re just going to hammer and keep turning it as you hammer. There’s no like, pattern or anything involved. Just random and then hammering, Okay. So that’s a little bit wonky, so you want to flatten that by just putting on here and the metal would, using a wooden, you can just kind of flatten it or you can also flatten it by putting another metal block over it. So then, we’re just going to shine it up again and that’s it.

And you have a textured band.

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Hi, I’m Tam. I’m going to show you how to make a very simple pair of earrings by texturizing a ready-made oval disc that you can just buy at any beading store. So this is what it’s going to look like. When we buy it it looks like this, but after you texturize it and sand it, it’s going to look nice like this, so basically that’s the difference.

So this basically has a hammered edge and then it’s matte finish. All we need here is the disc. This is a 3M fine grit paper. This is an anvil, and this is our texturizing hammer. Basically, you want to put your sandpaper flat, and then you’re going to take your disc and I would look at it to see if there was a better side. Already, I would say this one is the better side.

Then you’re just going to make sure that this is flat, so that you get an even finish on it. I like to sandpaper in a figure-eight pattern, because that means you’re hitting the whole piece flatly, because sometimes, where you put your fingers is where you put a lot of pressure. So that means if you were just doing this, then that means the two spots where you have your fingers would file down faster than the rest of the piece.

So basically, I just like to just do it gently in a sort of figure-eight motion, that way you are going to get an even finish. See how nice that is? So this is the finished, and this was the unfinished side. And then I’m going to put the disc on here and then I’m going to… Whenever you hammer a piece of metal you want to wear safety glasses, because it could just slip and pop and hit you in the face. Like something like this could totally cut your face by slicing it.

So here we go. So we’re going to just – I want to do this sort of – you can hammer the whole thing, but I sort of like the just the hammered on the edges, because it gives you a high-low like that. So you’re just going to gently hammer, and move the disc around. So you can see what the hammered side looks like compared to the non-hammered side.

And then I’m going to continue all the way around. So hammering is about like layering the hammer, so you want to do one complete way around and then you’re going to look at it, and figure out if you’d like more hammered. I think I’m going to move it. I think this one is a little deeper into the piece, so I’m just going to move it.

And this other hammer is called the ball-peen hammer and this is flat, so it’s not going to make the same texture. The ball-peen is going to make more of a texturized effect on a flat piece of metal. So I’m just also going to hammer all the way around.

While working on it, some of the oils from my fingers is transferred onto the brass, so I’m just going to gently sandpaper it again and try not to touch it. Then I’m going to put it onto the ear wire, close the loop and there you go.

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Hi. I’m Tam, and I’m going to show you how to make a single gemstone earring. And here, we’re using pearls.

Basically, this is a very popular, simple earring, that a lot of people feel that it’s lacking in the market place, just because it’s too simple to be sold in stores. But it’s something that most people want to wear, basically. I know this because my costume designer friend is always saying I need to find a single gemstone earring that reflects back to whatever outfit she’s creating that day. I make a lot of these for her because you can buy gemstones in any color, so it makes it very easy, and it’s a simple one color earring that goes with any outfit.

Basically, I’m going to make a pin head, which is a component, a finding, which you can also buy. I’m going to make a loop like this, and then I’m going to close it.

Basically, this is what we’re going to make. We’ve made all the components. I have the pin head, and I’ve attached the pearl onto it, and then I have the ear wire that I made already. When you make earrings, you have to make sure you have a matching pair. You want to make sure you refer back to the one you already made, to get the exact same look.

I’m going to make the loop, switch hands, and then I’m going to wrap the cord. And I want to match it to this one. This has about two and a half laps, so let’s see. It comes to just about here, and I’m just going to snip this. And straighten the wire, so basically you have something like this. Just tighten this up a little bit here. And then I’m going to attach it onto my ear wire. When you have a loop already like this, you don’t want to pull it out like this to open. You always want to have a back and forth movement. That’s either to open a jump ring, or to open anything. You want to move in this direction instead of pulling it apart, because metal has memory in this direction only. If you pull it this way, you’ll never be able to close it neat like this.

Then you’re going to put this on, and then you’re going to close it, and then just straighten it with your flat nose pliers.

Basically, you have something like that.

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Hi, I’m Tam, and I’m going to show you how to make a pair of chain earrings with briolette dangles. I didn’t finish this one, because I just wanted to show you the different options you could do. This is basically a ready-made chain that you can buy. So you can buy thicker, heavier, finer, whatever you’d like.

And you could make them very, very long, and suspend them from the ear-wire like that, or you can make them very short, and suspend them from the ear-wire like that, or what I will do here is probably do something like this, where it’s suspended like this, and then you have a little bit of the chain hanging.

I’m going to measure this, so this is about five inches of the pre-cut chain. I’m going to measure that here, and then you’re going to use your snippers, and cut off one of the links. Okay, so I’m going to lay this out like this, so I can get the same sort of feeling going on in the other earring. I’m going to show you another technique of attaching the briolettes with the wire, so I’m going to put a piece of wire in here, about a third of the way down, so it’s about there on the wire.

Then I’m going to make this sort of U-shape with my fingers and cross it like that. So basically, I’m making a dangle right now, before I add it onto the chain. This is a little bit different, because instead of making the loop as a regular wrap chain, we’re using this rounded U or a V, and then we’re just going to wrap here and make the coil, like so.

Then you’ll have something like this. It’s a little bit crooked, because it’s going to dangle like that on your chain, so that’s fine if it’s a little bit crooked. Then now we’re going to make the coil here and I’m going to coil into this space that’s here. I’m going to make this loop like this and then I’m going to attach it. I didn’t attach this one to the bottom, so I’m going to do it here.

So I’m going to do it two links above the bottom. So I have this, so the link is inside the loop that you made with the wire and then you’re going to hold the loop with your left hand, if you’re right-handed, and then use the other pliers to just wrap in the center to meet the other coil. So there we go, and I’m just going to close it a little bit. I’m going to close that, so it doesn’t stick up the wire.

It’s okay if it’s crooked, because the whole thing is going to dangle sort of like that, as opposed to straight down. Now I’m going to sort of eyeball and attach the rest of them. I’m going to do this piece right here, so that goes here. I’m going to wrap this on first and then add the link.

That goes about here. I mean if you want to be really precise you can measure and count. I like to just sort of eyeball everything, because that’s the whole idea of handmade jewelry is that everything doesn’t have to be precise. That’s the second one.

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Hi I’m Tam and I’m going to show you how to make a pair of fresh water pearl earrings with emerald bead clusters.

Basically this is what were going to make. So basically we have our pearl, our 3b for the cluster that your wire and the wire for the clusters and the wire for the pearl. The pearl is going to have 2 loops at the end were going to hook the jump ring onto that. So we are going to, I’m going to do the, the, put the jump ring on first just because it makes the most sense to me.

Because sometimes it makes sense to start from the middle of the piece and then build out in both directions, because that, that’s sort of the central part of your piece. So that’s, I just wire wrapped and put the jump ring on. Now I’m going to put the pearl on. And then I’m just going to wrap the top. And how many [inaudible 0:01:26] did I do there? So I’m just going to refer back to the original that I had already made. And here I can just loop it all the way. I’m going to cut. And then I’m going to, so then I have this component ready to add the clusters. Okay. So then, I’m going to add the emerald cluster beads and for these I have to make the crimp at the bottom which is basically, I’ll make a new one here.

So basically you have some wire and your just going to make a hook and close then close the hook. And that’s your crimps. Okay. So now I’m going to add the beads to the crimped wire, and then I’m going to make the loop and then just add these to the jump ring. Then I’m just going to wrap the bead onto the jump ring. So clusters are another fun element. And for here were using larger beads but you can also use very, very tiny beads, and, then you would just add more. To make it a fuller cluster. So here’s one that’s finished. Okay? Then I’m going to add, by adding the cluster your just sort of creating a fuller, dimensional earring. Opposed to just straight up and down so now you have like weight, added weight at the bottom.

This sort of changes the perspective of the whole piece. Slip it on to the ring and, just wrap, continue wrapping. Then I’m going to add the last one on. Slip it on to the ring and snip off the tail. Close the ends. Straighten the hoop a little bit. Now you have your, your component with beads with clusters. Okay, and then the last step is adding on to ear wires. I’m going to open the ear wire just a little bit more. There we go. Flatten it. Now just run the flat piece through.

And you have a finished earring.

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Hi, I’m Tam, and I’m going to show you how to make a bracelet with wire wrapping and Czech glass beads. So basically, I’ve wrapped all these beads on it, and I’ve chosen the colors sort of so they’re a little metallic, and darks. And they will look great with any outfits. So basically it looks like that. And I always like a much more random order of things, instead of very calibrated, like blue, red, blue, red. So I’ve just kind of put together a nice color selection of beads that go well together, but still are very neutral to go with any outfit.

So now I’m going to show you how to attach the clasp, because basically I have reached my finishing point of eight inches. So our options are basically this, or this. And I think I’m going to use, for bracelets i like to use a lobster clasp, because I like the S hook, and I like using this because it works well with my designs, which are more organic, but for bracelets, this type of opening doesn’t work well because it gets caught on stuff and opens, and the bracelet will fall off.

So I’m going to use a lobster clasp, which is more of a commercial product and you buy it, and it has, like a click, so that it stays securely onto your wrist. So I’m going to do it, make the wrap as I did before. I’m going to link it onto the end of the bracelet. And I’m going to, so here I’m going to make this last link sort of look like these links to hark back to that design that I’ve already used. So I’m going to allow some space here, because that will be basically the amount of coils I’m going to need. And I’m going to make the loop, and I’m going to put the clasp on. So it’s going to look like this.

And then you just start coiling. So then you’re just going to, and then you want to bring these coils closer together. So you’re just going to do, you can sort of just move them with your flat nose pliers. And then you’re going to snip the loose ends. And then I’m going to attach the jump ring on the other end. So I’m going to put this jump ring on now, so that it goes inside of this clasp.

Basically it’s the same jump ring I had already used here. So with the jump ring, you want to put it into the loop, so you’re going to make the little loop, and then you’re going to put the jump ring on. There we go. And then take the round nose in your left hand, grab it, and coil. Move all the coils so they stay in there tight. And then trim off all the tails.

Make sure you’re not cutting anything else. So now you’re done and you’re just going to basically go through the bracelet and just kind of neaten all of the loops, so that they are straight and not all wonky. And then it’ll lay flatter. So here I have some loose ends. I’m just going to trim, and then straighten this. Just straighten all the pieces.

And that’s basically it.

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Now I’m going to show you how to build a vertical component to your horizontally wrapped chain. Because these are beads, if we’re gonna build it vertically it needs to go this way from the chain.

So you can buy things called a head pin, or you can make them with your wire by doing this. So, I’m gonna take a piece of wire like I have already pre-cut before, but instead of making the loop I’m just going to make a little hook, like so.

Then I’m going to close the hook, like that. So it’s gonna be, which is gonna act as a stopper, for your bead so that it can hang vertically without sliding off of the wire. So basically now, I’m going to put the wire on so the bead wont slide off, cause you have this new little stopper.

So these are called head pins and you can buy these with like, lots of different pre-made different designs on them, there are some with like, flowers or gem stones, or whatever. I just like to sort of make my own because you know, I don’t really need anymore fancy motif in this one, because the whole design thing here is just about the colors. So now that we’ve done that to continue as we were before with the wire wrapping. SO on the vertical dangles I like to have a longer coil as just a design element.

Basically I’m gonna coil this much of the space, as opposed to just like three coils on our previous pieces. And then make the loop again.

And now I’m going to attach this to the chain. So I’m going to go through on of these loops. Lets see, I’m gonna put it about here, I think. If you’re gonna do a long coil make sure you allow enough space, in the other end of the wire to have enough wire to coil all the way around, so basically, then I just coil, as I would before. Here’s where I would normally stop before, at three. I’m just gonna smooth these coils down a little bit, but I want a longer dangle so I’m going to continue coiling till about there.

So now you have a chain that also, has a vertical component to it.

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Hi my name is Tam and I’m going to show you how to make a simple thin wire ring from silver wire, 16 gauge, at home because we can only use this mini torch at home so you want to use something very, very thin with the wire. So basically this is pretty popular right now, are the stocking rings. So we’re just, so with, you know, with this technique you can make as many as you’d like, but were just going to demo one.

So basically this is what we are going to make. This is the 16 gauge wire you’ll need. You’ll need a piece of solder, which I already cut out and put right here. And you’ll need flux, and then you’ll need a ring mandrel and a hammer to texture. So basically we take our wire and you’re going to decide on the size that you want, and this is a ring mandrel. So it has your ring size on it. So what I would do is take a ring, chose a ring for the finger you like to wear it on because all your fingers are different sizes. So take a ring that you already have, for example I’m going to use my ring and put it on here so that you can get an idea of the size. So this is like a 7 1/2. And because we’re going to, if you’re not going to texturize then you don’t need to make it bigger, but when you texturize the ring it’s going to stretch it. So if you’re not going to texturize it you’re just going to leave it like the round wire. Then you can make it to the size that you want, but I’m going to texturize ours so that it looks like this, it looks a little bit more organic. So I’m going to make it a little smaller then I would want.

I would make it like about a half of size to a full size. It’s, the wire is pretty malleable so you can stretch it a lot. So that’s how you measure to get your ring size. So then say I’m going to make a size 7 ring, so I’m going to go to size 6 and I’m just going to take the wire. It doesn’t have to be perfect because you have a lot of opportunities to correct your mistakes with this, with this project.

So basically I’m just going to wrap a few coils. Even if you would just want to make 1 ring you have to wrap a few coils because it makes the wire, has the memory. So, this is how you would, otherwise it won’t be round. Then you slide it off, I’m going to snip, so then you have, when you snip it and you would have something that looks like, this looks like a coil blunder. So I’m going to cut, so that I have a ring like this. And now, this is, before we solder we have to make sure the ends are very flushed. So I’m going to take my cutters again and you notice how the, it’s not flat here. I’m just going to do that and cut with the, just trim them a little bit. But now I have a, a pretty flushed joint. So I want to do something like that, so that, because when you solder you need to have the ends cut against each other.

This is a charcoal block and I put on this, just like a metal cooking pan. And I’m just going to, so this is our solder and i just cut out a little chip already, and I’m going to add that. Then I’m going to take my tweezers and I’m going to put it on the charcoal block and then I’m going to also dip this in the flux a little bit. Fix the joint. Sometimes when you pick it up, you know, the joint.

So I want to put the seam of where I want the solder to go. So basically solder goes where you apply heat. So wherever you apply the heat the solder is going to get sucked into the heat. Vacuumed. So I want to make sure that it’s flat against the solder, that will just make it flow easier. So I’m going to put the solder underneath the seam. And then I’m going to, everything’s fluxed and everything is ready to go. Flux is what makes the solder melt. It the solder melt faster. There’s different kinds of solder that melt at different temperatures because on some pieces that your making you may want to use, you may have a lot of things to attach so you will need all the different solder that melts at a different temperature.

Okay so then this basically a, it’s called a micro torch but basically it’s just like a giant cigarette lighter. And it’s safe for home use and like cooks use it for creme brule, like you can brown the creme brule on the top. And this is filled, refillable with a butane, butane that you can buy at any drug store. So basically it has a switch and you turn it on and then you can lock it. So when you solder you want to go around and evenly heat up, heat up the piece. And the solder just flowed. I evenly heat up the piece and then I, over the seem I just, gently go over it because you don’t want your wire to melt. I mean it’s a little, it probably won’t melt with this micro torch but that’s how you want, evenly heat this piece, apply a little more heat to where the seam is to drop the solder. But the solder won’t go until the whole piece is warm. So that’s it.

So here is the ring with the solder.

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Hi. I’m Tam, and I’m going to show you how to make these dangly earrings with briolettes. Briolettes are the teardrop cuts of stones. So these are what we’re going to make. So these you can buy at any bead store, these rings in oval shape, and these are the briolette beads. And for this, you’ll need one long piece of wire. This is about two and a half inches, and an ear wire. I’m going to put the briolettes on first. This you have the option of matching the exact color, or some people like to just do contrast color, just have that subtle, play around with order of the colors of the earrings. It’s very subtle. You’re still using the same beads, but just changing the order of them a little bit.

So basically, you want to put them on like this. I put them on just to sort of eyeball for the size, and I’m going to make my loop about here. So I’m going to make the loop here. So this will be to connect your oval piece. So then I just slip the oval element onto the little loop that I’ve made, and then I’m just going to wrap. I want to do matching to that. And these are really simple to make, but they have a lot of visual impact. So get a lot of look for not a lot of effort.

So you can do the same, or just kind of change the order. So I’m just going to do that, because I sort of like that. And then you want to make sure they’re lying sort of like this. And then you want to make your loop there very very close to there, so you get that effect. OK, so now, you’re going to slide on the round element into the loop. Oops. Oops. So they pop right in there. And then I’m just going to grab this, and I’m going to get the round nose. It’s a little slippery because the circle keeps spinning, so you have to just hold it and try to get your tweezers and your pliers in there. And start the wrapping. It’s a little hard for me to see where the wire is, so I’m just going to use my fingers to find it.

Trim the wire like so. I can get it a little tighter. And then you just have to neaten up the loop. Straighten out your wire here, and kind of hold it up. This bottom one needs to be a little bit more straight. And there’s your component.

So then the final step is just to attach it to the ear wire, and this is kind of easy. You just have to put it directly onto the loop of the ear wire. And there you go. Trim up the ear wire a little bit.

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So now I’m going to show you how to make a hammer dangle component to hang off of your chain.

So basically we’ve made the basic unit with the loop and I’m going to pick a place to put it on to the chain and so it’s going to look like this. And then I’m going to start wrapping, so with this technique you can use a heavier wire than you were using before or a thinner wire of you want something a little bit more dainty and like, finer looking.

So basically, that’s what I have and I’m going to lay it on a metal block and basically when you hammer the metal, you’re flattening the metal and also you are able to stretch it in the direction that you want it to go. So, I’m going to look and see if I want this to be, I want it to be shorter. Okay, so I think that’s a good, just going to trim the end and so now I’m going to hammer it and when you flatten the metal, it’s going to reflect light differently than if it was a round piece of wire. So I’m flattening the metal and I’m also kind of stretching it in different directions so of I go this way, it stretches it horizontally, I’m kind of driving my hammer across the metal. So you would get something that looks like this.

Now you see how it kind of reflects light completely differently than a round piece of wire. Okay, so then you can look and decide if you like the length of this dangle. I think I’m going to make it a little bit shorter, so I’m just going to snip off the edge and I’m going to hold it. Just going to snip it off and then when you snip it off, you lose that sort of organic hammered edge, so I’m just going to lightly hammer it, so then you get sort of that organic finish on it.

And that’s how you make a dangle.

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Hi I’m Tam and I’m going to show you how to make a pair of Rutilated quartz drop earrings.

So, Rutilated quartz is basically a type of stone. And, it’s a quartz and the Rutilated means these are the rutiles inside of the stone, so you can see the markings inside, that’s called the rutiles, so that’s why it’s called a Rutilated quartz . And this is a drop that’s already pre-cut that you can buy as it is. And, so these have the bee holes going horizontally. So here I have my ear wire and a piece of 24 gauge wire and I cut this at about 4 inches, because I’m going to do, I’m going to wrap them like this. There’s like several different ways but this is the most simple and the cleanest way to wrap them.

So basically I’m going to put the bead unto the middle of the wire and I’m going to make a little crimp with my flat nose… pliers, like so, so then basically you have a sharp crease is what a crimp is, and then I’m going to do the same thing on the other side. So you have something that looks like this, and then I’m going to with my fingers just shape it because I don’t, I don’t want to stress the medal.

So basically I’m just going to sort of bring the wires together and sort of twist them like that. So it has just a nice gentle, for earrings you want to match it as much as possible and you see on this one I want to be closer so I’m going to just reshape this with my fingers so that it’s a little closer to the stone so that it matches the other one I had already made. So now I’m going to grab it like this and then I’m going to wrap these two ends together. So, I’m going to basic wrapping technique but with the two ends together. So I’m just going to put this loop a little bit bigger. So I’m just going to move it down. My pliers just make the loop a little bit bigger. And then I’m going to switch hands and hold the loop with my left hand and pull on both ends of the coil at the same time.

You can go really like slowly but make sure your pulling tight to bring the two wires together. Let me just make sure that it looks the same as this one. That looks pretty good. I’m just going to straighten out the loop at the top, and if you gently go all the way around your going to even out the loop. See let me hold it this way so you can see better. So the loop is nice and neat now and then I’m going to take the snipers and cut very, very close with a straight edge. Your going to hold the ends so they don’t pop, hit you in the face.

So every time you use snipers and your cutting wire you should wear safety glasses or some kind of glasses, because you never know when you snip and it could just, the piece of wire can go flying and hit you in the eye. Okay. Now I’m going to put onto the ear wire and once again we open the loop in this motion not in and out. So then I’m just going to put this on, close the loop, and just look at it to make sure it’s hanging correctly and I’m just going to flatten this a little bit. So by doing this I’m flattening, flattening the whole ear wire and then I can just sort of do this and you can use like a wooden, just to make the whole thing flat.

So that you have a finished Rutilated quartz drop earring.

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So now I’m going to show you how to make bindings from wire. These are commercial binders that you can buy in a store or since you already have the wire, I’m just going to show you how to make the components instead of buying it. Sometimes it’s a little nicer because you can hammer it, you can add a little texture to it.

So basically this is the S hook that’s a commercial product that you can buy and ear wires are also another commercial product that you can buy. Basically, for the hook we are going to use a 20 gauge wire, which is heavier, and I’m going to cut about three inches. I’m going to take my round-nose, so basically you need a loop for the necklace to be connected to and then you need an opening to connect to the jump ring or whatever you’re going to use to hook this into.

To make that I’m going to just bend the wire around my round-nose. You can see how this is tapered, so you just have to choose which diameter you’d like. I’m going to make something a little larger, so I’m going to go all the way to the end of the round-nose pliers and I’m going to go all the way around the wire like that to ensure a round loop like that. It’s pretty easy.

Then you can use anything, like a pen or a pencil, anything round to make the shape. You want something a little bigger, so I’m going to use the Sharpie and bend around the Sharpie like that. Then for that gentle curve here, I’m going to use my round-nose pliers again, just gently do that. So then I’m going to add a little texture to this by just flattening it so that it adds a little bit more of a design feature to it. This is totally a design feature.

Basically, that’s your hook and you can make this curve a little bit more by just pushing in with your fingernail. This curve is dependent on you as part of your design, so it can be very big, it can be very small. It’s totally up to you but basically that’s what you’re doing.

To make the ear wire, we are going to take about two inches of wire. So this is what I’m going to make. It’s similar to the S hook but the loop here is smaller, so I’m going to use the top, the end part of my round-nose because I want a smaller loop. So it looks like that.

Then to put a curve around the ear, I’m using a pencil just to shape it, or anything round that you may have. So I’m going to put it against the pencil like so and then I’m going to push all the way around. Now you have an ear wire. I’m going to put my fingernail here and kind of push it and get that shape.

This is your ear wire.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Tam and I’m going to show you how to make a pair of blue quartz and labradorite dangle earrings. So basically this is the earring we are going to make. This is our blue quartz drop and then the labradorite bead. So, I have a piece of 24 gauge wire and I’m going to make a crimp at the end of the wire, like so, as a stopper to hold the blue quartz bead.

So it’s going to look like this.

And then I’m going to close it and then link it to the labradorite beads, so I’m going to leave that and I’m going to work on the labradorite bead drop.

So, I’m going to hold the loop with my left hand, coil with my right hand, and pull tightly as you make the coil. Just going to snip and I just close that, add this, because we have to link these, so I want to make sure I have this piece ready. Because a lot of times you can forget and close the loop. So I want to make sure I have all the components ready. So that is ready to go and now I’m going to make the loop for the bottom part and want to match it to this one so I want to make sure I get the right size loops made.

So I’m going to wrap and I’m going to move this over to my left hand and coil the end of the wire with my right hand.

You could always just put the bead on here, on top of this bead, but then you don’t get that sort of movement, like this. It would just be fixed to the blue quartz.

So this is just a variation. If you want something very kinetic and moving a lot, this is what you would be doing. So then I’m going to now add, I’m going to make sure this loop is straight, and I’m going to add this bead onto here and coil and I’m going to trim this off.

So you can put your hand over the wire as you cut too to prevent it from flying in your face. So there’s your component.
And now we’re just going to add it onto the ear wire that we had already made or you can buy a store bought ear wire. So we’re going to open it like so. Add the drop and then you want to make sure that it’s all laying properly before you close it.

And then we just flatten it by moving our flat nose pliers like so.

So now we made a pair of dangly earrings.

Transcript

I’m going to show you how to use a silk string in the knotting and beading. So when we use a silk string, it’s usually when we use a better material. So now I’m going to attach the clasp, and when I attach a clasp with the silk string, I use a product called a French wire, and basically French wire covers your cork, and you’ll see what I mean by that when we actually physically do it.

So basically French wire are tiny coils of very, very fine wire. You don’t want to handle it so much, because you’ll create crimps in it, like you can see, you know, some of these pieces here. So basically I’m basically going to use the Griffen silk bead cord that comes with the needle, and I’ve decided that this is the correct size that goes into my bead hole, the correct size of silk. The size is indicated here, and you can sort of just visually tell. They’re not that much money, so I usually buy two sizes that I think are the closest. It comes in silver or gold, and, you know, so this is the clasp I use. So normally I would use gold, but I don’t have the right size for this thick cord, so I’m going to use this silver one that I sort of black in already.

First I put on the crimp. Then we’re going to choose a piece of the French wire. It comes in different inner diameter opening width size, so I’m using a thicker thread. I’m going use, I don’t have gold that will fix this, so I have to use a silver one. And basically I put it through the needle, and the length that you cut is sort of, depends on, you know, your design, if you like it, you know, prominent or not prominent. And just going to slide it on.

So then you have the crimp, you have the French wire, I’m going to put the clasp on. And I put the, I center the clasp on to where the French wire is, and I’m going to put this through the crimp, and just gently pull, and you see, so then the crimp covers your silk so you don’t see that, you know, tan cord. So the French wire you can do silver, you can do gold, you know, that’s also part of your design process, if you’d like it to match or not match, or contrast. And then I’m going to use the crimping pliers that’s, and make sure the two sides are parallel, and see that you get that crease in the middle. Then I use the other end, and that’s it.

And that’s how we use French wire.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Tam. I’m going to show you how to make a wrap bracelet with jump rings, or washers, or any kind of washer-type hardware. So, these I actually got from the hardware store. These are actual jump rings from the jewelry supply. You can actually use anything as long as it has a hole in it that your string will go through. So basically, it’s a braided bracelet and you wear it like this. It’s another fun summer bracelet. So this is what it looks like. And on the sample I’m going to show you with two different colored cords so that you can see the braiding.

This is three pieces of one yard of any cord. So it can be waxed cotton cord, which is what I’m using, or it can be leather. You are going to just lay them like this. I’m going to do the olive green in the middle with the blue on the side. I’m going to make a knot about four inches down from the ends, and once again, to make a nice knot, I keep everything parallel as I make the knot. That gives you a nice, neat knot. I’m just going to pull each one and tighten it. So then it looks like that. For this you’ll probably need a clipboard just to hold it while you’re braiding the cord.

So basically, this is just like braiding hair, but for those who don’t know how to braid hair, you have three strands and you’re always going to bring one over, so the left side over to the middle, and that becomes the middle, and then the right side. So whichever that you bring to the middle becomes the middle cord. Then you just bring each side over. So you separate the three strands, and we’re going to take the left strand over the center strand, so that the left strand is now your center strand. Then you’re going to take your right strand over your new center strand. So basically it’s just moving from one side to the middle, and then the other side to the middle. It’s up to you if you want a tighter braid or a looser braid. That’s totally up to you, and depends on your design. It’s just a little hard to manipulate because you’ve got to hold everything down.

You can do something with a lot of washers or just a few washers. So these are from the hardware store so the more you put on, it’s a little heavy. They’re zinc. So for something like this, I probably wouldn’t use that many, just because they would be really heavy.

Okay, so now I’m going to start adding my first washer. I’m going to add to the right side. I’m going to add the washer, and then I’m going to bring it over to the middle. Then I’m going to add a washer to the left side. So here’s the tricky part. You want to make sure that they’re all going in the same direction, the washers. Then I’m going to bring that to the middle. So you see how they’re all like this? That’s what you want. You want them to look stacked. Like you can see here, they’re all stacked in a row. So then I brought that left side into the middle, and now I’m going to add another washer. You want to make sure, again, that it’s going to be stacked up.

Okay, so we’re just continuing braiding. I’m going to add just one more, and then I’m going to continue braiding without the washers. Now, because I’m getting to the bottom of the clipboard and I need more grip, I’m just going to move the whole unit up on the clipboard so that we get a better grip on the whole thing. And then we just continue braiding.

You can decide to leave a longer fringe and add little beads on them. That’s one of your options. Then you would stop braiding earlier. I’m going to stop it right here for now. And then you want to kind of straighten it by pulling it a little bit, just to make the tension all even. Then you see how your washers are all nicely stacked. Okay, then just make a knot. Then you just tie it here.

I think this style sort of works well with these dangles, so that’s why I didn’t do the closure. You could use three different colored cords or the same colored cords, so it looks like this. This one I did graduated jump rings so they’re large, medium, to small, or all the same size.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Tam, and I’m going to show you how to make these very simple bracelets with just a few beads and string of any kind of leather or waxed cord, which is what I’m going to use here. These are great for the summer because they’re colorful and they’re summery, and we sell a lot of these beads in our store. They’re inexpensive. They start at like $25 for a strand of these. These are recycled glass from Ghana. These are old African trade beads. All these are considered old African trade beads, and some of them are very, very old. These are not super old, but they’re from the ’80s, and they’re made from recycled glass. The colors are really, really great in these.

So basically I’m going to just lay out the pattern you’d like, so you can do something that’s very orderly, or you can do something that’s sort of more mixed, which I kind of like better. Then you just choose your fiber color accordingly.

Now I’m going to show you how to make the end, so I like to just make these easy, button-type closures because they use the same bead, and it’s not like a super contrast between the bracelet and where it starts and where it ends. So basically you just make a loop like this, and then you’re going to string on the beads, which I did. Then, again, you can place your knots in different places, so you can do very evenly placed knots after each bead, or every two beads you can do a knot. It’s sort of all up to you. Or you can even do lots and lots of knots, something like this. This is a double leather wrap bracelet, which is very popular now, like all these multiple wraps layered together.

Because these are all not calibrated, the holes. Let me see.

Because the holes are not all calibrated, and sometimes you won’t be able to get the string through, you can just trim the ends by cutting the cord at an angle. So it gives you a little sharper end, and you can just stick the, and then use your tweezers to just push the cord through. You don’t want to force it because a lot of times these are glass, and they won’t break, but they’ll chip, so you just have to allow enough cord when you cut with the knotting part. Basically I’m going to do an odd number of beads, so it’s one and three. I just move my knot tighter, closer to the bead, before I tighten.

Sometimes it’s nice to have a mix of beads. You could get a few strands and split it with a friend. That’s what a lot of people do at our store, actually. We sell a lot of these beads, so the strands usually look like this. Then we sell leather loose on a spool, so a lot of people come, split a strand if they’re going to make a bracelet, and then just pick out the leather there. I’m going to show you later on, but you could even just do one bead on a cord, which is what a lot of people also do for a choker.

See, this is going to be my finished bracelet. On the last bead, I’m just going to knot, but I’m going to leave a little space so that the knot can move because I’m going to make this the closure bead.

You can choose a contrast bead or something that matches. It just depends if you want something that all blends together or not, but basically it would look like that, which here we use a contrast lava bead with the blue glass beads.

This one, we bought a store bought clasp. It’s like a lobster clasp that swivels, and this is like a double leather bracelet. It looks like that, and I like to wear these sort of all layered like that. On the leather, you want to make something a little tighter than your finished size because after wearing, it’ll stretch a little bit, just because that’s the nature of leather.

Transcript

Hi. I’m Tam, and now I’m going to demo stringing and knotting with a silk string. Usually, this is what we use for pearls. You put all your pearls onto the string, and what you’re going to need for this is very, very, very pointy tweezers.

Basically, my first knot is like so, so I made a regular knot. I’m going to take the tip, just one tip, of my tweezer, and I gently, because if you do it too quickly you’ll get a knot, and it’s really difficult to unravel it.

The first thing that I try to do is move the knot as close to the pearl as possible, because that’s the whole goal of this. You want to have knots so that the pearls don’t move at all, so they don’t bang against each other and damage the pearls.

You want to move it as close to the pearl as possible, then you’re going to slide it to the tip, where it’s graduated so that it doesn’t become smaller and smaller. And every time I slide, pull. Slide, gently pull. Slide, gently pull, and my knot is pretty close to the pearl. Then I take my tweezers, and I grip it not at the tip, because that will cut the cord. You’re going to grip it like about here. And basically you’re gripping it tight, and then at the same time as you are pushing the knot towards the pearl, you’re pulling in the opposite direction on the silk string.

There you go. So that you have your knot. Then you’re going to move the next one up, and then repeat the process. You’re going to make a knot. This is just a movement that you’re going to have to figure out your sort of process with it, but the goal is to move the knot as close to the pearl as possible, and then try to make the knot as small as possible before you take the tweezer out.

Basically, it’s move the knot down, the tweezer, and then I pull. And move the knot down, I pull. And then I think that’s pretty tight, so I’m going to pull out my tweezer. And I check it first, because you can still try to move it down a little bit. But you want to do everything gently here, because otherwise the knot will tighten and then it’s really hard to undo it. You may want to practice this process first with a thicker string because it’s much easier to knot and to undo the knot with a thicker string, before you go right into a very, very thin silk.

Now I’m going to grip, and I’m going to pull. I’m going to move again in an opposite direction. I push the knot towards the bead, and then I pull on this end in the opposite direction.

And that’s how we string pearls, and knotting pearls.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Tam. I’m going to show you how to make a long necklace with mala prayer beads on loop cord. So basically, we’re going to make something like this, which this is a sample of a necklace I made already. Basically, this is something really long that you can wear doubled as a necklace, or wrap around your wrist multiple times.

This is another fun fiber that I like to use, it’s called rat tail, and it’s made from rayon. And these come in tons of great, bright colors. So if that’s sort of the look you’re going for, this would be the material for you. So, I’m going to use these mala prayer beads, and they are traditionally like 108 beads on a string. And they look like this, normally. And I’ve already cut some open. And I’m just going to show you how to make this necklace.

I’m not going to be able to get this through the bead, so I’m going to make a needle out of any kind of wire. So you want to take about three inches, make a needle like so, and then you’re going to wrap the wire so that it doesn’t open. And that’s basically what a needle looks like. And then that makes the whole stringing process. The first one is always going to be a little stiff with the thick, doubled fiber here, so you’re going to want to just pull using your pliers. That’s it.

Next, so you want to allow enough string. I didn’t measure this beforehand because I just kept it on a long piece, but this necklace is about 44 inches. And then basically we just knot it at the end, so it’s very, very simple. It’s nothing complicated. So these are all the beads I’m going to use. And then I want to measure the cord. So this necklace is 44 inches, so that means I have to do 88 inches doubled. So here’s 22, so here’s 44. So then I’m going to double this. But I’m going to allow some extra yardage for the knotting process. On this necklace that I had made previously, it has not that many pearls on it, it’s just all about the knots. Whereas this one, I have more of the beads. So basically I’m just going to knot one end of it so that they don’t fall off. And this color, the wood color, looks really great with the blue.

I want to have this same sort of effect, so I don’t want to put a bunch of them all together. Then you could also throw in some decorative knots, and also make some knots thicker, by doubling it like so, so you’re making two knots over the same one. Just then it gives you a sort of high-lo effect with a smaller knot in a double knot.

And then I’m going to work also from the other end so that it’s not, so it doesn’t look uneven. So I’m just going to knot this end, as well. These are sort of easy projects that you don’t have stress about measuring every two second, and being super precise about everything. So I’m going to do that.

So, this rat tail, it’s called, it comes in lots of really, really great colors, and you could also double the cord. Meaning, take two colors and put them together, and then do the knotting around the bead. These would also work well with if you have some really beautiful glass beads, like from Murano or something, which is the glass capital of Italy. And they’ve been doing glass since ancient, forever. Always just shoot some glue before you cut the string to prevent it from fraying.

So basically that’s it. And then you could wear it around your wrist.

Transcript

So beading is completely different than stringing and knotting, because beading is more like sewing with tiny little beads. And stringing and knotting is about using beads, but you’re going to be putting it on a string, as opposed to sewing it with a needle and thread.

So the first material, of course, are like the gemstone beads, which, you know, all gemstones come mostly in bead form. These, for example, are amethyst. These are pearls. And then another material that is popular now are the Czech glass beads, which come in lots of colors and sizes, and it gives you more flexibility, because all the holes are very calibrated, so they’re all the same size. So it’s easier to choose the stringing material that it goes on.

And then another popular item type of bead now is, that I like to use, are these African trade beads, which are called African trade beads because some of them are really, really old, like these ones. And they are originally, I would say these are probably from Urano, Italy, from the pattern that you see here. They’re great, because they’re a little bit beaten up already. They’re not perfect and beautiful and shiny. If you want that look, you should be going with a Czech glass bead. If you want more of a used, sort of worn look, you would go with something like a gemstone. These I like because they’re matte. If you want a more polished, fancy look, you would go with something more like a polished gemstone. For men, a lot of guys like to wear these trade beads, now. You can just quickly throw them on leather, and make a quick bracelet, which I’m going to show you later on.

Once you have chosen your beads, the most important thing is looking at the holes of the beads to determine your stringing material. So, for example, I have a few different types of things here. The stringing material really depends on the beads you choose; normally, most traditional jewelry is strung on silk. So this is a great product because it has the silk cord, and it comes with a needle, so that’s very easy. You just go, you pick your silk cord’s color and size according to the size of the holes of your bead. So that’s for something more like gemstones, where you want drapey, sort of more polished. So you would put that on silk.

Then, if you have something that’s a little heavier, you would use something like a Bead-a-lon product, which is, Bead-a-lon are tons and tons of little wires, and it’s all wrapped in a nylon coating. So you would, it also comes in sizes, and it also comes in different weights that you need to choose. So it comes, so this one, for example, comes with a gold nylon coating, and this one is seven strands. Seven strands of wire inside. This is good for something like metal beads. Metal beads on silk, it’ll cut the silk, whereas if you use something like this, it’ll be able to withstand the weight and withstand the sharp edges of the beads.

Then if you go with something larger, you can use leather, of course, which is great and easy. Because it’s easy to knot, and you don’t have to do a lot of fussy things with it. Then there’s also hemp, and that also comes in different thicknesses and colors, and the colors are a little bit more faded, vegetable dye looking, as opposed to bright. Then we also, for people who are not into leather, like at our store we have a lot of, sort of, vegan type people, so we offer them the wax cord. So it basically is just cotton cord that has a wax finish on it to make it smooth and not sharp and edgy, and those also come in lots of colors.

Everything comes in different thicknesses, so that’s one of the most important things to decide when you choose your beads. Then another thing I like to do is also use things like ribbons, or twill tape, or things from the trim store where it’s more like a fiber material. So you can get great cotton, like thick string, you know, because I come from the fashion world, so I love shopping at trim stores, and there’s always tons of great alternative materials that are just, you know, that you can use and incorporate into your jewelry designs.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Tam and I’m gonna show you how to string beads on leather and just add knots like these bracelets here.

So basically we just put on any bead you’d like. These are great because these are more like summery kind of bracelets so you can add lots of color, their easy to make, it’s not like super intensive or anything.

So basically you use leather or wax cord and you just put the beads on. And you just make the knots as you’d like. For example in this sample we did like an uneven spacings of 3 beads knot 4 beads knot. This one, same thing which is kinda mixed up all the beads, so its kinda up to you as part of your design. This is like a double wrap bracelet so this one we wanted to feature more of the leather so we made more knots than beads.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Tam, and we’re going to make a freshwater pearl bracelet. Real pearls, like freshwater pearls or South Sea pearls, you want to knot them so that they don’t bang into each other and damage the pearl. It depends on how valuable your pearls are, but most pearl jewelry is knotted for this reason.

So I’ve already strung on all of my pearls, and I put them in sort of the order I kind of like. I’m using a mix of natural color. Well, these are all natural, but these are natural white and natural gray, and I’ve sort of put them in the order that I want to them look on a gray cord.

A finished bracelet is usually about 7 inches, including the clasp, but if you’re using something tall, you have to take that into consideration because you need to allow room for the tallness of the bead. Normally, it would be 7 inches, but the thicker or taller your material is, you need to allow for that. So basically what I do is I would put on a bunch of the materials, then I would measure. I put on seven, but, as you can see, this isn’t even close, so I’m going to need to add a couple more.

Sometimes when you buy especially gemstone beads, they are drilled with a tapered drill bit, so one end of the bead hole might be bigger than on the other end. So you need to make sure that your stringing material and your needle fits through both ends. The more expensive stones that you buy are better drilled, and they are usually drilled on both ends. And then you can allow a little bit for the knots, as well, so I think that should be sufficient.

So I’ve already started knotting here, so I’m going to continue, and I’m going to put my tweezer in. On something like this, it’s also fun to experiment with color string. I have some samples that I’ll show where you can use that instead of a matching string color to your beads. You can sort of also use like a red, if you just want to make your design a little bit more different, but the normal string choice is usually to match the bead. I’ll show you some of the samples we have where we use brighter colors in the string.

There are a lot of tools, also called a knot maker, which I have never really tried, but I think this is just as easy as anything. Because I think with the knot maker, I don’t know how it affects your string size, but with the tweezers, it’ll work with any material, and it’s pretty easy once you just practice a lot and get used to the whole movement.

So basically I finished the whole stringing, and I’m going to add the clasp. Now I’m going to add the jump ring because I already have the hook on the end. I want to make sure I match it to the French wire on the other end, so I think that was a little longer. I’m going to put the crimp on first, then the French wire, and then I’m going to add my jump ring. So I used a silver French wire to sort of just work back with the gray beads, so that gives it some nice detail. Then I put on the jump ring, and I can find my French wire. So then I’m going to put the jump ring on, and we center the jump ring onto the French wire like so. Then I have to put the needle through the crimp again.

Now you’re making a loop. So I’m going to move my French wire down to the knot, and I’m going to pull. I’m going to spread the French wire so that it covers the loop and covers the silk. This also reinforces the silk because then your metal jump ring or your metal clasp is not rubbing against the silk directly. There’s like a barrier in between. It got all bunched up here, so you just have to kind of spread the coils with your fingers to cover the, just like that.

I leave a space because I’m going to make a knot here before I cut the silk off, so then I make sure the two pieces of silk are parallel before I use the crimping pliers. Then I’m going to close it. Then, before I cut this off, I’m going to make a knot. You want to make this knot sort of close to the other knot at the beginning here, your last knot, so I’m going to hold it. You make the knot, so then you basically have something like that.

Now I’m going to show you how to use glue as the last finishing technique before you cut off any of the strings. So this is the glue I like to use. It’s called G-S Hypo Cement, and it has this really, really fine tip, which is really good for getting into the little knots. So basically what you want to do is shoot the glue wherever you’re going to trim. Like, I have excess string here, and I want to go down a little bit further on the string so when I cut, it covers the cut and the string won’t fray.

So here I have a knot, I’m just going to put a little glue here, and this glue is great because it dries clear. A lot of times, like Super Glue, some people use as well, but it doesn’t really dry clear. There’s also epoxy, but that also doesn’t dry clear. This is the best glue to use for stringing because it has a tip and then it dries clear, so it doesn’t discolor your string. So basically I shot the glue, and I’m going to wait a little bit for it to dry.

Then I take my snippers. It has the straight edge, and you want to use something very sharp, so I’m going to put the straight edge where I want the clean cut. So basically I’m going to do this. You’ve got to make sure you don’t cut anything that you don’t want to cut. So make sure, before you cut, to put your tool right exactly where you want it.

Then you just snip, and that’s it.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Tam and I’m going to show you how to make a rolo chain bracelet with leather cord or wax cords. So basically this is what it’s going to look like. Rolo chain basically means it’s a name of a type of metal chain. So you can go to any beads or jewelry type stores and you can find that in any type of metal. This one is called antique silver. So you need about two feet of the rolo chain and two yards of either leather or wax cord.

Then we’re going to cut the chain into three pieces and I’m going to make this one more of like a man size. So this one I’ve cut to like eight inches. And you want to cut uneven amounts of links. You want to have an uneven amount of links so you can be approximate.

These are not soldered shut so I’m just going to open them with my pliers. Sometimes the links are soldered shut and you have to cut them. But this one I’m just going to take that off.

So you see I’m just going to make sure they’re both the same size and the same amount of links and this one is here. So again, you want to make sure you have an odd number of links. So that is how this project works.

So then we’re going to take our cord and its two yards a cord. So I’m using the wax cotton cord or you can use leather. The first step is to put the three rings on the end to the middle of the cord. Make sure it’s centered. So it’s going to look like that. Then we’re going to take this side and we’re going to skip a row and insert it into every other row of chain. So that was on this side and now I’m going to take this side coming out from the end, insert it going in the opposite direction.

So then it’s going to look something like that. And then we’re going to continue by taking this end and skipping a row and then going through. It’s not going to lay flat just because you’re just at the beginning but once you progress further down the chain it’ll lay flatter and it’ll be a little bit easier for you to sort of see how it’ll look.

I’m just going to trim this a little bit.

So you get this sort of nice oval back and forth. And then you just continue down the chain.
So now I’m just going to finish it on this one and basically you just continue all the way down the chain going every other row on the chain.

Then at the end you’re going to have something that looks like this.

This is the bottom. This is the end of my chain. This is the top where I had started. So I’m going to bring the two ends together and this only had one, this is where we started so it only has one length of cord going through it. So I’m going to now take the ends and I’m going to connect them so that it will close and then I’m going to do the same thing on the other side.

So this last row has three sections of cord going through it. So make sure you take that into account when you’re buying your cord that at the end it needs to, the cord has to fit three times into the last set of rings. So then you’re going to have something that looks like this.
And I’m just going to go back and make sure that everything, you know with leather you just have to kind of adjust it as you go because it sort of flattens it and creates an even tension all the way around. And then this part is optional, you can add a bead as a stopper before you knot. That’s just sort of a decorative detail.

So there you go.

So now you have this adjustable detail. So then you just put it on, then you pull the ends and that tightens the bracelet.

So it looks like that.