Making a Knitted Chain or Braided Chain Necklace --
An Advanced Beginner's Jewelry Making Technique -- Page Index

When you have a large focal bead or a gemstone pendant that you want to emphasize in a simple necklace you have a few choices in the chain you use to hang the bead or gemstone.  You can use commercial jewelry chain, or you can make your own chain out of a variety of materials.  Anyone can make a necklace using a machine made jewelry chain and in most cases it will look very nice, but that chain was made by a machine and looks like it was made by a machine.  Sometimes you will want to make a necklace and have it look both professional and hand made at the same time.  Our goal with these instructions is to describe how to use braided wire, knitted wire chain, or other thicker chain materials and attach a clasp in a professional but permanent manner. 

When making a necklace out of braided wire, knitted wire chain, leather, hemp, or satin cord, the one problem that must be solved is how do you attach a clasp to the material and still have a professional looking finished piece.  In these instruction we will discuss two ways of attaching a clasp to braided wire, knitted wire chain, or any other thicker material including leather, hemp or satin cord.  Please view the two pictures below to see two methods for attaching a clasp to a thicker chain.  The clasp on the left is attached to a knitted wire chain.  The clasp on the right uses an end cone finding and is attached to braided Soft Flex bead stringing wire. 

Please visit Page 2 to view our step-by-step instructions for making our Knit Chain or Braided Chain necklace.
 

Skills Required:

• Ability to cut wire with with a flush cutter.
• Ability to straighten wire with nylon jaw pliers.
• Ability to make a wrapped loop in wire.