How to Create Jumpring Jewelry

Silver and gold. That just about says it all. Today on Beads, Baubles and Jewels. Take a look at this fabulous necklace. Look at the dimension and how intricately woven everything is. Looks pretty difficult to make, doesn't it? Can you believe that this is created by using jump rings? I'm joined by Stephanie Girdlestone of Fire Mountain Gems and Beads and Stephanie is the creator of this beautiful necklace. You're going to show us how to create bracelets, necklaces all kinds of things with jump rings. Right? Okay, how do we get started? The first thing you want to do is open a whole bunch of jump rings so you don't have to stop in the creative process to open them up. It's very important to do that. It's the most tedious part of the process. The second thing then to start, is you want to put one on the bottom. This is your base. This is what you're always going to be holding onto. And then you have three sets of two, on top of that. So you put two jump rings here, two jumpings here and then two jump rings there. And I am using the gold of course, so that it's easy for us to see what we are doing today. You could use two different tones if you wanted to design it that way. Some of the jewelry is made that way actually. So once you pick it up, get a good grip on it first of all, and that's the most important thing, because if you drop this, sometimes it's a little difficult to find your design. We're going to open the top set of jump rings first. Then we're going to open the second set of jump rings like that. You can see how it sort of forms that flower pattern. Then you want to just take one of your open jump rings and you're going to pick up the bottom of this gold jump ring, just like that. And it forms this triangular pattern and then you are just going to close your jump ring. That's where you get all of the dimension. Yes, that's where you get the dimension on it. Then you're going to add more sets of two. We've done that over here. I need to see that again. So now we have a little bit more to hold onto, which is nice, as it starts going. The first couple are the most difficult. You're going to open that top set of gold jump rings, then you're going to open the second set here and then as it starts to build you want to be really careful in making sure that you're picking up the correct pieces as you do that. Sometimes the jump rings have a mind of their own. So we go ahead and grab a hold of the bottom of those gold jump rings and close your jump ring. Unbelievable! That's great isn't it? It's so beautiful and with the big jump rings, it keeps on with that depth and dimension that's really wonderful. As you can see here, there's the second one I added two sets of jump rings and another two sets and then went into the third step and you can see the the pattern begin to form. So just two, two, two and you just keep adding two and opening them, adding a jump ring to of form the sphere. That's exactly what it is. That's great. This, I'm sure, would look very different if you used colored jump rings or different size jump rings. I brought some examples over here and actually some different patterns. I did some research on this when I started getting interested in jump rings and found that there's lots of different countries that have done different styles, English style, Japanese style and things like that, which I think is really great. There's a history behind this style isn't there? There absolutely is. This is the chain mail of old from what knights used to wear, a bunch of metal rings knitted together. It's neat. This first one here is actually done with square wire. You can make your own jump rings, buy them purchased. Either way works. So this is a Columbus chain, and then next to that is actually a Byzantine chain which is the same as we've done here, except we have added another set of two and it creates an open hole which is great for hanging charms on and things like that. Then we have just a standard two by two, then I started adding some color. I did a standard two by two and attached with niobium or color jump rings in between. Then the next one, is again that Byzantine chain, only I added some color jump rings to add a little bit more depth and dimension. Then the last one there, in the silver in the gold, is exactly what we just did here, only in a smaller jump ring. Down below, you can see you can make earrings with it. This is an English style earring here with the green niobium in the middle and colored as well, that has a matching bracelet. I think it's so amazing that you can create so many things from just a little jump ring. You take for granted, I mean, I just love it so much. Then you can start to branch out, you know, like the earrings that I've done over here. Let's look at these earrings. These are amazing. You can branch out a bit using just a different component and I used jump rings to attach one there and then add some glass beads on both of those and some donuts. Look at the necklaces down below where you have at the bottom, it's almost like the jump ring is the chain and then you have separate layers of strands. Exactly, and the multicolored one is actually two bracelets. You can wear it as a gemstone bracelet, wear it as a necklace or wear it as just a silver chain. Unbelievable. They are so versitale. I just love them. And then there is the one on the bottom that looks very similar to the one that you made. It looks like something is hidden inside. It has pearls inside it, actually, it has silver pearls inside. How would you do that? When you open it up, would you just pop them in? You would have the pearls strung and just add them inside. That's perfect. And then color. Yes, and again, it just uses a chain that is the standard two by two. The gold is a standard two by two and then at the front there, I just used a the byzantine chain and use it as links putting some glass beads in between there to mix it up a bit. You of course can get more complicated as you go along, but I think this would be a really great project if you are a beginner. If you are just starting, just kind of working with the larger jumprings because it will be easier to manuver. It does make it so much easier to learn on the large jumprings and then go to the smaller and play around with it. It's very fun. Thank you, Stephanie. You are so creative. Well, what could be more basic then chain? We will learn how to use it. Next with Katie Hacker.