Making Homemade Jewelry

If you like to wear jewelry, or know someone who does, homemade jewelry is a great option. Not only is it usually less expensive than purchasing jewelry as a gift, but it allows you to exercise your creativity and give someone a piece that is truly one-of a kind.

You don't even need any special skills to make your own jewelry. For the items below, you'll need to purchase some supplies for your homemade jewelry, but after that the process of putting items together is easy.

Homemade Necklace

Supplies for Making a Homemade Necklace

• 25-30 large glass or Swarovski crystal beads (These can be one color, several compatible colors, or random colors. Likewise, they can be one uniform size and shape or you can mix and match.)
• One package smaller glass or Swarovski crystal beads (You can use seed beads, and these will, preferably, match your larger beads.)
• Wire (Make sure it fits through the middle of your smaller beads)
• Clasps (Toggle or lobster clasps are the easiest to use.)
• Crimp beads (to attach clasps)
• Pliers (to crimp the crimp beads)

You can find most of these at any good craft, bead, or beaded jewelry store. If you're not sure what something is, ask at the store and they should be able to find the item for you. These people should know enough about making homemade jewelry to help you out.

Steps:

1. Decide how long you want your necklace to be. Add about 6 inches, and cut the wire to this length.



2. Loop one end of your wire several times around one side of the clasp and attach it with a crimp bead and pliers.



3. String beads in the design of your choice. If you want a heavy, chunky necklace, use a larger ratio of big beads to small ones. If you want your necklace to weigh less or be more dainty, use more smaller beads. If you want to set off the large beads without surrounding them by small ones, you can do this with knots or with more crimp beads.



4. Test the necklace when you think it's nearing the right length. Make sure you like the way it hangs and the beads that are front and center. Once it is the right length, place a crimp bead on your wire, then wrap the wire several times around the other end of the clasp. Pull the beads tight, crimp the crimp bead, and cut off any excess wire.

At this point, you have beaded homemade jewelry, specifically a necklace, that you can wear or give as a gift. If you'd like to make a bracelet, follow the same instructions but make your design shorter. In addition, make sure you use a clasp that can be done and undone by one person.

Making Earrings

Making your own jewelry in the form of earrings can be a little bit more difficult as earrings need to match to look good. However, it's entirely possible to make a cute set that will go with the necklace and bracelet you made above.

Before you make earrings to give as a gift, make sure the recipient of your homemade jewelry has pierce ears. If they do not, you can make clip on earrings that will look just as good.

You will need the same supplies as listed above, except that instead of wire and clasps you will need earring findings and head pins. Make sure that you get a type that is made out of a metal that the wearer is not allergic to and that will last a long time.

Make two identical sets of beads. It helps to line them up ahead of time, so you can make sure your earrings will match. Make sure that you don't add too many large beads, as heavy earrings can be painful for some people to wear.

Place your beads on the head pin in the correct order and form the top of the pin into a tight loop. If you have excess wire on the pin, you can wrap it or cut it off.

Attach your head pin to your earring finding. Each finding is a little bit different, so follow the instructions that come with yours or that you got at the store when you purchased the findings. Make sure the attachment is secure and you should have a handmade earring.

We hope you enjoyed these homemade jewelry suggestions. If you decide to try any of these or if you have other methods for making jewelry that you'd like to share, we'd love to hear about it, please use the form below to show your homemade jewelry.