How to Style Jewellery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwIAR_4zQWM

 

Hi everybody and welcome back to my channel. Today I am so excited to bring you a video on five tips for styling your jewelry but before I get into that, if you are new to this channel, thank you so much for stopping by. I hope that if you like this video, you will consider subscribing to my channel and hitting the little bell next to the subscribe button, so that you can be notified each time I upload a new video.

So without any further ado, let’s get into this. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about jewellery because I love, love, love, jewellery. I’ve always loved jewellery and makeup, those are like my two things. I’m like a jewelry and makeup girl and you know some people love purses and shoes, not that I don’t love purses and shoes because I do, but I love, love, love, jewelry and makeup and in fact when I was in medical school and residency, I actually had a jewellery business. At the time, my husband was working in San Francisco and I would go up and visit him and in Chinatown they had these beautiful pearl necklaces that were like gorgeous big pink and gray and black pearls and that was when like the really chunky jewelry was in style, like in the early 2000s and the big pendants and I would make all of this jewellery and sell it and to earn extra money and one thing that I really, really loved about making jewelry, was mixing like beautiful things like pearl and more earthy stones and I loved mixing gold and silver.

I just thought it was so fun to do that, so that is something that I still really enjoy doing with the jewelry that I wear, is kind of like mixing tones, mixing um you know, like earthy elements with more fancy elements like pearls. So anyway, let’s get into a couple of tips. The first tip is do mix metals. So I know that in the early 2000s white gold was super, duper, duper in style and everybody was getting wild everything like and in fact I kind of jumped on that bandwagon myself. I have a white gold wedding ring, my watch is stainless steel like we all were really into white gold you know around 2005 or so but in the last four or five years, gold is totally back in and it is totally okay to mix your gold and silver jewelry.

So you know when you are layering necklaces you can wear a gold necklace and a silver necklace, you can wear a silver or a white gold ring like I have with a gold right hand ring. You can mix a stainless steel watch with a gold bracelet, all of that looks great and it makes your jewelry wardrobe so much more versatile. So don’t be afraid to mix gold and silver. The next tip is stack your jewelry, that is so it makes your jewelry looks so interesting. So one thing that I love to stack are rings, so this ring which is just an inexpensive costume ring from Costco let’s see if the camera will focus for you, it’s just costume jewellery but it looks like stacked rings. It’s actually like bonded together but it looks like stacked rings and I think that when you stack rings, especially if they’re dainty, it is such an interesting look. If you want to buy costume jewelry, bauble bar as a place that has tons and tons of rings that you can stack, to come up with a really interesting stacked ring look. Another set of stacked rings that my husband got me are these ones, where I mixed all the tones. I have a rose gold, a white gold and a yellow gold set of stacked rings and that looks so beautiful and you know I encourage you guys to, I will link some stacked rings below, did I say that already? Um at bauble bar that you can check out and so that you can kind of get creative with stacking rings.

You can also stack bracelets, so on my watch and often I will stack two bracelets. This one is Madri, it is from Nordstrom and this is Lagos and notice it’s two-toned it’s gold and silver and I enjoy stacking bracelets with rings. You can also stack bracelets on your right hand. So like an example are these two bracelets right here, that if I could get it open, I would show you. So I would stack these two bracelets together and if I had like three or four more bracelets, that look like they match these two, I would stack those as well. Typically if I’m stacking on one wrist I will not stack on the other. So if I have stacked bracelets on this wrist, I’ll leave this one empty or if I have a bunch on this wrist, I won’t stack them with my watch. The other thing is if you decide not to stack and you just decide to wear like a really big bracelet like this, which I’m going to get to in a little while, I wouldn’t wear stacked on that arm either.

So a little bit of information really quick about the bracelets that I’m wearing. So if you are looking for some really good quality jewellery that like for nice stackable bracelets, I wanted to share these two companies with you where I got these two bracelets because I think they’re so good. This bracelet is from Ross Simons, now Ross Simon’s I don’t know if you guys have heard of it it’s a company that’s got like catalogs and it’s online and some cities they have stores like in DC. They have a store, I think in Chicago, they have a store in New York, they have a store and at Ross Diamonds you can get like a whole variety of things. You can get like dishes and plates but you can also get really fine jewelry like real diamonds. You know they have the whole gamut of prices at Ross Diamonds, they have very expensive you know real diamonds jewelry, but then they have a lot of jewellery that is cubic zirconia but with gold plated or rose gold plated or sterling silver and at very good price points. So this bracelet is from Ross Simon’s and when I bought it I bought one in rose gold one in gold and one in white gold and I really love stacking those three or stacking them with this bracelet. Um really quick as a side note, other things that I’ve gotten at Ross Simons, actually I’ll get to that with my next tip, i’ll come back to that. So check out Ross diamonds for beautiful stackable bracelets, that’s the price point can be anywhere from like a hundred to two hundred to three hundred dollars. If you want something less expensive, I will link some good stackable bracelets from bauble bar for you, because today have awesome stackable bracelets. Then the other bracelets that I wanted to talk about was ones that are like this which I’m going to link below for you. This is from Henri Bendel, Henri Bendel is a store in New York, they have these bracelets that are made of steel and then they’re like rhodium plated. So they’re kind of heavy, they remind me of the Cartier love bracelets, I don’t have one of those, but they remind me they’re kind of heavy like the Cartier love bracelet but you can get them off really easily, you don’t screw them on and they have ones that have like gold shimmer, like this one but gold. They have ones that have silver shimmer like this one, they have ones that have like little screws that are very reminiscent of the Cartier love bracelet. They have one sand that flowers and they are so, so cute to stack. So I’m going to link all of those below for you. They are super high quality, um you know you can get them wet it’s going to be fine. I mean I don’t shower with this but I’m not worried about getting a wet, I’m not worried about banging it I’m not worried about it discolouring, they are on the more expensive side like there are 118 to 150 dollars. So that’s why I only have one, but they are really cool bracelets.

So check out the links below and look at the Henry Bendel collection and if you’re interested in stacking bracelets, they’re a really good like gift idea, you know, if you are having a birthday or during the holidays, if you’re looking for a gift for an anniversary they’re neat bracelets to get that you can stack and I think that they’re very, very, good quality. So that is my second rule, do stack or a second recommendation, do stack your jewellery.

The third recommendation is do layer your jewelry, so right now layering necklaces is very very in style and it just adds a lot of interest, to look. I love stacking dainty necklaces, that’s probably what i do the most just because i dainty necklaces are very, very easy for me to wear, especially when i’m at work. So I typically wear two necklaces, so this one is just like little discs and I think I saw Leanne says wearing a necklace that resembled this and I could just see it on our YouTube channel. I couldn’t see like the details of the necklace but I just saw something that looked like this, that was like kind of shimmering and sparkling off the lights. That was a choker and I loved it so I like search the internet far and wide for this necklace, hers was silver this one’s gold and so I will link it below, it is the cutest even in your 40s and 50s and 60s you can wear a choker. It is very dainty, it is very beautiful, it is I think considered a choker because it’s so short, but it looks really cute if you were a necklace that’s like this length and then you layer it with a 12 or a 14 or a 16-day or necklace and then you can even add a longer necklace, like this and I will link options for you guys below. This is old, but I will find a pretty long necklace that resembles this to link for you below, in case you’re interested in something like that or you could layer a tassel necklace with it. Like tassels are really in right now, this is from bauble bar and so you could wear these small two necklaces with a tassel necklace. Let me stand up for you guys, so you could get that look which looks really cute and really interesting. So I encourage you to layer your necklaces, it looks really, really adorable and you can be super creative and it has lots and lots of interest to outfits. So my next recommendation and again all of these things today are just my recommendations. If you don’t like to stack or you don’t like to layer or you just like a simpler look or you don’t like to mix tones, do what makes you happy. This is just a one girl’s opinion, but my next recommendation is to choose one spot of your jewellery to highlight on your face and neck and then one on your wrist and hands. That’s kind of a rule that I follow for myself, so if I’m wearing a lot of bracelets on this hand, I will just wear a watch on this hand. If I’m wearing a lot of bracelets on this hand, I will not wear a lot of bracelets on this hand, just so that the eye is only drawn to like one area, likewise, if you know I am wearing like a huge bracelet on this hand for example if I’m wearing a huge bracelet like this, I wouldn’t wear those bracelets but let’s say I was wearing a statement bracelet like that on my right hand, I would not wear a cocktail ring on my right hand.

So let me find a cocktail ring for you. I would not wear a ring like this on my right hand if I have a bracelet like this. I would choose one or the other, as something to draw the eye to. So pick the bracelet or the ring as your focal point, as your statement piece. Likewise, when you were talking about necklaces and earrings, if you are going to wear a lot of necklaces, pick dainty earrings you know I wouldn’t wear a super statement earring if you’re layering your necklaces. So an example is take these earrings right here, these earrings are kind of statement earrings, so I would not choose those earrings if I was wearing like a 3 if I was wearing this layered necklace, look because this is kind of what the eye is being drawn to and so I would wear something really dainty.

I think something like this is fine or studs or just a dainty earring. I would not wear a statement earring like this, this would be an earring that I would wear with no necklace, like I would wear my hair up and I would wear no necklace at all. So that the eye is drawn to the earring because that’s what you want people to see, that’s like your showpiece. So that is my advice regarding how to pick where you’re putting what, make sure that you choose your focal point, either earrings or necklaces and on your hands, either wrists or statement rings, to be the focal point of your jewelry and then lastly I would encourage you to wear statement piece jewelry.

So let’s talk about statement piece jewellery. Um I as you guys might have heard, when I did some of my fashion videos, I’m not like super duper great with fashion. I tend to wear a very neutral colour clothing like all black, all white, all grey, you guys notice I don’t wear like a lot of bright colours and that’s just because I’m not fabulous at putting outfits together but what I do like to do, when I’m wearing a lot of neutrals, is we’re a piece of statement jewellery, that really gives the outfit a pop and makes the outfit interesting.

So this necklace is an example. So let’s say I was wearing this black shirt with some black pants. I would take off all my layered necklaces and I would wear this necklace with some stud earrings and this would be the focal point of my outfit and it can really, really make an outfit, so interesting. Um another idea with statement necklaces, say you’re wearing a black dress and it’s just a plain black dress and you’re going to a wedding or an event in the evening, instead of wearing dainty jewellery like this, consider wearing a pair of stud earrings and a really big chunky statement necklace like this. I got this at bauble bar and I will link something similar to it below, but if you’re wearing a plain black dress adding a statement necklace like this, with no other jewelry except for like maybe some dainty earrings and like your ring and a watch, is a really, really beautiful way to make your outfit pop and add some interest to a plain outfit.

So that’s how I like to wear statement jewelry, by wearing really plain clothes and then adding the statement jewellery to really add interest to the outfit, even with non dressy clothes you can very easily wear statement jewelry. So a lot of the time in the winter, I will wear this necklace, straighten it out for you guys, I will wear this necklace with a white t-shirt, my moto jacket jeans and Monica moto boots and I love the way that looks, because it’s got some sparkle, it is a statement necklace and this adds a really nice feminine touch to that outfit. So um I encourage you and then I won’t wear much other jewelry, I’ll just for like small earrings and my ring and I encourage you to use statement jewelry to dress-up outfits like that as well, not only dressy outfits. So but just remember if you’re wearing a really chunky statement necklace, go easy on the rest of the jewelry. Coco Chanel once said something like put on all your jewellery and before you leave the house take something off and I think her point was, make sure that you don’t overdo it, kind of pick your focal point. So um if you like statement jewelry, decide if you like more neutral statement jewellery, that’s more my preference, like this which are more subdued colours or like this, which are just very neutral colours. I used to buy more bright coloured statement jewellery, for example this necklace and what I noticed when I was filming one of my first YouTube videos, was that when I wear this necklace, it just does not work for me. I bought this because Erin Busby was wearing this in one of her blogs and she was so amazing, she looked like she walked out of the cover like of a boat magazine with this beautiful red necklace and like a navy blue and white stripe shirt and it looked so awesome and then I put it on and I look like I walked out of a terrible 80s movie. I don’t know why, it just did not work for me it looked beautiful on Aaron but not beautiful on me. I mean to the extent that I actually took down the video where I was wearing this because I just felt like I like I look like an 80s girl. So you know I typically after I saw that youtube video do not go for my bright, bright jewellery anymore, I go for more subdued neutral statement pieces but if you are a person like Aaron Busby who can support this and you look amazing, do it. So take pictures and see how you think you look in pictures to decide what kind of statement jewelry, that looks good on you. So those are my recommendations there was one more thing I wanted to tell you in terms of layering necklaces, Ross Simons has really great necklaces that are so good for layering. So this is a diamonds by the yard, these are cubic zirconia but this is gold covered over sterling silver and it’s like $30, it’s a $30 necklace that you can get at Ross Simon’s but it’s such good quality. I have it in every colour, I have it in gold, I have it in silver, so this is sterling silver with cubic zirconia and I have it in rose gold and the reason that I love these is because I don’t have, because they’re real metals, they’re not like nickel or something like that, I feel like they’re just gonna last longer I don’t need to worry if I get perfume on them or if I get lotion on them that they’re gonna be ruined and they’re only like $30 and they’re from Ross Simon’s and they are so beautiful for layering.

Another beautiful necklace for layering that I got at Ross Simon’s would be this, sorry, I forgot to talk to you about this earlier guys. Um it’s sterling silver with cubic zirconia, so it’s such high quality but it looks so expensive, so check out Ross Simon’s you guys for beautiful sterling silver and 14-karat gold earrings and necklaces and bracelets at very good price points. If you want to look at bauble bar for super inexpensive pieces to layer. I am going to link a bunch of things below from bauble bar so that you have all kinds of options in terms of things that you can look at for yourself if you’re shopping for jewelry. So I hope I know that was a lot of information, but I hope that you guys enjoyed that video. I’m giving you some recommendations on jewellery, I’ll just recap it really quick, mixed metals don’t be afraid to stack on your rings and rip on your ring fingers and wrists, don’t be afraid to layer necklaces and make sure that you pick one focal point for your jewelry, like something to pop on your hands and wrists and then something to pop either your ears or your necklaces and then lastly do wear statement jewelry to really jazz up an outfit, but make sure that when you wear statement jewellery like big chunky necklaces or big chunky earrings, that those are the focal points of your outfit. So thank you guys so much for joining me today, I really enjoyed making this video and I will look forward to seeing you next time bye.

Video Credit – Dr Dani Fisher

How to Style Jewellery

How To Choose Diamond Earrings

Thank you for joining us on imagine diamonds. There’s a line in Lewis Carroll’s beloved Alice in Wonderland in which Alice asks the Cheshire cat which she should go to. He asks her where she’s going and she replies that she doesn’t know. If you don’t know where you’re going, the cat replies, any road will lead you there. In other words if you don’t really care where you end up, then it doesn’t really matter which path you take.

I think of this exchange whenever someone asks me for advice on a jewellery purchase, particularly earrings because the types are so varied. If you truly don’t care about the type, style and quality of your diamond earrings, if you’re just looking for something prettier, a quick solution for at last mini gift, it doesn’t matter which pair you choose. If however, you do have preferences, ideas about your perfect pair and would just like to get some help getting there, some help with choosing diamond earrings, let me see what I can do about helping you narrow down the possible paths.

Choosing a pair of diamond earrings comes down to two components, the style and the diamonds. By style we of course mean the type of earrings, are they small and dainty, large and gaudy and when it comes to the diamonds of course we need any all included in the pair whether that means two large studs or dozens of small stones embedded a pair of chandeliers.

The style, let’s start with that. You’ve heard me say this before and that I’ve always insist that a person start with the overall style they are looking for before turning attention to the actual diamonds themselves, because until you have a framework you hardly know what your diamond needs will be really and as we’ll see, when we get to the diamond section of the post, importance and prominence  of the diamonds and constantly the degree to which you must carefully select, depend entirely on the style of earrings you choose to buy.

So let’s look at a few examples that should give you some ideas when choosing diamond earrings. Hoops are one of the most commonly seen types of diamond earrings of all time, they’re versatile, can go with anything, ease make them at popular choice. At times I’ve heard complaints that hoops are a bit boring, in that the only aspect you can really customize is the size of the hoops but they’re no fuss, simplicity’s will likely always make them favourite.

With hoops it’s particularly important to make sure that diamond appears to be uniform in size and colour. If one is noticeably darker than all the rest it will stand out dramatically. Drop earrings are so-called due to the way they literally drop from the ear, usually they bear sizeable gems or perhaps a cluster of smaller gems. These are popular on the red carpet and there’s typically a good variety of options available. Make sure the pair you are eyeing is particularly sizable or gaudy that you make sure that it isn’t too much of a pull on the earlobe itself, as this can distract them the overall presentation.

Now a few words about chandelier earrings, they got their name from their appearance which hangs down from the earring, ornate and glamorous pattern of sparkle and flair, much like a chandeliers are popular in part, because each pair tends to be very unique. You can go over your whole life and never see a chandelier duplicated and the same type of a variety can be found in the chandelier earring style. Of course one can’t forget the classic and most popular option of all, the stud. Yes diamond stud earrings, though like hoops and the perceived lack of creativity perhaps reign supreme with a higher degree of diamond earrings. One thing to keep in mind about studs, however obvious this may seem, is that more so than any other style of the diamond earring we’ve discussed the diamonds themselves are much more important.

While you always want to be the diamonds in the earrings to be of superior quality, cut and polish, in the case of studs, the diamonds are the earrings, so you can’t scrimp on a selection. The diamonds, this selection is particularly important if you’re looking into studs or perhaps drops with sizeable diamonds. Again you always want the best diamonds that you can afford, but in the case of say a pair of chandelier earrings embedded with a dozen tiny diamonds you won’t need to opt out for the best.

The diamonds simply aren’t big enough and hence won’t be noticed in the same way that studs will. But back to diamond education which begins with shape and cut. Studs come in all kinds of diamond shapes, so this becomes a matter of personal preference. Round brilliants are by far the most common brilliant cuts and in general also show more fire and sparkle in the mix or step cut stones like emeralds.

The bigger the diamonds in your earrings the more important the clarity is. While there’s no need to pay for flawless diamonds, nor should you ever, ever go in anywhere near the other end of the scale. The I1 I2 or I3 category of included diamonds, anything in the VVS, VS or SI1 categories is perfectly acceptable.

Keep in mind, again, this becomes more important the diamonds are big that si1 diamonds are slightly cooler than that it may be possible though unlikely for some flaws and inclusions to be seen by the naked eye. Colour of course is also exasperated by how big the diamonds are and the bigger they are the more noticeable it will be, if you’ve chosen a colour grade with a hint of borderline yellow. Stick to something in the colourless range, these will have letter grades D, E or F or the near colours range better grades from G through J. Telling me the possibility of faint yellow or brown colour and once you’ve put this all together, the carat weight you will settle for on stud’s will ultimately be determined by your budget.

Keep it in mind, that you can always tweak any of the four C’s in order to adjust as needed and one thing I’ve always liked to remind people of, is that one needn’t not go big when it comes to studs. Small ones can suffice just fine. I have a pair of studs that I’ve sold to some of my customers one tenth and I don’t feel like a pauper when I give them to the clients. I feel glamorous that people are comfortable wearing these. Why? Because sometimes a small pair of studs defines woman’s beauty and her modesty.

Lewis Carroll’s analogy of the beginning of the post more likely to end up the perfect pair of earrings if you are coming to the decision already clear on what exactly is that you’re looking for. You’re much more likely to find the correct road to take and to ultimately get there much faster when you have some preferences for the goal. To learn more visit imagine diamonds and just to demonstrate some of the types of diamonds that we’ve talked about today, here’s a few samples.

This is the popular hoop earrings, as you can see diamonds are clearly set, was the perfect example, then we have the huggy earrings, much smaller than the hoop, but still a very classic look. Okay and then we have the drop earrings, which people like to wear on the red carpet. For more views and details of diamonds please visit imaginediamonds.com

Thank you.

How To Choose Diamond Earrings

Gold Testing (What Gold Buyers Don"t Want You to Know!)

Right, hi guys. Today I’m going to show you how to check the karat, the weight, and the value of your gold before you send it out to any gold buyers in the mail and or take it to your local jeweller. Get rid of it, trade it out for cash for gold.

Alright so we’re going to start with this 21 karat gold chain I have here, you can see that or not, come closer and but we can do is take a loop right here which I got actually on eBay with all of this stuff right here. This is all the testing solutions for platinum, 22 karat gold, 18 karat, 14 karat, ten and also silver. Got a little stone right here, I’ll show you how, what that is used for in a second and also a jewellers scale right here.

I got all of these things right here on eBay for 20 bucks okay super cheap and super worth it if you’re going to you know if you’re considering selling your gold jewellery. So you know, have a good idea of what it’s worth before you just blindly put it in the mail and get whatever you get not knowing you know what it’s really worth. Because people will pay you less, not more. So on that note to test this necklace to see if it’s really you know a 21 karat piece, because a lot of times some pieces will be stamped one thing but not read for what it is stamped for it, could be you know nineteen karat or 18 karat versus 21, sometimes that happens you know.

So what we’re going to do is take this chain and rub it on this stone so we leave a trace of the necklace on the stone. What we’re going to do now is take the highest solution that I have here, the 22 karat, you always no matter what you’re testing, always start with a higher grade of solution and by the way this is a blend of muriatic and nitric acid; highly corrosive, don’t get it on your skin.

It’s very easy to manage in these little eyedropper bottles, so just put one drop on the stripe that you put on there, just smear it on there and you wait a few seconds and start to see what happens here is that if the karat of gold it’s less than the solution that you are using on it, it will be dissolved, it will be pretty much disappear under the solution. See how you can see the gold stripe is kind of clearing up, it’s breaking up, the acid is eating the base metals of the little the gold that’s in there, breaking it off the stone. So you know it’s definitely not a 22 karat chain, okay doesn’t say that it is, but that’s what we have to start with.

So we’re going to wipe it off that stone, we’re going to make another stripe of gold on the stone, okay and then we’re going to go down to the next solution, the 18 karat solution. Now again just a drop is enough, just rub it on there and see what happens.

Now you may or may not be able to see this but the gold is still on the stone. Okay you can still see the gold particles they’re not lifting off the stone so much as they were when the 22 carat solution was on there. So we know it’s definitely at least 18 carat, if not higher.

Let’s give it the benefit of the doubt that is a 21 carat gold chain. Clear that up, put that aside, next thing we’re going to do is weigh it. Okay you’re on the jeweller scale you turn it on and you don’t touch it, you don’t touch the table or anything let it set itself at zero and gently put the gold on there and it shows 24 grams.

You see that? Put it over, 24 grams okay and with that we’re going to calculate the value of the gold. Today on kitco.com, which is the website that most gold buyers refer to when they are checking the precious metal price, the current metal price of the day whether it’s platinum, gold, silver what-have-you. Today was 1181 or when I checked it, it changes all you know minute by the minute by the hour it was 1181 per troy ounce.

Now there are but I have 24 grams here how does that relate to a troy ounce? Well there are 31.1 grams in a troy ounce, so what we’re going to do, the way we’re going to calculate this, is we’re going to start with the world spot price per troy ounce which is 1181.  Okay 1181 and we’re going to divide that by 31.1 because that’s how many grams are in a troy ounce.

So we’ll see how much per troy ounce gold is going or how much per gram gold is going for. So divided by 31.1 equals 37.97; okay $39.97 per gram for 24 karat gold. We do not have 24 karat gold here, we have 21 karat gold, divide this by 24, breaking down per carat 24 and then we have to multiply that by the karat that we have. To see what that worth is, times 21 karat equals, so we have here is $33.22 for the karat I have.

Okay that’s on the world spot, that’s not what we’re going to get. We are going to multiply that by 24 grams, all right and that gives us $797.45 on the world spot price. But we’re not going to get a hundred percent of that, you know we’re going to take whatever, we’re going to get the difference between the gold buyer, what the gold buyer will pay us.

Typically they’ll keep, you know, if you’re just taking a couple pieces it’s between between 10 and 30% that the gold buyer will keep and you will get the rest. So we get 70 to 90 percent of what the world spot price is of the gold that you have. So on the 797 let’s say I know someone who will pay me 90% okay of world spot price, just for this one piece. A lot of times they’ll pay you more, the more gold the more pieces you have, the more percentage they will give you of the world spot price.

So let’s say so we’re going to multiply that times 0.9 797 times 0.9 equals $717.71; so this beautiful 21 karat gold chain, I can get today, 717 dollars for. On that note get rid of your old gold and cash out know what you’re taken to the bank pretty much, so you don’t get ripped off and good luck.

Video Credit – Sandro Marino

Gold Testing (What Gold Buyers Don"t Want You to Know!)

Charm Bracelets

The wire wrapping here is quite secure for adding charms to a bracelet. When using jump rings however, it is necessary for them to be soldered closed. A jump ring will easily open if not soldered, so make sure you visit a jeweller to have the jump rings on your charm bracelet secured. An alternative is to use Link-Locks, these are very secure and can easily be fitted at home with a small pair of pliers or tweezers. You wouldn’t want to lose your charms because you hadn’t fitted them properly.

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For the charm bracelet base we’re going to start with a length of chain. The chain is cut to the length of what you’d need it for, to fit you and this chain in particular we can either use flush cutters to cut the connectors apart or we can open them up. They’re like these little staples that can be opened and the chain, just take it off. So I’ll save that connector for something else and we’ll start with working with this piece of chain.

To one end we will add our jump ring, so open up the jump ring and put on the lobster clasp. We’ll have our base bracelet ready to go for making it extra pretty, because I particularly really love this chain. But with all the terms added to it is even better.

There we go okay for this charm that we’re going to add I’m going to take a head pin and cut off the head and that gives me a great length of wire to work with. Just cut off the head and now I’ve got a length of wire and on one end I will form a wrapped loop. Before I get to the wrapping part I’ll add my charm, so it’s connected securely to the length of wire.

Open the loop, slip on the loop of the charm, close the loop back up and wrap the wire to complete that wrap loop and securely connect the charm. Now we’re going to do a second wrap loop on the same length of wire so you don’t need to make this section too long, too many wraps, once you’ve got enough and everything’s secure we’ll trim the excess.

Tuck in that end and then form the second loop above the first. Again we’ll start the loop get it so that I’ve got a nice round at the top and then open that loop up. Add it to the chain, close the loop so it’s connected to that link on the chain and then finish the wrap. You’ll want to work it until it’s a nice neat wrap, trim the excess and tuck in that tail. Make sure that everything is nice and clean, until it’s as perfect as you want it.

Now the bracelet is ready for some colour. On an eye pin I’ve strung a couple of spacer beads and this beautiful crystal bead and I will form a wrapped loop. Now this is an eye pin so it’s a little shorter, so you won’t have a whole lot of length of wire to wrap with. You could also consider doing a simple loop and that would be fine too.

We’ll connect it to the chain, pick anywhere you still have a lot of room to work with on the chain, slip it on, close it back up and then finish that wrap. Then once that wrap is secure I’ll use the loop on the bottom that was from the original eye pin. Open that up and I’ll add a bead to dangle which is just a bead add it to a head pin finish with a simple loop; and that gives me a nice extended dangle as well as gives me a some nice movement, on the charm bracelet.

So we to this point we have our charms added using a double wrapped loop, we have dangles added with a double simple loop and then an additional dangle added with a simple loop on a head pin. One of the other options would be to on a longer head pin create a wrapped loop and add that dangle.

So we’re really just filling up the charm bracelet. Once the wrap is finished we’ll trim the tail, tuck it in, because you’ll be wearing this you want to make sure all the ends are tucked, in so it’s nice and neat, doesn’t catch on your sweaters or your shirt or your skin.

You can add a charm also using a jump ring, just open a jump ring slip on the charm and just make sure you orient the face of the charms to feed the same direction as the other charms, so that everything’s facing the right way. For some added extra texture and some movement, I’m going to take a twisted wire jump ring and add it over, well just choose this one. And it’ll just hang down nicely over the bead because it’s just big enough to still have movement, but not so big that it falls down over the beads. Just continue adding it until the bracelet is nice and full and in any pattern that you like. We’ll take our leftovers and we’re going to move into the next project.

Video Credit –  www.firemountaingems.com

Charm Bracelets