Making your own necklaces from bulk chain, jump rings, and lobster clasps can be a great way to save money when you want to make multiples of the same or similar items. My favorite style of bulk footage chain for this is our 2.2mm cable chain. It is fairly inexpensive, hangs nicely, and is great for adding charms to. And recently I have noticed a trend where charms are placed on lobster clasps, making them interchangeable! You can mix and match different charms and other adornments.
Interchangeable charm and crystal necklace.
Step 1: Make your own necklace blanks
To get started on this project, the first thing you want to do is make the chain necklaces. This is very easy! You need only three items, plus a basic tool kit that contains wire cutters and chain nose pliers.
Chain, jump rings, and lobster clasps. I used 2.2mm cable chain (#40-011-001-3), 12mm silver plated lobster clasps (#39-145-12-3) and 6mm silver plated jump rings (#37-145-3)
Cut the chain the length you desire with your wire cutters. The standard length is 18 inches.
Attach a jump ring on one side with your chain nose pliers.
Attach the lobster clasp with another jump ring on the opposite side.
Completed chain necklace base.
Making your own chain necklace blanks is a great way to make several necklaces economically without compromising quality. Plus you can customize the length and style to suit your special jewelry project.
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Step 2: Make interchangeable charms with lobster clasps
Now use jump rings and lobster clasps to make interchangeable charms to put on your necklace. The benefit of using lobster clasps to add the charms is that the end user is able to change the charms without any tools or jewelry making skills.
An assortment of charm possibilities for your necklaces! I used my favorite silver plated charms, and a variety of Swarovski crystal pendants.
It is really easy to make interchangeable charms for your necklace blanks. You simply need to attach each charm and crystal to a jump ring and then to a lobster clasp.
Attach a jump ring to the silver plated charm or to the crystal pendant. You will want to make sure to add the jump ring by twisting the jump ring open, not pulling it apart.
Use another jump ring to attach the lobster clasp to the first jump ring. Because the holes in the charms are front to back, you will need two jump rings to make the charm lay flat.
One completed interchangeable charm with lobster clasp.
You can see that when you have several of the charms made up, it is easy to mix and match!
You can do the same thing with Swarovski crystal pendants! The exact crystals pictured here from left to right are the following, 16mm Swarovski pear pendant (#06-106-16-02), 14mm Swarovski Greek cross pendant (#06-867-14-460), and 11mm Swarovski briolette pendant (#06-010-11-413). They are drilled from front to back, so you will again need to use two silver plated jump rings and a silver plated lobster clasp.
I only did a small sample of charms and crystals, but you can see how the possibilities are endless!
Pick and choose which charms you want to match with which crystals!
Well, I hope you enjoyed this blog! Lobster clasps are a great way to make jewelry that the end user can customize and change to match their mood or their outfit! And these designs would be great in all the different platings, so don’t feel like you have to stick to a silver finish. They would look great in antique brass, antique copper or a gold tone. Or if you are really daring, mix metal finishes!
Keep on creating!
~Tiffany
2 Comments
Hi
Can you tell me what size lobster clasps should One put on the charms please.
Hi Carmen,
We used 12mm lobster clasps, and the links in the blog are now fixed/updated to go directly to them. In case the links break again, here is a link directly to all our lobster clasps: https://www.rings-things.com/Products/Bulk-Lobster-Claw-Clasps/
Thanks for asking!
–Polly