Video:How to Make a Link Necklace

Transcript:How to Make a Link Necklace

Hi. I'm Jeanette Caines, head instructor, here at Jewelry Arts Institute. I'm here for About.com and this is Valerie Bloom, this is my apprentice here to learn along with you. We're making a hammered link necklace with a hook.

Materials Needed to Make a Link Necklace

• 16 guage fine silver wire
• File
• Hammer
• Center punch
• Torch
• Fine tweezers

Solder the Links in the Link Necklace

First we're going to wrap our wire around a center punch, a dowel, just something's that's a consistent size so we can get links that are all the same size. Then, I'm going to cut them. Then what I can do is I can use my flat nose pliers to butt the ends together nice and tightly to get ready for soldering. It's very important to have a tight joint because even if you're a whiz at soldering, or fusing for that matter, you need to have a good connection.

I'm going to lay it right on my white soldering board. I'm going to cut a small piece of medium solder and place it right underneath the seam. I'm going to add a little bit of flux- whenever you solder you have to have flux. This is very concentrated so you don't have to have a large amount. Then I'm going to light up a torch and heat it from the top. Solder flows toward the heat. So if I heat from above, before I can even finish explaining, the solder flows and the seam is filled. After you solder you always need to pickle. It's going to clean off the oxides and all the extra flux. Leave it in there for, I would say, 3 to 5 minutes until it's nice and clean. We'll take it out, we'll rinse it off, and then we'll start hammering.

Hammer the Links in the Link Necklace

Valerie's going to use a planishing hammer, she's going to use the nice curved side. And just a steel block and she's going to hammer all of her links. I'm going to take now a smaller center punch and you can see, make a coil, to make the little connections that are going to go in between all of my nice hammered links. I've threaded two of my hammered links through one of my smaller ones. I have my links laid out, with the open one in the middle, just like this with the link facing up. I'm going to take a small piece of solder again- a medium solder. I'm going to dip it in a little bit of the flux and put it right on top of the seam. Usually I try to heat it very gently at first for the flux to dry. And now that my flux is dry I'm really going to go ahead and start to solder. I'm using my left hand so that my right hand is free to kind of give the solder a little poke with my tweezers, if it moves some place that I don't want it to be. And there you go, it filled in.

Form the Hook in the Link Necklace

So, what I'm going to do next is I'm going to pickle it again. Although really if I want, I can just add all of my links together and then pickle the whole thing at the end. A very easy way to make a hook is to take fine silver, I'm going to cut a length of maybe about an inch and a half. I'm going to ball up the ends and then I'm just going to bend it in. Important tip: Don't do this on top of your lap. Do it over the bench. See how it just kind of joins up like that. After I have it balled up on both ends I can just bend it using a bezel mandrel just like this. You bend a third of it from either end around a bezel mandrel like this, going in opposing directions. And just really curve the ends in. It's a very simple shape but very effective. Once I've soldered all of my little links shut and woven everything through. I can add my little S hook which you can hammer or not, depending on your preference. Really all that's left is to shine it up. I threw mine in the tumbler. This is a really simple chain to make and it's very versatile. You make different lengths, different size links. Anything you want to really personalize it.

Thanks for watching. To learn more, just visit us at the web at About.com.