Making Choker Necklaces
When designed well, chokers can be incredibly elegant and striking pieces of jewelry. While they are usually used in the more formal context of evening wear, chokers made of glass or acrylic beads can easily be used to dress up a day outfit. Whether you want your choker to be just a simple band around your neck or you’re looking for a more complicated and elegant piece that dangles down and decorates your entire neckline, you can learn to create a choker with just a few basic jewelry-making skills.
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Things You'll Need
- Beads
- Wire
- Round-nose pliers
- Two pairs chain-nose pliers
- Jump rings
- Clasp
Instructions
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1
Design your choker, keeping in mind certain special considerations. Since the choker fits snugly around your neck, you cannot use certain types of beads, such as bumpy glass beads, since they will irritate you and dig into your neck. If you have small children, you may also want to consider making a plain choker instead of one with dangles, so that your child cannot grab on your choker and pull it. You will also want to measure your neck so that you can make the choker the exact length that you need it.
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2
Cut a 1-inch piece of wire and wrap the tip of the wire around one jaw of your round-nose pliers to create a small loop.
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3
Slide a bead onto the wire and then wrap the other side around the round-nose pliers to create a bead link with a bead sandwiched between two wire loop connectors.
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4
Create as many bead links as you need to go all the way around your neck. You may need one or two fewer bead links than you think, because your clasp will take up 1/2 to 1 inch of your chain's length.
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5
Open a jump ring by grabbing the ring with one pair of chain-nose pliers on either side of the ring gap and twisting the pliers in opposite directions. Once you have opened the jump ring, thread two bead links onto the ring and then close the ring by grasping the two open ends of the ring again with pliers and twisting them back together. This should leave you with a short length of chain formed by two bead links connected together by a jump ring.
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6
Join as many rings as necessary to create a chain of connected bead links. Test the chain frequently by wrapping it around your neck so that you will know when to stop.
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7
Open a jump ring and thread it through one bead link at the end of your chain and one side of a clasp. This will begin connecting your chain to your clasp. Do this for the other side of the choker as well, and then close your clasp to wear your piece with your favorite outfit.
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References
- Photo Credit beautiful woman image by MAXFX from Fotolia.com
