It pays in the end

Making my own silver chain is something I have to mentally get ready for. The start is always a bit of a drag and you know that getting the finished product on your hands is going to take time.

Making my own chain literally means this for me first. Pretty first sight! Not very inspiring.

I used: Sterling silver wire (variety of gauge measurements), drill, wire cutters, jaw pliers, different sizes of knitting needles

This is the starting point. I don’t want to buy chain that I know I can make myself even though the making process drives me insane from time to time. The end result is feeling achievement and something real beautiful.

So after turning the silver wire around the knitting needles with the help of the drill and covering them with tape, it was time to take the saw out.  I took some close ups of the sawing so you get what I’m trying to explain. Note: The tape is a great way to keep the jump rings in place while sawing them.

I used 2mm sterling silver wire in the picture that I made into approx. 9 mm jump rings but the actual chain coming up next is from 0.8mm wire. A lot smaller then and finer.

This is the size of the jump rings that I made (approx. 4mm) from 0.8mm sterling silver wire

The chain starts to take shape

So in the next post I’ve got some pieces coming up where I used this lovely chain. As I said in the title of the post, it really does pay in the end. Doing all that work yourself and getting something beautiful out of it is a great feeling.

-Alina