The Handmade Heart Necklace

I've found that I have a thing with jewelry and wire wrapping. I was making two pendants recently for a school project- one is a moon themed one for my friend and a star themed one for me.

(If you're interested, I could make an Instructable for how to make those pendants in the future.)

I didn't feel like just leaving it there and not making one for my own sister, so I started making one for her in secret! (She only knows about the two I made for the school project/ for me and my friend. Hehehe...)

This Instructable is about the surprise necklace I made for my sister! Let's get started!

You're going to need:

• Silvery pink wire of 1 mm thickness
• White embroidery thread
• Needle nose pliers (you really just need 1 to do the job)
• Wire cutters
• Paper and pencil
• Scissors
• 2 heart shaped beads- one a bit bigger than the other.
• A ruler! I didn't put it in the picture (whoops) but trust me- go get one!

On your paper, draw out the shapes of the necklace parts in scale like I did. Check the picture out for the sizes and for a better understanding of the shapes!

I also wrote down how many of each necklace part we'll need beside the drawing.

Using the heart reference drawing from earlier, bend out the heart shape.

Bend one of the heart's bumps first, bend down, make a point for the end, and make the second bump.

For the loop, continue from the bump and make a sharp curve for the loop. Cut off the excess.

If you're curious, the loop is both to look good and to tie the thread to later when we link the parts. It also prevents tangles because the knot will stay in the loop.

Make sure you make 8 in total and try to get them in as similar size and shape as possible.

Again, we'll bend the shape according to the reference pictures. That way we also get the size right.

For the clasps, use the ruler to mark out and cut an 8 cm long piece of wire. Then fold it in half to have a 4 cm long doubled wire.

Like you did with the loop for the heart shapes, bend a sharp loop at the end of the now 4 cm long wire. Bend clasp into it's teardrop-like shape and finish it with a loop that's slightly higher up than the first.

Now just make another one of this!

This is the easiest thing to bend out of everything!

Just bend the wire as you would to make a loop & cut the excess. Boom- one jumper ring down- 5 more to go!

For the diamond shaped jumper rings, just bend the wire over the drawing. If it's a bit hard to do it right on the paper, just mark where the corner would be on the wire, bend the 90 degree angle, and mark the next point. When you have a diamond, cut the end and make the second one.

The red heart bead has a pendant style hole in it (on the top), while the blue one has a hole right from the top to the bottom like any regular bead.

First, I bent the end of the wire through the red bead's loop twice. I then bent that wire around the bead's sides two times. Then, I wrapped down only one side of the heart instead of wrapping back up the second side for a full wrap.

That's where I thread in the blue bead and left about a 1.5 cm space between it and the red heart. I then used the rest of the wire to wrap around the sides of the blue bead twice- like I did with the red heart.

Aand now we're done with making the parts. Now we just have to connect it all.

Aww yeah, it's all coming together.

Slightly open up the diamond jumper ring and link it to the loop on the longer end of a clasp.

Open one regular jumper ring and link two others to it. Close it up again and you should have all three of them chained together.

Slightly open the diamond jumper ring again, link the three-ring chain you just made to it and close it up.

Now all you have to do is the same thing to the remaining parts of the same shapes.

Tie one end of the white thread to the heart pendant. Measure 2 cm and make a mark. This is so when you tie the other end of the thread to the bottom of one of the wire hearts, you'll know you're keeping a 2 cm distance between each part.

Double knot the string to the bottom of a wire heart at that 2 cm point, then cut off the excess. Do the same one more time so that you have two wire hearts attached to the pendant.

Then, you do the same thing and make the necklace grow. Except, this time you tie one end to the loop on the top of the heart, and the other end to the bottom of the next heart. Be sure to keep the 2 cm distance between each part!

You know you've done it right when you have two lines of 4 hearts each- the parts look equidistance and each side looks symmetrical. Like a necklace would normally look.

To the last jumper ring of one of the clasp/jumper ring chains, double knot the thread. Measure a 14.5 cm length and mark it. That's the point where the top loop of one of the heart wires should be tied. Double knot the string there, cut off the excess, and repeat with the second side of the necklace and remaining parts.

You should end up with this. To put on the necklace, slide the shorter side of one of the clasps through the big gap inside the second clasp. To take it off, just slide it out.

This is what it looks like in the end.

I didn't know how to surprise her at first, so I decided that I should go and take a photo of it on the mannequin in her room in a very obvious manner. Getting a good shot and getting her to see her surprise in one, I thought, so why not.

As I was putting it on, she asked me what I was doing, and that's when I told her I was just taking pictures of her necklace.

SuRPriSe!!

Let me say, she got really excited! I thought there would be that "let that sink in" moment, but no- it didn't last as long as I thought. And so I taught her right then and there how to put it on!

I'm planning on making more jewelry in the future and get the hang of it a bit more. Like I said in the beginning, if you're interested in the star and moon themed pendants, I might make an Instructable on that in the future. I like trying different styles, so you can suggest another theme or jewelry type in the comments too.