Custom jewelry for my daughters!

Well, if you read the thread I have about where to find jewelry for DD's, you know I went and bought some stuff to make my own. So this post is about what I got and how I made what I ended up with!

 

For this shoot, Tsubaki will be helping me to model and measure for necklaces. If you don't know her, Tsubaki is the girl I am giving to my sister for Xmas. But I'll do a post about her later. Anywho, she went and laid out all my jewelry haul while I went and got tools. I used some very small clippers, some regular wire cutters, some flat nosed pliers and some really long and thin needle nosed pliers.

 

 

Here is what I bought at Micheals. All the funky strap things on the left are from trinkets I bought while I was in Japan. I saved them for unknown reasons and thought they may come in handy for this. But I didn't use any of those this time around. To the right you'll see a large heart shaped pendant that was bought at Wal Mart for five bucks. I saw it and thought it would work well for Rei. Everything else was from Micheals. Well, except for the red pendant at the bottom, that was a yardsale find.

 

 

Since the blue heart necklace was already made, I figured it would be the easiest for me to start with and modify.

 

 

As you can see, the necklace is way too long and has some extra bigger links on the end.

 

 

This is where I want the pendant to sit on the girls. You make a good model Tsubaki!

 

 

So I start the process by cutting this to length. I measured where it should meetup for the clasp and then cut it with the small clippers. And I actually cut 2 or 3 rings in one go. They are so small I just cut right thru a few of them in one clip. I'll need to pay more attention in the future...

 

 

These are the big links I cut off the end of the necklace. All I needed was a ring for the clasp to attach to so I cut one of these loose to make that. But I didn't cut it in the right place and it broke when I tried to bend it. If you cut the link where it was welded/soldered together, it's much sturdier.

 

 

And here is the finished product on Tsubaki. It sits right where I wanted it to.

 

 

Here is where the clasp is. It sits around back so her hair hides it. I'll show you how it was attached in a bit.

 

 

So now after all that, I have the new necklace with pendant, leftover chain and leftover link pieces. All for five bucks! It's nice to have leftovers to use later.

 

 

For the next necklace, I want to use one of these butterfly charms. This necklace will be for Tsubaki and will go with her to my sister.

 

 

Ha ha! Tsubaki is basically my girls cousin because she will be my sisters daughter. These butterflies were made by a company called Cousin. I am easily amused....

 

 

The butterflies had two links on them so I cut one off the one on the right so it would look better as a pendant.

 

 

Now I want this to sit the same as the first one so I take that necklace and use it for measurement.

 

 

I am using a Herringbone style chain for this necklace.

 

 

Now I need to attach that clasp to the chain. I used a link from that larger set I showed you earlier.

 

 

I just clipped a large link out and then slipped the clasp onto that cut link and slipped them both into the herringbone link. Then I crimped them down with the flat nosed pliers. And now it's attached.

 

 

And here is the finished necklace.

 

 

And now it goes on Tsubaki for the final check. Looks good!

 

 

These are cat themed pendants I couldn't resist. They were too cool looking to pass up.

 

 

I am using some smaller chain and the largest pendant for this necklace. I made it exactly like the ones above so I'll skip that process....

 

 

Uh oh, Rei shows up and wants to know what I am up to. She sees the necklace in my hand and wants to try it on, so I give in and let her. It looks pretty good on her.

 

 

But then she sees the blue heart necklace and puts it on. She wants to keep it but I told her it was a present for someone else. She wasn't happy at all when I told her that. But it's ok, she'll get to unwrap it for Xmas!

 

 

This is that yardsale pendant I mentioned earlier. I stopped by the yardsale because I saw a doll chair on a table. But when I got up to it, it was way too big for my girls. But I also saw some random jewelry there and got this neat Unicorn one for a dollar.

 

 

Now since it's a little bigger, I had to make the chain a little shorter. Plus, I wanted this to be Manami's so I had to shorten the chain even more to accomodate her new Shapely Bust. So this necklace turned into a choker style. but it sits well on her and doesn't look out of place. Heck, it even matches her eyes!

 

 

Rei had been pestering me the whole time about her not having a necklace so I decided to let her pick a pendant and chain style for me to make. She immediately went to the fish bones and the herringbone style chain. Of course the names of these were funny to her so that's why she chose them. But I know she has a fascination with bones so it's cool. And she wanted her necklace made as a choker, just like Manami has.

 

 

 

And so ends my jewelry making for the day. All in all, each necklace took between 20 and 40 minutes to make depending on difficulty. By the time I had made all these, my hands hurt and my eyes were blurry. Working on such small things and having to be delicate took a while to figure out and being hunched over for the duration didn't help. But I had fun doing it and I think they all turned out well for my first effort.

 

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed the pics!

 

 

Billy

The jewelry really turned out lovely! It is great that you thought of a new way to spoil your girls. You definitely needed more jewelry after you had only 2 necklaces and three girls. I love Rei with the pretty blue stones!

Thank you Mitsuki! I'm pretty happy with the results of this project. And I'm especially happy that the blue heart pendant looks so nice on Rei. I really thought it was going to be too big for her but I bought it anyway. I'm glad I did too as it's prolly my fave piece as well. But I also like the Unicorn one as well as the kitty paw one. That kitty paw print one is pretty cute and I know a certain girl who it will look great on.....

 

 

Billy

The jewelry turned out awesome! I never though of getting chains and cut them for the girls, I only have made necklaces with beads.

The blue heart really fits Rei, she looks lovely with it.

I love the cat set, all the motifs are nice but the fishbone is so cute!

Thanks MyuMyu! I had a good time making them and even tho it took a while, I'll make more in the future and maybe do some different styles too.

 

I'm really happy with Rei's two necklaces. They both worked out to look nice on her. I agree the fish bones are cute as heck!

 

Billy

amazing stuff you have here! do you also make vintage style jewels? like vintage rings ??

i never thought about doing jewels that way thank you for all the information and for all the nice pictures you girls are lucky!

 

 

Hello! Thank you for the kind comments!

 

I do not make the vintage style jewels. All I've made are necklaces and bracelets for my girls and other peoples girls.

 

I'm happy you liked the pics and necklaces. Thanks again!

 

 

Billy

Wow this is great! I know you had made your own but I was very curious how it was done.

 

I am very impressed! Also cool to see that the stuff you are using I have used before

Wow this is great! I know you had made your own but I was very curious how it was done.

 

I am very impressed! Also cool to see that the stuff you are using I have used before

 

 

Thanks! Glad that you saw this and enjoyed.

 

So what had you used that I also have? Tools or chains or pendants?

 

 

Billy

Nice and detail~~~~

Thanks~~~~~