Mermaid Treasure: How To Make A Wirework Necklace

Make a beautiful Mermaid Treasure Necklace with enameled coin beads and crystals. This wirework necklace is made of beaded components linked together with wrapped loops. Want to know a secret? It is easier than it looks! We’ll show you how.

Making jewelry is so fun and once you learn this wirework technique, you can make all kinds of necklaces and bracelets too! Here’s a video we made showing how to make your own wirework necklace.

Video How-to: Beaded Wirework Necklace

How to Make A Wirework Necklace

Materials

24-gauge wire, gold
3 strands of beads: focal beads, accent beads, crystals (We used these Aqua Enamel Beads from Michael’s.)
Toggle clasp, gold

Tools

Round-nose pliers
Wire cutters
Sharpie

Steps

1. To make your first component, cut a three-inch piece of wire. Grip the wire one inch from the end with the round-nose pliers. Bend the wire over the pliers 90 degrees.

Reposition the pliers, gripping the wire at the 90-degree bend. Grab the end of the wire with your fingers and wrap it around the pliers to make a partial loop. Shift the pliers again and continue wrapping the wire around the pliers to form a loop. Grasp the loop flat in the jaws of the pliers. Grasp the end of the wire with your fingers and wrap it twice around the neck of the wire. Trim the tail end using the the wire cutters.

2. Next, slide your beads onto the wire. We used a small crystal, a focal bead, and another small crystal.

3. Finish this component with another wrapped loop following the directions in step 1.

4. Start the next component by cutting the wire and making the loop in one end. But instead of finishing this loop with two wraps, first slide the loop into the last loop of the previous component.

5. Once these two are hooked together, grasp the loop flat in the jaws of the pliers, grasp the wire tail with your fingers and wrap it twice around the wire two times. Trim the tail. Slide your beads onto the wire, then make a wrapped loop in the end.

6. Follow the directions in steps 4 and 5 to create beaded components, attaching each new one to the previous one. Continue until you have seven components featuring the focal bead. Next make a new component starting with a three-inch piece of wire. Make a partial loop in one end and use it to attach to the last loop in the series of focal bead components. Add beads. We used a crystal, a turquoise accent bead, and another crystal. Finish this component with a wrapped loop. Continue making components just as you did in step 5 until you have six more components on each side of the seven focal bead components.

7. Then add one more component to each side, but slide each end of the clasp into the last loop of the last component on each side.

8. Finish with a wrapped loop.

This necklace can be made with any beads! Just use the same technique to make wrapped loop components and link them together in a chain. Let us know if you have any questions!
Happy Crafting,
Jennifer & Kitty

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