Station Necklace Styles | Jewelry 101

Hey guys, we're going to be making a classic design called a station necklace. We're going to do it three different ways from easiest to hardest. And so if you've never made one before, they can be long or short necklaces with different segments of whatever you want, chain, beads, something or other, and then little stations in between each segment. So that's an example of a shorter one with, these are actually connectors with little gemstone beads wrapped in between, but I'm going to show you some different ones with chain techniques as well. And ooh, let's get a beautiful closeup on those pretty opal beads. So that's going to be our third way. I think that's the most complicated way. It's not hard, but I was inspired by this other necklace I have on the neck. I bought this at JTV last summer and it's really dainty, but I thought it would look pretty with the green opals that we still have in stock. So we're going to kind of play with that. And I'm going to share with you some tips and tricks that we used to use at the bead shop when we made long station necklaces. And we would make tons of them in metal and sell them. I mean, people just love a long necklace they can throw on for layering. So we're going to start there and yeah, it's going to be fun. Okay, so the first way to do a layering necklace, we're going to do a long chain one is you can use jump rings or you can use chain if the links open and close. So this is going to be the first little segment down here. And I really love to use opposite color rings or connectors in between. So that's what we're going to use today. And what I've already done is a fun little measurement tip. Is to use six inches and seven inches is to kind of like break up the length of the chain around your station necklace to just give it a little bit more, I don't know, just a little more rhythm or something like that. So if you want to grab my flat nose pliers and this chain link does open up. So it probably would be nice to use just to continue the chain. So I'm just going to start by opening and closing these ends of chain. These are the seven inch segments. I'm going to twist those open, slide on my link, slide on the other chain. That's six inches and twist it back. Oh, I accidentally connected those guys together. So I don't do that. Okay, so just close up that chain and then we're going to open this other chain link. Oh, I'm seeing it. I think I'm going to use the big one as the end. So I'm just going to slip that smaller ring off and then put that here. So that kind of creates a seamless connector there. But if your chain doesn't open up, you can always use jump rings. And I am going to use gold since I think that if you use a gold jump ring, it's going to continue the chain effect into that link. So we will go here. This is just another way to do it. If you need jump rings and then twist that closed, of course. And I'm actually just going to finish this one up with jump rings because it's a little bit faster for me right now. And then you just alternate the chain. This is the seven, this is the six. Twist that closed, twist it open. And you're also alternating the link style as well as the chain style. In the next one, we will do all the same style of chain. Once again, these are seven-inch segments and six-inch segments, but you can also do five-inch and six-inch segments if you want a shorter layering piece. Slip that on. And I'm going to be using a total of six little connectors in between. Sometimes we would use all different types of chain in the same color, just like some of the chunky leftover pieces. Like if you just have some smaller segments around your studio, by the same tone, it looks really cool to connect those all together into a layering piece. Okay, I'm almost done with this one. Another little tip is to put kind of a hidden clasp in it somewhere. Like I would probably do a gold one, just somewhere that was a similar size to one of the chain segments. And then you can double it up or your customer can double it up and wear one short and one long. Okay, and here's our last little jump ring. This guy, twist it closed. And here we go. This is the last jump ring. So this is style one with jump rings or just using the chain. Okay, so that is that. So cute, easy to just throw on and layer. Okay, so then the next form is just with eye pins. Okay, so we're going to be using the abalone coins that we love. We still have a few of them in stock and I'm just going to show you with eye pins. First, I'll show you how to close wrap it. And then actually I'm just going to use my one-step looper for this. This is the ultimate one-step looper use or one of them at least. I just love it. So I did another six and seven inch segment here with some gold chain. And I've got six little beads on eye pins. So these are the eye pins and we're just going to take our one-step looper. I wish I had had this tool back at the bead store because just didn't have them. We did all closed connections. And so just put it through your tool, put through the other side, and then we're going to squeeze. So that loop is an open connection where you can open and close it, but it's still strong because it's made with a 20 gauge eye pin to connect everything. So I'm going to just loop all of these. I'm actually kind of feeling like the six and seven inch length chain is a bit long. It doesn't really, because the chain I chose is a little bit less, I don't know, it's not very interesting or unique. So I would probably trim these down to maybe a five and six inch length difference, but just keep going as is. Maybe I'll just do it. Why not? I am going to trim these down. So I've got five and six. I'm going to trim these seven inch segments to five inches. That's going to look much better. All right, so there are my five inch segments. I'll save that chain for something else. All right, so then of course, just with eye pins, it's going to be similar to jump rings where you just twist open the little loop. I'll move this ruler to the side. We're going to just twist those open and close them. This is a really, really pretty paperclip chain, but those links don't open. So it is essential to have a way to connect everything. So pretty. Twist closed, twist open, twist closed. You can also alternate beads or do one of, you know, you don't have to do all the same bead. Okay, one more connector. Twist open, attach to the chain. And then here's another little tip I'll say. If you don't have a clasp on your necklace, before you do your last connection, you kind of want to hold it up and try to get it as straight as possible so it's not all twisted when you wear it. Does that ever happen to you guys when you make long pieces and they're twisted? Okay, so that's it. So that's method two of a station necklace with chain. And I love this one, it's so pretty. I think it was a good idea to kind of shorten those chain segments so the more beads could be showing at once. So pretty. It's just a really classic way to do a station necklace. Okay, so now we're gonna do my favorite. I hope, I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it in here today, but I will post a picture because I wanted to recreate this style with the green opals. And that's gonna involve a little bit of time and a lot of closed connectors. So let's just get started and I'll do a few little segments and we'll see what we can do. So we also have these gold connectors. I'm not gonna use them. I'm gonna actually use the chain. So remember, you can go on JTV.com if you're interested in these little guys. They're real cute. But I want to use some chain to connect my opals. And I'm gonna need to decide on my little, my length in between each bead. So I think it should be pretty dainty. I'm gonna say maybe an inch and I'm just gonna cut some segments of chain. I'm using a little leftover piece of an eye pin to measure in between. And you can be exact or you can just kind of eyeball it as close as you can. This is one little link of this chain really won't make a huge difference, but probably wanna be exact. Let's see where my cut was. Here it was. This is my, one of my favorite cutters. It's a double flush cutter and it's just so good for cutting chain. But now I've stretched out this little link so I may need to switch to my other cutter. I don't see it in here. That's okay. So we're just cutting little one inch segments of this chain to put on our necklace. And I'm just gonna cut, try to cut one more little link. There we go. It's like sometimes when you don't, when you use this kind of cutter, if you don't grasp it at just the right angle, it just flattens everything, just smushes everything inside of it. Okay. Well, I've got enough segments. I've got about five segments. That'll be good to get me started because these little connectors take a second. All right. So next we are gonna grab our 26 gauge wire. And I've been, so what I think is a good way, a rule of thumb is to just cut a segment that you feel comfortable working with, maybe like a foot. And then you can try to work off of this segment as much as you can until you use it up. So you don't waste as much wire. And then I also need to pick, go through my strand. This is kind of how I do it. I like to, maybe I'm, I think that maybe you guys would like this too, but just go through your strand. And when it's opal, you want that flash. So I don't know if putting a little white piece of paper behind it would help to see the flash. But you can kind of go through and if you know you're gonna need like 20 beads or five beads or so, then you can just pick your favorite flashiest ones. And so what I'll just do, those two are amazing to me right now. Move those to the side and look for those flashy babies. I really also try to keep most of it strong if I can. It's just easier to come back to. So pretty. I think this will be a good design for using these little babies at the end as well. Okay, like those two. All right, so I pulled some that I think are some of my favorites. I'm gonna carefully put those to the side and I try to keep them strong a little bit. Because then I like to put, I like to go back in with my crimp beads, like the, just kind of like the, not my nice crimp tubes, and crimp them closed so that they just stay as little mini strands. So I'll do that later. All right, next you're gonna need, you're gonna need your round nose plier. That's gonna be a game. Well, it's gonna be a main player in this demo. Let me just roll over here and get this jewel school round nose. And you're gonna start with a, this is gonna be a closed loop. And this is one of the building blocks of jewelry making is the loop. So you're just gonna press it away and then you're going to roll it. You're gonna readjust beyond the bend and roll it back into a tiny little loop like that. And then you're gonna slip your little chain segment on. And then here at this point, I like to make my loop smaller. So I'm gonna pinch it. You can see this, but just pinch it just a little bit. To make it small. At least make it the size of the chain. Like don't let it get, don't let it be bigger than the chain link size, if you know what I mean. But you can go even smaller than that if you want, but that's good for me now. Okay, so I've got that little loop connected to the chain and I'm gonna grab it with my round nose plier and make a closed coil. Okay. If you want, you can leave this tail for now, just in case you have to go back. I don't know. Sometimes I leave my tails in case I wanna add a bigger wrap. I'll show you what I mean. Then you're gonna slide on your little opal bead and we're gonna do the loop on the other side. Okay. So we're going to push it away from the bead or you can use your plier if you can't get a good grip like me. Push it away. Same thing on the other side. We're just gonna make a tiny little loop. Roll it back a little so it's in line with the other loop and then slide on our chain. Segment our little one inch piece. And then we will clip, we will kind of make that loop just a little bit smaller like we did before. Can I just show you while I do it? Yeah, I did make it smaller. And then I like to take my round nose plier and gently hold the loop. While I make my coil. My mom's 70th birthday party was this weekend, this past weekend, and I made her a pyrite drop necklace like this with just one baby pyrite drop. She loves that necklace. I've made it several times, but I also made her a pyrite cabochon necklace on some gold cheater chain with a stainless steel textured link like we love here at Jewel School and she loved it. All right, so now I'm gonna trim off that tail. I'm happy with that coil. And let me go back to the first side and make sure that it matches the second side. I'm gonna do one more little wrap just to get up close to the bead and then trim it. So that's if you wanna get really perfectionist about that. You don't have to leave the first side long. And also you can go a lot faster. So I'll try to do the next one a little bit quicker and I'm gonna have to finish this at home. It's gonna take me a minute. So I'm working off that same little piece of wire. Make a little loop. You only need about an inch and a half. This is the 26 gauge Jeweler's Brass wire and it's really easy to bend and manipulate. So you don't need a ton of wire when doing this little segment. Get your round nose plier. Couple of wraps. Push that up a little bit. Okay, slide on your opal. Either side. Make sure your loops are going the same direction on your connector. I think this just helps. I kind of just follow that rule as a practice. When I make jewelry, I always make my, if I'm making loops with wire or with an eye pin like this, I always make my loops face the same way unless I intentionally go opposite for some reason. Everybody has their own way though. So I'm sliding on the chain. Got in a little mess here. Let's see. I'm gonna squeeze that and make the loop just a little bit smaller. These are dainty. And then start wrapping after I grab it with my round nose. Thank you. I mean, they're just so cool. Go back to the first side. I'm happy with that. And then I'm gonna trim that. I will say that you don't need to wrap these opals if you do pick them up really tight because they are soft. So if you wrap them with a hard wire and really tight, there's a chance that you can break them. So this is gonna be my necklace when I finish it. I'm just gonna do it all around the neck, have it be kind of like maybe a 16 inch necklace. And I think it'll be really beautiful. I think that's kind of the way to use these green opals because they are so bold. And you can see the purple ones from yesterday too. Okay guys, so that was kind of a all over the place demo, but I wanted to make some station necklaces today and then also show you guys the little clothes connector green opal technique as well because we have a smidge of those left. If you need to pick up any of the tools or supplies we used today, check out the links in the description below. And while you're there, don't forget to let us know what kind of station necklaces you like to make. Don't forget to like, subscribe and ring that bell if you wanna be alerted for each new demo. Thanks for watching.