Top carats - two quick DIY gold jewellery tutorials

Know your way around wire and solder and you're golden.

For various personal, uninteresting and probably inexcusable reasons I have had a lazy weekend, so I chose two tutorials to match my schedule, involving gold wire, solder and substantially more in the way of creative problem solving than effort and patience. It was one of those weekends, so perversely I thought of two tutorials to match, for the following items I happened to be coveting:

C. Wonder Tied Bow Ring 

By Philippe 14 Karat Gold Fill Love In Heart Necklace 

You will need

NB: You will also need at least one pair of long-nosed pliers or, ideally, two, as you'd be working with thick, stubborn wire.

Difficulty

Quite easy

Unfortunately, these projects weren't as easy as I thought they would be. Solder and aluminium can be extremely temperamental to work with and although the aluminium wire I worked with was soft, it does help to be a competent modeller.

Time

Hard to say. I'd say the ring and necklace each took me about 20 minutes to complete, excluding the soldering, which can take a while to get right.

To make the necklace...

Using pliers, bend and cut the wire into your intended design.

Attach the chain by opening the jump rings, linking them to the shape and closing them with the pliers. Then, close the top with a thick, generous blob of solder.

Finally, attach the clasp to the chain with jump rings.

To make the ring...

Wrap the wire around your finger and twist it to secure it at the top, making sure it's loose enough to slip off easily. Give it an extra 2-3 twists to stop it from unravelling.

Twist 1-2 loops on either side and cut off the excess wire at the edges.

Fix the 'knot' where your twists and loops are with solder at the back, in order to make it look more like a smooth bow and less like a nest of tangled wires.

Romance in a stone (necklace)

If I were more organised, I would tell you the designer responsible for the rather wondrous necklace in the picture. While I usually strive to creatively decode and simulate, in an economical, homespun manner, fashion's latest, greatest pieces and on-trend items, I took a trip off piste when I idly screengrabbed  the necklace from Facebook. I vaguely remember the context but in my absent-minded state I left myself with no means of tracing it. Google image search didn't help either.

Dull witterings over, allow me to share with you my guide to getting the look, using a semi-precious stone and an abandoned, unloved curtain tieback.

You will need...

Difficulty

Pretty easy

While straightforward in principle, this project has its fiddly moments and challenges, like not being intimidated at the prospect of using a soldering iron.

Time

About 45 minutes.

 A bit of knot and stone

Cut two 30cm lengths of chain. Fold one of the chain sin half and close the loop by opening one of the rings with pliers and linking it to the other end. Before closing the link, attach it to one of the parts of the clasp. Repeat this process with the other chain and the other half of the clasp.

Cut a 28cm length of rope. Cut away the tassel at the bottom of the curtain tie back and cut the remaining straps so that, together with the knot in the middle, they add up to the same total width as the length of rope you cut. I wish I could be more specific but knot sizes vary!

Use picture hanging wire to link the pieces of rope together. Start by winding the wire around the ropes, leaving some excess wire at the end and a long length of wire at the other end. Wind the short length of wire vertically to bind the wire that's holding the ropes together, leaving the edge pointing into the ropes to avoid scratching. Arch the long length of wire over the top of the ropes and through the bottom of the chain, then wind it back into the wire on the ropes to secure it. Use the soldering iron and solder wire to fix the wire in place so that it dies't unravel. Repeat the process on the other side.

Attach a generous length of wire to the stone. I did this using the cheap, easy, I-can't-be-arsed-because-it's-facing-the-back method. In other words, I beefed up the wire by using solder, so that it would take stick more easily; mixed and slathered on some araldite, taking extra care to follow the instructions and stuck the wire in place. You might well need to press down at the start to make sure your glue sticks. You should also try to tidy up the excess glue by smoothing it down with your fingernails or a scalpel. I wouldn't recommend smoothing it with your fingers, as it's too easy to push the wire and stone apart by mistake. As an alternative, you can attach a stone by using copper tape and flux, as well as a soldering iron.

Wind the other end of the wire between ropes, around the knot of the tieback and fix it in place with a soldering iron.

And with that you might suddenly notice you have a complete necklace in your midst.