DIY: A Dapper Chain-mail Necklace

Are you after a trendy gold necklace but sick of shop-bought cliches? Here’s your chance to make your own individual necklace free from labels and stamps. All you need is a pair of pliers and about 350 single small-sized gold expandable jump rings as shown in the pic. Dapper jewelry doesn’t come easy so you’ll need a little bit of patience and a little bit of routine to create your desired pattern.

Step one: Divide your jump rings into two even piles.

Step two: Open up 175 of the rings with the pliers while leaving the other half closed.

Step three: Grab an open ring and place three closed jump rings through it before closing the ring with the pliers.

Step four: Spread the rings flat on the surface to make them look like a mickey mouse face, with two ears, a nose and a mouth as shown in the pic. (The mouth is the bottom of the necklace and the top will be where the necklace begins.)

Step four: Take another open jump ring and connect the ‘eyes’. Add an extra two closed rings to the open jump ring and then close the ring with the pliers.

Step five: Spread the two rings, ‘the eyes’, the same way you did before, making a ‘mickey mouse face’ and add another open jump ring. Add two more closed rings.

Step six: Continue this process until you reach the length you desire. To finish off, close the last open ring to the ‘mouth’ – or the closed jump ring you started with.

Not so hard. After all, all you need is a pair of pliers, a steady hand and about 20 minutes. Try to place the rings on a flat surface to make the process easier. You should be able to complete a 26” necklace with exactly 350 jump rings. Enjoy!