| I did several of these, and used some for jewelry here, and I really like the look of them, especially on necklaces not long enough to go over the head without a clasp. This makes it really easy to pop your own clasp on. For those not interrested in doing it yourself, I am going to go ahead and list the ones I made and have left in the sale rack. Though this this may seem relatively simple, hopefully someone will find all the photos useful. |
This is what it looks like with a clasp. |
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This is what it looks like w/o a clasp. |
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This is a close-up of one end. |
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Step one. Take about and inch and a half to two inches of ribbon at the end, fold it into a "W" shape, lengthwise. |
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Step Two. Take that length of fold ribbon, and fold about half an inch or so over. |
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Step Three. I take a study hook clasp I made and slide it into the folded part. |
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Step Four. And then I take a needlenose plier and a length of 26G half hard sterling wire and cinch it as shown here. |
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Step Five. Then I take the hook and stick it through some heavy copper wire I have anchored to my trusty kitchen chair or other heavy object.. there's about a bazillion ways to do this.. |
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Step Six. With everything anchored I pull it very taught with a really good grip on the plier. It's important that the plier doesn't slip as the silk and wire can be marred. Take the free end of the wire with the other hand and wrap the silk. |
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This is what you get at this point. I point my free ends inwards towards the center of the wrap, so when you tuck them in after trimming,they tuck the direction I want them to. |
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Step Seven. I grab a pair of flush cutters with the flat side to the coil/wrap and trim off the free ends as close to the work as possible, without undoing any of the work or cutting the silk. |
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| This picture shows them trimmed off. |
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| I feel it's important to tuck in the wire ends so that they don't scratch people's necks while being worn. Here's a pic of the offenders before being tucked. |
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Step Eight: Before I tuck in my wire ends, I take my flush cutters (scissors would be fine) and cut off the extra silk left sticking out after wrapping. |
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| Step Nine. There is usually just a little tip of wire left sticking out. I take a pair of crimping pliers, since they have a nice rounded shape inside already, and lay them against the offending wire end, and only apply just enough pressure to tuck in just that part. |
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| After all is said and done, hopefully the ends of the ribbon look just like this. |
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My original tutorial for this on Lampwork Etc. |
