Ball Chain Ends Part II

After my last post, some of you expressed interest in a little tutorial on how to wrap commercial ball tip connectors for ball chain like this:

Below is a little quickie how-to.

I used 3.2mm ball chain from Chain Gallery, and the coordinating ball tips. I find it easiest to do this wrap with 22 gauge wire. Because the loop is doubled here, it's pretty sturdy.

To start, apply the ball tip connector to the chain. It's pretty easy--it's just a clamshell tip basically, and you close the clam part over the last ball in the chain and squeeze it tight closed.

Then, cut a piece of 22 gauge wire about 7 and 1/2" long. Thread it through the hole in the connector, and bend it up, leaving about a 1 and 1/2" tail on one side, and a 6" tail on the other.

Bend both ends over the top of the connector.

Twist them around once.

Grasp the short tail with your round nose pliers, about halfway up the plier jaw.

Bend the short tail up and over the plier jaw to make your first loop.

When you're done, it should look like this:

Then reinsert your pliers into that loop from the other side, grasping the other, longer tail at the same time.

Bend the longer tail up and over the plier jaw, like before, except you're bending it in the opposite direction.

Your loops will be mirror images of each other.

Now reinsert your pliers into the loop, and wrap the short tail around the twisted part:

Trim when you reach the top of the connector:

Now wrap the remaining tail down over the top of that wrap, continuing down around the connector itself, until you get close to the ball:

You can trim it there, or bring it back up. I like to bring it back up so I can tuck the end into my loop--that way I don't have any scratchy cut edges hanging out. Plus I like the way it looks.

Wrap it around the base of the loop once or twice, trim, and tuck the end inside the loop.

Et voila!

Keirsten
Lunedesigns
The Cerebral Dilettante

Three Super Simple Ball Chain Ends

I just love using ball chain, but figuring out how to connect it to other things is a challenge! I found these ball tip connectors at Chain Gallery, where I have been buying 3.2mm antiqued copper-plated ball chain and connectors:

They're super easy to use, but a little limiting in that the holes won't take anything thicker than 18 gauge wire, so if you need a heavier jumpring, you're out of luck. I don't always like the look of them either--sometimes their commercial look doesn't work with what I'm making. I've been thinking of different ways of treating the ends of the ball chain. Melissa Meman did a fabulous tutorial HERE on using double-ended ball headpins to create a gorgeous connector that is an aesthetic element all in itself. The methods below are a little more utilitarian and not nearly as pretty, but they're handy if you need a slimmer connector.

The first method involves using old-fashioned ball chain connectors and a ball headpin.

You're going to insert the headpin into the connector and form a wrapped loop. Here's how:

First, cheat open one of the holes a bit with your pliers, and snap the headpin in as shown. This headpin is made from 18 gauge copper wire (the connector is the size sold to go with the 3.2mm ball chain, and the 18 gauge wire makes a nice, tight fit).

 Squeeze the hole tight again:

Then make your wrapped loop:

I like double-wrapped, hammered loops, so this is how I finished mine:

If you don't like the look of that gaping hole, you can add a bead to your headpin to help fill the space. (I got a little fancy and tried some blue-green patina on my headpin.) The holes on these 3mm copper beads were too small for 18 gauge wire so I used 20 gauge instead--worked fine.

You can also fill the hole by inserting two links of ball chain instead of one:

Unless you get your wrap super tight down on the top of the connector, these will tend to swivel so you won't always see the little beads inside. Sometimes you'll see the back of the connector. In a bracelet or necklace that probably won't matter much, but if you wanted to use this in an earring, you'd need to make sure they didn't swivel around so that the side you want is always facing forward.

Another option is to dress up the ball tip connectors I mentioned at the beginning of the post with a rustic wire wrapped loop. I like this more workman-like look than the plain ball tip connector, and another benefit is that you can use a larger jumpring with it now, or attach it directly to some other element in your piece.

I'd be happy to show you how to do the wrap above in another post--just let me know in your comments if anybody's interested.

Happy New Year!

Keirsten

Lune Artisan Jewelry
The Cerebral Dilettante