Now that you’ve been playing around with your jump rings for a couple of weeks, you’ve probably discovered on your own that you can also connect the rings together by laying them out flat and attaching them together with smaller, perpendicular rings to make bands, or sheets—also known as Japanese 4-in-1—to use as bracelets, necklaces, even belts. The ambitious can then graduate to the European 4-in-1, in which groups of five rings (four rings attached together by a single ring) are connected to a second group with the single ring passing through the tail end pair. But maybe you’re at the point where you just want to make a hook and eye clasp for the chain you’ve already made and move on, so here’s how to do just that.

You Need

• Round nose pliers
• Flat nose pliers
• Wire cutters
• Jewelry wire

How To

1) Bend an inch-long length of wire around one half of the round-nose pliers until parallel with itself.

2) Bend both lengths of wire against the second, unwrapped jaw of the pliers first to the right and then to the left. You should have a half-inch parallel length of two wires topped by a round loop—like a keyhole.

3) Travel about one mm beyond the point of where the first wire ends and form a second loop with the longer end of the wire bent in the other way so that you have two loops bracketing three parallel wires.

4) With the flat nose pliers, hold the second loop firmly, and wrap the long end of the wire around the remaining two parallel wires, completely covering the cut end of the initial wire, and almost up to the first loop. 

5) Finish the wrap by cutting the wire, leaving about half an inch leftover which you can then coil like a cinnamon roll, using the very tip of the round nose pliers, then flattening gently with the flat nose pliers. It should rest just below the initial loop.

6) Make a hook by bending a one-inch length of wire parallel to itself and then wrapping it around the round nose pliers to resemble a question mark. Add a loop at the bottom in the same way you did for the eye clasp above and finish off with the same decorative coil.