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How to Make Jump Rings
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Jump rings are great all-purpose connectors, although you can also use them as primary components for chain maille and other types of jump ring jewelry. They are easy to make, but there are a few tricks to making them right! Don't limit yourself to round rings - try triangles, hexagons, squares, and ovals.
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Skill Level
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Easy - This is an easy, basic skill.
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Time Required
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Mere Minutes!
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| Materials | Comments |
| Wire | Dead soft (my preference) or half hard. Do not attempt to make jump rings using full hard wire, as they will be very brittle and susceptible to breaking. If desired, you can anneal wire to regain its malleability. Gauges 21, 20, and 18 are most commonly used. See this table if you need millimeter equivalents. |
| Wire Cutters or Jeweler's (Hack) Saw | If you are using wire cutters, make sure they make a flush cut on at least one side. If you are using a saw, make sure the blade can cut the metal you are using. |
| Mandrel | You can purchase mandrels or use skewers, chop sticks, knitting needles, dowels, or anything else that you can wrap the wire around and then slide off as a coil. Here's a table of mandrel sizes and the rings that will result. Try rods with different shapes for non-round jump rings. |
| Safety Glasses | If you are cutting your rings using wire cutters, please be sure to wear appropriate eye protection! |
It's easy to buy perfect pre-made plated, sterling silver, gold, or goldfilled jumps rings. I make a lot of jump rings because I like to work with brass, copper, steel, and colored wires. If you make rings from fine silver, you will get the added advantage of being able to fuse the ends of the ring with a torch (no solder needed!). If you cut your rings with a saw, you will lose some metal making the cut. Therefore, the diameter of the mandel is actually a bit bigger than the inner diameter of the finished rings! If you are cutting the rings using wire cutters, you have a great deal of control over the diameter of your rings because you determine where to snip into the coil. You may find it convenient to make a coil of your preferred metal and snip off jump rings as you need them. It's a good idea to store coils made from metals susceptible to oxidation (sterling, raw copper) in sealed containers to prevent discoloration over time.
 First you will make a coil using your wire. Wrap the wire tightly and evenly around your mandrel. I used an inexpensive coilmaker from Wig Jig. You don't want any spaces between the wraps around the mandrel.
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 Make the wraps perpendicular to the axis of rod (unless you want oval rings). In other words, don't let your wire develop a slant as you wrap it around the mandrel. It's easier to make tight, even wraps if you keep the wire under tension by pulling it as you wrap it. Now, slide the coil off of the mandrel. This is really easy with a metal mandrel, but can be a bit harder if you used plastic or wood! Note that you can make French coils or bullion using this exact technique, except using a finer gauge of wire and a very thin mandrel.
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 If you are using a saw, run a strip of masking tape along the coil to keep the rings together and cut into the coil. Depending on your style and the thickness of the j-rings, you may cut from the outside in toward the center or from the center to the outside. I use wire cutters to make rings. Cut the excess wire off of one side of the coil. Snip into the coil such that one wrap is cut, which will produce one ring. I like to make rings with a perpendicular cut. Some people prefer to slant their cuts.
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 My flush cutters make a flat cut on one side. If I were to simply snip into the coil, the resulting rings would all have flat cuts on one side with slanted cuts on the opposing side. They would look like the example in the photo and would never close perfectly. You want rings with matching ends, either both flat or else slanted in opposite directions (but be aware that pointed ends are not strong and should be soldered or fused). The solution to this is to snip the end of the coil flush before making the next cut into the coil to make another ring. Therefore, I make each end of my ring flat, which results in a snag-free ring with a nearly invisible joint. Your rings will improve with practice. Just make sure you are paying attention to how you wrap your coil and what the cut ends of the jump rings look like. Here's a tutorial on opening and closing your handmade rings.
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