Ring Holder Necklace

Today I'm sharing a quick and easy jewelry-making project- a necklace that holds your rings. It's an easy way to keep my engagement ring safe while I'm working with something messy, or doing anything with tools where jewelry might be a safety concern. It's a fun optical illusion-like party trick to show friends that you can take the ring on and off of the holder without removing the chain. When I first got engaged, I started to get ads for this type of jewelry, in different shapes and sizes. I decided it would be more special to figure out how to make it myself! 

Here's everything you need to make your own version of this necklace:

• 12 gauge round jewelry wire in gold, silver, or copper
• Jewelry chain to match
• Jewelry pliers
• Jewelry anvil
• Ring mandrel
• Rawhide hammer

Tool-wise this project is very approachable since it doesn’t involve any soldering. You can technically make this whole piece with just a pair of pliers, but I also used a small flat anvil and ring mandrel with a rawhide hammer to help me with the shaping.

Watch the process!

I saw all kinds of shapes when I researched this project, but the key feature is that the two ends come close together at the top, but do not touch, so the ring can slide between them along with some extra slack from the chain. Then the shape becomes wider than the ring, so that once it has made its trip around the pendant, it can’t slip off. I ended up making two designs, one’s a chevron shape and the other is round.

Not knowing how successful I’d be on my first try, I started with the silver wire, since it’s a lot cheaper than the gold-filled wire I bought. 

Somehow it’s impossible to make a perfect round shape without one of these ring mandrels, and once you have one, it’s almost impossible to make less than perfect rounds. Usually, it’s practice that levels you up, but in this case the tool itself makes a huge impact on your success.

Same goes for the flat stainless steel anvil I used to shape the chevon. Its flatness is unparalleled, except by the metal that you just hammered flat against it using a rawhide mallet, which is flexible enough not to deform the surface.

Ok so let’s talk about the challenge I had with this project. Usually, when you plan to cut and shape it, you buy these metals in their most flexible state, called dead soft. 

Let’s back up, did you know that the same metal can become harder and softer depending on how it’s treated? Metallurgy 101 here, and it is extremely relevant to jewelry making. And technically it’s not getting softer, just more relaxed. Heating up the metal, called annealing, allows atoms in the crystal lattice to migrate into a neutral position, making it more flexible than before, even once it’s cooled down. Annealed silver, copper, gold, etc. are noticeably easier to cut and bend. But you wouldn’t want to give someone a finished piece that’s still soft, or it could become deformed from everyday use. One way to make the metal stiffer is by work-hardening it, which happens when you hammer on it, bend it, and polish it.

Annealing’s not just for metal, either. It’s used in the production of glass, plastic film, and even semiconductors.

Back to the project– I thought because I didn’t plan to heat up this project with a torch, I should start with half-hard wire, and for the most part that was a good choice, but it did make it difficult to achieve the tight bends where the pendant joins the chain without leaving marks from the pliers, and hurting my admittedly weak hands a little. If I were to do this project again, I might start with softer wire and just make sure to work-harden the pendant through a combination of hammering and polishing before calling it finished.

The last step is to thread the chain through the two loops at the top of the pendant and practice putting your ring on and taking it off. It’s a pretty good fidget and a total hit at parties.

Despite its few minor defects, this project turned out even better than I expected. Not only was it quick and satisfying, but it is genuinely useful in my everyday life. This pendant would make a great gift for newly engaged folks and anyone who needs to take off their rings for work for safety.