Upcycle old watch faces to make this glorious charm bracelet

What you need...

• Charms, metal
  
• Watch face
  
• Chain: heavyweight, 6mm; fine, 3mm
  
• Clasp, swivel trigger hook
  
• Jump rings
  
• Head pins
  
• Eye pins
  
• Beads: glass, crystal, metal
  
• Pliers: round-nosed, snipe-nosed, cutting

instructions

1. Use two pairs of pliers to open the link at one end of heavy-weight chain, 36cm long. Hold the link in the pliers so they are positioned parallel to your body. Push one side of the link back and the other side forward to open it cleanly. Insert the loop of the trigger clasp inside the link and close it by reversing the action. Repeat for the other end of the chain. Fasten the bracelet by slipping the trigger hook through the end of the loop to make a double thickness chain.

2. Slip the fastened bracelet over a suitable cylindrical object, such as an upside down tapered mug, then begin adding charms and embellishments to both chains. Keeping the bracelet in this position will help with spacing the charms out evenly. Use a watch face as the focal point of the charm bracelet. Next, decorate the lower strap, fixing with a chain tassel, then cut three equal lengths of chain and find the centre link of each. Open a large jump ring and thread it through all three centre links.

3. Pass the jump ring through the bottom fixing of the watch and close, then fit the completed watch to both lengths of the chain bracelet with a second large jump ring, so it sits opposite the clasp. Secure embellishments to each length of chain, spacing the items out evenly. Fix metal charms into place with a single jump ring, then add a bead to the bracelet by threading a head pin through it, from bottom to top.

4. Cut the pin so that 7mm extends from the top. Grasp the very tip of the pin with round-nosed pliers, pull the pin so it bends over the top of the bead while turning the pliers away to coil the end into a loop. Fit a jump ring through the loop to attach it to the bracelet. Add length to some embellishments by fixing a chain tassel to the loop of an eye pin before threading through a bead, trimming and coiling the end as before.

5. Beads with horizontal holes are easily fixed by threading onto an eye pin. Bend 8mm of the looped end of the pin. Twist the other side to meet it, then carefully wrap around the shaft of the loop. Trim the end of the wire cleanly and close the loop to finish.