Fabricated Bale

If you cast your own charms, then you’ve run into either having to add a jump ring to them or a bale. I’ve even purchased charms before that didn’t come with any sort of bale. Though they can be fairly inexpensive to buy, it’s nice to be able to make one yourself too. This project shows how to use a little metal plate to make your own bale.

You’ll need:

a little metal plate (if using sterling 22 gage works well)
jeweler’s saw or metal cutting scissors
jeweler’s files
raw hide hammer

As you’ll notice in the graphics, I used a pretty large piece of plate in this sample bale so that it is easier to see what I’ve done. You’ll need to use a size that will fit through whatever charm or pendant you are making this for.

1. First cut (using saw or scissors) a square piece of plate. The piece needs to be narrow enough to easily fit through your charm/pendant. The piece I cut for this sample was 1 inch long and a little over ¼ inch wide.

2. Next, cut off the corners of each square so that you have a shape as pictured below.

3. Use files to file all around the metal. This will help get rid of any rough spots, and you can shape it a little if you need to also. 4. Now both ends of the piece need to folded over. I used the handle of one of my files for this and just bent it with my fingers. Fold one side, and then the other side is folded so they over-lap a little.

Now the charm or pendant can be slipped through the ends that have been folded on top of each other.

Here's a printer friendly copy of this file.

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