Fishing lure jewellery

I did take a few photos while I was making the fishing lure jewellery for last weekend’s ball, and I hope this is inspirational and instructive if anyone else wishes to do the same sort of thing.  This is jewellery making, made easy!
Firstly, fishing stores and suppliers!
Well worth a visit!  Who knew they could be stocked with such wonderful and beautiful things??  Since my immediate family is not hugely fishing-oriented, I have not had the opportunity to closely inspect the great beauty and variety of fishing lures available.  Fishing lures are an art unto themselves, and deserve to be shown off more!  In our local fishing store I was spoilt for choice and it was very difficult to narrow it down to just one kind of lure to go with my dress.  In the end I chose iridescent blue fishies; one large and two matching small ones, the same colour as the bright blue fishing net that I had.
To make your own earrings, you will need a couple of earring loops; because I didn’t actually have any I took apart another pair of earrings to get these.  Hmmm, will have to stock up on another packet next time I go to Spotlight…  And to make the necklace I used two split rings, a lobster claw catch with loop, a bit of fishing cord, harvested from some bits that came with my net, and some 32 gauge jewellery wire.  

Fishing lures are equipped with some vicious barbs, so the very first thing to do is to cut those off!!  Use heavy duty wire cutters…  otherwise you will be “caught” just like a hapless fish, and if you have ever been unfortunate enough to get up close and personal with a fish hook on a fun family day out fishing you will know that getting those things out is not fun.  If the wire ends are still a bit sharp after cutting off those barbs, you can file them down a bit using a metal file, and bend them in further in a tighter curl, as I did.  You do not want to be snagged on your own jewellery when you are supposed to be looking glamorous now…
Because fishing lures usually come with their own handy rings attached, I simply hooked the smaller lures directly onto the earring loops.  Voila, earrings finished!

For the necklace I threaded a few strands of fishing cord through the loop of the larger lure, and tied it in a knot to keep it stationary and in place.
I attached a split ring onto each of the necklace catch findings, truly the most difficult part of the whole operation.  Split rings are fiddly!

Then threaded the cords through the split rings and measured on my neck to get the lure hanging at just the right length that I wanted.  Then tied the cord in a knot over the split ring to keep it at that length, and did a quick check that each side was the same length.

Then I cut off the loose ends of cord; not too much, because fishing cord has that stiff frictionless quality that will “un-knot” itself very easily.  You want to keep a few centimetres length just to keep the knot nice and stable. 

 The I took the fine-gauge jewellery wire (yes, I wish I had had some gold coloured wire!) and closely wrapped up the lower end of the knot and down the length of the loose ends of the cord.  I made this wrapping as close, tight and as firm as I could.  When you are satisfied that those cords ends are as mummified as possible, snip off the wire and tuck or fold the end down smooth.

Finished!  And it was funny how many people were fascinated by my jewellery that night, and came up for a closer look.  If I say so myself, almost as effective as the diamonds and pearls in the room?