Of all the wonderful DIY bracelet tutorials out there, making a dainty hand chain (a delicate chain bracelet that continues over your hand connecting to a ring) from broken necklaces and random charms couldn't be quicker. Not that I'm not a fan of the more traditional macramé friendship bracelets (in fact we've also been knotting up a storm here at By Hand HQ making tokens of affection for each other!), but let's face it, they take aaaages and on a day like today - supposedly London's hottest day of the year so far - we'd much rather make up a pitcher of sweet iced tea, get those watermelon slushies out of the freezer and fiddle around with broken chain and forgotten charms. Just the thing for an Indian Summer.

The wonderful thing about this project is that there really is no right or wrong way to do it - it all depends on what bits you have and how you want to construct it. You could have more than one ring to it; multiple charms all over; you could even adapt this idea radically to make a headpiece based on the same principle of breaking up and reconnecting lengths of chain. Having said that, there are a few things that you will need:

• fine tipped pliers
• a necklace clasp
• chain connector rings (the little rings slightly larger than the chain loops that join various chain ends)
• various lengths of chain and random charms

x Elisalex