How to Make a Guitar Pick Necklace

Do you have guitar picks from your favourite bands laying around? Want to express your musical taste? Guitar pick necklaces are easy to make and are great conversation starters!

Part 1

Part 1 of 2:

Creating The Pick Pendant

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1
Assemble your materials. Making your own guitar pick necklace requires only a few basic materials depending on how you want to create and customize your necklace:
- Guitar pick
- Work surface protector^{[1]XResearch source}
- Pliers
- 6 mm jump rings^{[2]XResearch source}
- Necklace or necklace material (ball chain, leather cord, string, etc.)^{[3]XResearch source}
- Lobster claw clasp (optional)^{[4]XResearch source}
- Drill with 2mm drill bit (optional)^{[5]XResearch source}^{[6]XResearch source}
- Hand drill with 2mm drill bit (optional)^{[7]XResearch source}
- Sharp pin, needle or awl (optional)^{[8]XResearch source}
- Lighter (optional)^{[9]XResearch source}
- Necklace closures (optional)
- Wire cutters (optional)^{[10]XResearch source}
2
Pierce a hole in the pick. Lay your guitar pick on a protective surface on top of your workspace. Consider using an old phone book, or a large foam cushion.^{[11]XResearch source}^{[12]XResearch source} Get your lighter and sharp pin, needle, or awl. Hold the pin over the lighter flame for about 5 seconds. When the pin is hot, press and poke the pin about 2 mm from the top of the pick.^{[13]XResearch source}
- In most guitar pick necklaces, the wide portion of the pick is considered the top, with the pointed tip considered as the bottom. However, you can designate the top and bottom to make you guitar pick necklace any way you want.
- Keep heating the pin and pressing it onto the pick until you are able to poke all the way through the pick. The size of the hole should also be about 2 mm in size, so the jump ring can fit though.^{[14]XResearch source}
- If you don’t have a lighter, you can heat the pin up with a stove flame or a candle.^{[15]XResearch source}
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3
Drill a hole in the pick. Place your guitar pick on your protective surface. For drilling, a thick phone book works very well as a protective surface.^{[16]XResearch source} Position the drill vertically over the pick, and press the 2 mm drill bit straight onto the pick.^{[17]XResearch source} Place the drill bit about 2 mm down from the top of the pick. Slowly pull the drill trigger to begin drilling through the pick. Once the drill pops through the pick, the pick will wind up the drill treads.^{[18]XResearch source}
- When the guitar pick winds up the treads, reverse the direction of the drill, so you can remove the pick from the drill bit.^{[19]XResearch source} Use your fingers to wipe off any drilled plastic residue from the pick.
- If you don’t have a power drill, you can use a hand drill with a 2 mm bit to create the hole in the pick.^{[20]XResearch source} Simply place the hand drill approximately 2 mm down from the top of the pick, and start twisting the drill with steady pressure. Once the drill is through, twist the hand drill in the opposite direction to remove the pick.^{[21]XResearch source}
- If you use the hand drill, you can clean up the hole by drilling from the other side of the pick once you make that first hole.^{[22]XResearch source}
4
Insert the jump ring. Position the opening of the jump ring to face upward. Hold one side of the jump ring opening with your thumb and pointer fingers.^{[23]XResearch source} Use needle nose pliers to clamp onto the side of the jump ring. Twist one end of the opening of the ring away from the other end to slightly open the ring.^{[24]XResearch source} Feed the open just ring through the hole in the pick and use your pliers to twist and pinch the two open ends back together.^{[25]XResearch source}
- If you fingers aren’t strong enough to hold to jump ring steady as you bend the end of the ring with the pliers, you can use another pair of pliers to hold the ring in place as you bend it open.
- Don’t pull the jump ring apart. Twist the sides of the ring to open it. Pulling the ends away from each other will weaken the jump ring.^{[26]XResearch source}

Part 2

Part 2 of 2:

Adding The Pick to a Necklace

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1
Thread the pick onto a necklace. If you already have a chain or necklace material you want to put the guitar pick onto, simply thread the pendant through one side of the chain and connect the ends of the necklace.^{[27]XResearch source} If your necklace material is a leather cord or string, simply knot the ends of the cord together, and slip the necklace over your head.^{[28]XResearch source}
- However, if you don’t have a spare chain or want to make your own necklace for the pick, you can easily do so with some materials from your local craft store.
2
Measure your necklace material. Lay your chosen necklace material out on your work surface. Use your ruler to measure how long you want the necklace to lie around your neck. Some common necklace measurements are 20”, 18” and 16” long.^{[29]XResearch source} Wrap the necklace material around your neck to experiment.
- If you want your necklace shorter and your necklace material is metal, use wire cutters to cut through the necklace material.^{[30]XResearch source} Otherwise, use scissors to cut through leather cord, or string material.
- To avoid sharp metal edges, use a metal nail file to file down pointy edges.^{[31]XResearch source}
3
Knot the ends of the necklace. If your necklace is a leather or string material, you can simply knot the ends of the necklace together. Thread the pick pendant through the necklace. From here, you can make two variations of knots:
- One knot: To knot your necklace with one knot, simply tie a normal over hand knot at the ends of the necklace.^{[32]XResearch source}^{[33]XResearch source} If your necklace is longer and cat fit over your head, tie the knot first, then put on the necklace. If you necklace is smaller, wrap the necklace around your neck and stand in a mirror so you can see yourself making the knot.
- Two knots: To knot your necklace with two, adjustable knots, take each end of the necklace and make a knot around the other end of the necklace approximately 4” from each end.^{[34]XResearch source} Pull and tighten each knot, and trim off the excess necklace material from the knot. Leave about ¼” of space on the trimmed end.^{[35]XResearch source} This method works better with longer necklaces.
- Hold and pull the two knots away from each other to tighten the necklace, and pull the knots closer together to loosen the necklace.^{[36]XResearch source}
4
Add closures to the ends of the necklace. If your necklace is a metal chain from a craft store, you need to add on your own closures. Just how you opened and added a jump ring through the guitar pick, you now have to open and add a jump ring through the small ring at the end of the metal chain.^{[37]XResearch source} Use your pliers to open the jump ring, and slide it through the small hole. Close the jump ring by pinching the two sides of the jump ring together.
- Use your pliers to open up and add another jump ring to the smaller ring on the end of your lobster claw clasp.^{[38]XResearch source} Once the jump ring is added to the clasp, the jump ring can be added to the other of the necklace. Again, use pliers to open up and close the jump ring onto the end of the necklace.
- When all the rings are closed and secure, you can attach the two end closures and your homemade guitar pick necklace is ready to wear.^{[39]XResearch source}
- If your necklace is a ball-linked chain, your chain most likely came with a closure at one end of the chain. Simply slip and snap one of the balls on the end of the chain into the closure on the other end of the chain, and your necklace is ready to wear.

Community Q&A

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Question
Can this be done with metal guitar picks?
Community Answer
Yes, but you will most certainly need to use a power drill to drill through the pick, and have some sort of tool (such as a clamp) to hold the pick in place as you drill.
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Question
Can I decorate it? How?
Ryleigh Hempe
Community Answer
You can add whatever you want to the guitar pick by using super glue (I use E6000, as it's a jewelry super glue that works on everything, but whatever works for you). You can add beads to the string if you feel like it before you tie off, or add clasps to the necklace material.
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Question
Is there an easy way to do this?
Beth H.
Community Answer
Yes, you can drill a hole in the pick and string yarn or a thin piece of leather through the hole. If you don't have a drill you might want to try just gluing a piece of necklace cord to it with a dab of super glue.
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Tips

This is a great way to advertise that you play guitar (if you do).
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Alternatively, you could hot glue string to the back of the pick instead of drilling a hole.
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A ball chain is one of the easier options for a necklace chain.
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Warnings

Be very careful when using power tools and fire. Both can be incredibly dangerous if handled irresponsibly.
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If you are inexperienced with a power drill find an adult or someone experienced to help you drill your hole through the pick.
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