In Praise of Wig Jig

This is a lovely necklace set done in 20g copper wire with flattish oval beads. Just a pity I did not have more of the beads for a bracelet!

The design for the wire links is found in the booklet "Jewelry with Wire" and according to instructions was made with roundnose pliers. Beautiful and perfect! But not in my hands; all the links turned out crookedly and of different shapes and sizes. So I decided to try my trusty wig jig, arranging the pegs in the correct order, then draping the wire around them. No problem, but the loops were not closed up as in the original. Again no problem, then I used my roundnose pliers to squeeze them shut. For good measure I hammered the links before joining them with jumprings and linking them to the wired beads, and this is the result. I hope you like it!

Easy versatile chain links - tutorial

This is another variation of the famous U-shape. For this project I used 19g silver wire, quite tarnished. To start you need your wire, which can be 18 or 2og, they work equally well. You also need a 6.5mm mandrel to shape the U, wire cutters and stepnose or roundnose pliers. The rest is up to your fingers! To join the links I used 3.5mm ID jumprings. The size of the jumprings is a personal choice. To start straighten your wire and flush cut on each side a 4cm section. For a necklace one needs about 40 to 42 pieces. Shape all of them over the 6.5mm mandrel, making sure the ends of the wire are of equal length.
Now take the stepnose pliers and make a loop on each side facing inside the U using the smallest step . If using roundnose pliers, mark them first, so all the loops have the same size. When all the links have been completed that way
hammer them flat. Usually the loops will open abit at this stage, so make sure to close them up again.
Now you form the links with your fingers, pushing one side over the other so they overlap completely. Make sure the overlap is always in the same direction. Left over right or right over left does not matter as long as you do them all the same. Sometimes the overlap is not perfect, as shown on the left link above. When that happens insert the stepnose or roundnose pliers into both loops and tweak to adjust.
Here you see a complete bracelet with the links in the same direction.
This bracelet shows the links as opposite pairs. And both of them have been tumbled for 1 hour to remove the tarnish and wrkharden them. Now they sparkle!
These last two pictures show you the option of inserting beads between each pair of links.
The look will be quite different, but all the links are the same!

If you come up with more ideas, let me know.

Back to the Ancients

Jewelrylessons.com has a monthly theme to create an item pertaining to the subject given. For April it was "Cleopatra's Jeweler". I decided it would be fun to participate and came up with this design. Truly ancient, because the coil or spiral has been found in all cultures from earliest recorded time.
The design is old, but when worn it is the latest! There are things that never age. This is one of them! And best of all it is not difficult, just a bit time consuming. So go ahead and try your own!

Correction

Reading through my last post again I realized that I made a mistake!

If you want the clasp to look like the links you have to attach it last (with single or double jumpring, even though I said there are no jumprings in this chain), so it will hook into the first link. If you decide to place the hook at the beginning you will have to complete the chain with an eye so it can close.

I am sorry for the mistake!!! Next time I vet what I post properly, so that there will be no confusion.

There is also a big THANK YOU to Lisa of http://abeadaday.blogspot.com for featuring my work. Go to her blog and see the inspirational thing she has to offer!

First Tutorial - Easy Chain

Today I want to show you how to make a lovely chain without jumprings. It is ultra smooth, because the cut ends of the wire do not touch the skin, so no scratchy feeling. To make the chain you will need the following: flush cutters, stepnose pliers (or roundnose pliers), chainnose pliers, 20g wire. When you have made this chain, you can use larger gauges for a chunkier look.

Step 1: Cut 5 or 6 pieces of wire 4 cm long, each end cut flush.

Step 2: Using the largest step of the stepnose pliers bend the pieces into a U-shape, making sure both legs are level.
Step 3: Use the smallest step to curl both ends of the U into closed loops. Make sure the ends sit flush with the main link. In this picture you see the ends poking out. If that happens use the chainnose pliers to adjust. If you do not have stepnose pliers use the roundnose pliers, but mark them for the larger U and the smaller loops for consistency.
Step 4: Squeeze the two loops together with your fingers. Insert another U-shape through the two previously made loops, form two loops again, squeeze together etc. etc. Pay attention in which direction to coil the loops; if you make a mistake that link will be lost! When you have joined 5 or 6 links together measure the length so you will know how many more pieces of wire you need to cut for your project.
This picture shows the right side up.
Here you see the reverse side.

When you are done attach a clasp of your choice. On the other hand you can make a hook in the same U-shape but use a longer piece of wire and after forming it bend it over to make a hook. Then you build your chain from there. The hook will easily fit into the last link to close.

It also looks lovely if you hammer all the U-shapes flat before forming the loops, the choice is yours.

I hope you enjoy playing with this design!

Variations on a theme

After posting the first set of wire string art I really got bitten by the bug to try variations which would show the beauty of the patterns. Now I am getting carried away by the endless possibilities.

The first is done in navy/light blue with a bead to match the design.
Instead of using the coil I decided to make this zig zag shape to hold the wraps. Here I used three layers to add to the structure. They do not show as such because I used the same colour wire, but I like the result.
More playing around with frames to hold the wraps. For this I used roundnose pliers to shape the coils, fairly small, so in a way they act like the nails used in the original string art from decades ago.

I like these variations, but will still work more on them for some refinement! What do you think?

Pendants again

This design gave me almost a sleepless night! I kept dreaming about it, how to shape the petals, how to make the frame to hold them, how to decorate the flower, etc. etc. By morning I had the answer and set to work. In all my dreaming it had not occurred to me how tough 19g wire can be; it does not like to be wrapped by hand in tiny little coils, even bending the petals was a challenge. But I did complete it, with a pearl in the centre and amethyst Swarovski crystals surrounding the pearl. The next challenge will be matching earrings! Can anyone tell me the type of pearl I used? I won several strands of them in a competition and have no clue as to what they are called.
Another flower pendant awaiting earrings! For the petals I used 24g wire, 2 strands twisted together and shaped over my own home-made jig. The bezel for the focal agate was made in 20g wire. After attaching the blue topaz Swarovski crystals to the petals I used the remaining wire to link the focal and the petals together,weaving across the back of the focal to make it secure.
This pendant turned out to be a dreamcatcher in Japanese weave. Purely accidental! I set out to make a cube, but found that I could not bring up the sides to join together, the size of the rings was too small and the tension on bending the sides up was so tight I could not insert another ring to join it all together. So I  removed several rings to get back to a sheet. Looking at it I thought that I could stretch it over a circle and this is the result! I like it, but there will be no earrings to match! No way!!!

Experiments

The first experiment is a pair of ear vines. I got the free tutorial from

www.wiresculpture.com and worked two sample pairs, but the springi-

ness was not enough to hold the vine securely. After some playing

around I came up with this version which has a double coil to give 

more spring. I also curved the earwire down before taking it up to the 

top. In the original the wire came out at a right angle to the coil before 

going up. Wearing it like this brings the coil below the earlobe, which to me did not look to attractive, but with my version the coil sits on the earlobe where it is meant to be and the entire piece feels more secure.
My second experiment is this necklace. Simple coils of 4 complete revolutions with loops at 12 & 6 o'clock, one horizontal and the second one vertical. Before completing the vertical loop I used 4mm Swarovski hotfix crystals, placed them in the centre of each coil and ironed them on, first from the top, then turned the coils over to give the crystals the final fixing. Then I completed the vertical loops and connected all together.

The idea came after having noticed Swarovski hotfix crystals on some of the most unusual items, so I decided to try it on wire and it works! But one thing is certain, to fix those tiny things is not easy, they are slippery on the wire, do not want to stay in the middle and if one is not careful in placing the iron they shift and end up where you do not want them. But the final result is worth it, even though to make the coils is much faster than the iron on process. What do you think?

Bracelets Galore

My two totem poles with an array of chain maille and wire worked bracelets. From the top: a romanov variation, hourglass units, beez to butterflies and romanov.

The second totem pole shows you a euro4-1, byzantine with crystals, a wrapped bracelet with Swarkies and Mother of pearl , fancy wire links with crystals and another byzantine with Swarovski rondelles and bicones.

How to

After thinking about it for a while I have decided that once in a while I will post a "how to" to show different designs or techniques in wire which could help others in their way forward.

There is just one challenge I face: I can't very well execute a particular step and take a photo of it at the same time. Therefore I shall post a picture of each step and describe it.

If anyone has a better idea of how to accomplish my objective, please let me know! In a way these instructions will be mini tutorials, but as of now they will be free because I myself have learned so much via the internet and so many helpful groups without paying anything, therefore it is payback time.

Let me know what you think!

More Earrings

These are the remaining earrings which escaped posting last time. They are for casual fun and do not have necklaces to match, just single pairs. Next time I hope to show some necklace sets if I get some good pictures done.