Jewellery Making For Beginners: Wire Work

The basics: Threading the bead onto the wire coil, then cut the wire, leaving 0.5inches or 1cm on either side. Using the round-nosed pliers curl these ends into a loop. Do this with several beads and you can link them together in a chain.Making your own eyepin: Cut the wire to your desired length. Flush cut the ends. Place one end of your wire at the back of the round-nosed pliers then curl it al the way round. Next, using the chain-nosed pliers bend the loop back towards yourself, this is called breaking the neck and should create a curve below the loop. Then to shape the eyepin, put the loop back onto the round nose pliers and bend the length of wire until it is straight. Do this at both ends if you wish.Making a spiral: Cut a length of wire depending on what size you want the spiral to be (if making two or more of the same size remember what length you used.) Next, using the tip of your round-nosed pliers curl the end of the wire into a tight circle. Then with the flat-nosed pliers grip tightly and curl the wire around on itself. To finish curl a small loop back the opposite way to enable you to attach it to you jewellery piece.Spirals can be made closed or open (open take a bit of practice to keep the space even). The open ones can also be made uneven, of course with short sharp movements. You can put beads on them, make smaller ones and attach them to larger ones. Hammer them flat.S-links: These are my favourite things to make. They are so simple yet look professional when done. Flush cut 9cm of wire, create two small loops at the ends of the wire, in opposite directions. Then, gripping the wire at the base of the small loop bend a larger loop in the opposite direction. Repeat this at the other end. If desired flatten the outer edges of the large loops with the chasing hammer.Of course there are many other shapes that can be made with the wire. Once you have mastered the basics you can use your imagination to invent your own shapes or there are many books available on the subject.

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