DIY wire jewelry: master class

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Wire jewelry was made by ancient craftsmen. Initially, ancient Russian blacksmiths forged jewelry, chain mail, weapons, and from the twelfth century they switched to the drawing method. This made it possible to simplify the process of manufacturing thin, even wire, as well as to reduce prices for products made from it. The time of wire chain mail has passed, but craftsmen continue to amaze with wire products: hair ornaments, earrings, bracelets, rings, pendants, souvenirs, key rings, bulky items.

Information for beginners

Although wire products have been found among different peoples since ancient times, the names of the craftsmen have not survived to this day. Wire wrap jewelry, as a new type of needlework, went down in history with the name of Alexander Calder. He had a penchant for weaving wire jewelry and souvenirs since childhood, when he made earrings and bracelets for his sister, and for his parentsgave brass animals for Christmas.

Devoted all his activities to the manufacture of jewelry, toys, sculptures. He rarely soldered metal parts, more often he used the overcasting method. This method allows even beginners to create jewelry. Different types of wire are used for work (brass, silver, copper, nickel, titanium, aluminum, zinc).

Thick wire is used for the base of the product, as it keeps its shape, and thin wire is used to braid jewelry made of wire. Different stones, beads, beads, glass beads can be added to weaving. When the wire is wrapped with a thread, then this is already a kind of needlework, which is called ganutel.

What do you need for work?

Often novice craftsmen make wire products using mixed techniques, applying knowledge from such areas as wire wrap, ganutel, beading, quilling, isothread. First, a sketch is drawn, then it is disassembled into individual elements, patterns, and only then proceeds to practical manufacturing. What will a novice wireworker need (as they call a master working in the wire wrap technique):

• tool,
• all types of wire,
• decorative beads, beads, stones.

Weaving jewelry from wire is impossible without round nose pliers, pliers with a pointed, curved, rectangular, nylon "tip", nippers, needle files (can be replaced with sandpaper for the first time), anvil (flahuizen), sperak, hammer, wiggic, drawing board, crossbar.

If you work with copperwire, then it can be bent with your fingers, helped with pliers or other hard objects. To make a pattern from a thick material or a more complex pattern, a wiggic and a crossbar are needed. The first tool looks like a board with lots of holes and pegs. Arrange the pegs in the right order and wrap them with wire, creating an unusual pattern. A crossbar (a metal cone with a thickness of 9-40 mm) will be needed to create bracelets, rings, chains. At first, the connecting parts can be made with round-nose pliers.

To make DIY wire jewelry look like store bought, get sulfuric liver. Copper, bronze, silver, brass wire products are patinated with this material to give a touch of antiquity.

Basic elements: pin and spiral

The pin is a wire with a tip, somewhat similar to a needle for stabbing. To make it, they pinch the wire with round-nose pliers, stepping back a third from the edge (how much is left, this diameter will be at the ring). Rotate the wire 90 degrees. And they begin to wrap the half of the tip of the round-nose pliers, forming a ring. Then, near the base, the excess edge of the wire is bitten off, the ring is leveled with round-nose pliers.

The spiral is a simple circle with a ring. This pattern is great for making jewelry out of wire and beads. Pinch the tip of the wire with round-nose pliers, making a tight circle around the tip. Next, the resulting ring is pinched between the tips and the spiral is carefully wound. depends on the number of turnspattern diameter. At the last stage, the wire from the resulting spiral is pinched with round-nose pliers, and a ring is formed with the free end of the wire, as in the manufacture of a pin. Excess material is bitten off with wire cutters.

Main elements: spring, rings, balls

The spring is used to braid the wire. Wind the wire of the desired length tightly onto the crossbar. It can be used to create some separate elements, or put on a pin, creating a voluminous edging, or from braided pins to make an unusual chain for men.

Rings are used as connecting elements, especially when weaving beads and wire jewelry. The wire is wound on the crossbar (the diameter of the rings depends on its thickness) with a tight twist, like a spring. Then it is removed and cut in the middle with wire cutters. If the space turned out to be large, then close the ring with pliers or fingers.

The balls on the edges of the wire are created by heating on a burner (some craftsmen use a conventional gas burner). To get them, you need a high burner power and “unclean” wire, as well as a drill, which creates such droplets perfectly even. You can blacken the wire with sulfuric liver and ammonia. The parts are flattened with a hammer, creating new elements.

Wire Jewelry: A Beginner's Workshop

If you have never tried to weave a wire, then you should try your hand at simple examples. To make a bracelet, you will need thick and thin copper wire,pliers, wire cutters and a torch (if you are working with a whole coil of wire).

From thick wire make rings of the desired diameter. To do this, find a cylindrical template of the desired diameter (pipe). Wrap the skeins with thick wire, connect them in several places with temporary staples (bend the wire to the width of the bracelet rings, cut off, put on them and fasten the ends).

If there is no thick wire, you can buy ready-made cheap bracelet rings, connect them in several places for strength and start braiding. The braiding method involves twisting each bracelet ring from bottom to top and top to bottom with thin copper wire.

Weaving should go one after another, if the wire has moved away, then move it with round-nose pliers. If you work with a long wire, then in the process of weaving it becomes stiff. Therefore, it is heated with a burner (looks like a hair dryer with a flame), weaving continues. Since copper turns black after heating, then the finished product is treated with citric acid (water is heated, powder is added, the product is boiled for several minutes, then rinsed in an aqueous solution).

You can wrap the entire bracelet with wire or attach other wire jewelry in the foreground (wire wrap allows connection with stones, beads, flattened wire elements).

Make earrings for the copper bracelet. For their manufacture, you will need wire, ready-made fasteners for earrings, connecting rings, decorative elements (stones, beads). Please note that the color of the jewelry should be in harmony with the clasps and wire. If acopper wire, then gold-plated clasps with amber stone. If the fasteners are silver, then take light-colored wire.

So, from a thick wire you need to make a large and a small ring. Make blanks for the second earring in a mirror image immediately, applying the parts to each other. Now, with a thin wire, freely braid the inner and outer rings. If you want to get a more voluminous look, then braid each ring with a spring (or put a spring on the ring), and then braid the products with a thin wire along the spring (in this case, the braid will be very even).

Next fasten the clasp to the outer ring. Put the beads and the stone on the wire and use the connecting ring to attach to the inner ring. You can make your own connectors. To give antiquity, copper is blackened and varnished. Obtained as jewelry from jewelry wire.

How to braid a stone for a pendant

It's good when there is a bead with a hole where you can stick a wire, but if the decoration is made of stone or a coin, then what about? For such cases, a special braiding method is used. You will need round nose pliers, thin nose pliers, side cutters without chamfer, wire (thickness 0.3 and 0.8 mm), stone (cabochon).

The weaving of wire jewelry begins with the manufacture of the frame. Wrap a cabochon with thick wire. With thin-nosed pliers, lift the wire tails up so that the angle is 90 degrees. Leave four centimeters and cut off excess material. From this wire you harvest a lotconnecting rings with a diameter of 4 mm.

Cut off 1.3 meters of thin wire, leaving 50 cm, start winding connecting rings to the frame. First, wrap the ring around the frame with 4 turns, then wind the ring to the frame with five turns. Further, without breaking the wire, go to the ring and wind the neighboring element with three turns, smoothly exit to the frame.

So you attach all the rings. Periodically apply the frame to the stone, if it is convex, and form the position of the rings. Perhaps, when lifting, it will be necessary to increase the rings more. Connect the last ring to the first five turns, and cut the wire from the wrong side. Twist the ends of the thick wire in a spiral (you can make completely different curls), bend the sides of the resulting pattern, forming a rhombus, wrap it with a thin wire that was left initially.

Wrong side of the pendant

The front side of the wire decoration is ready, now make the wrong side. To do this, make the same circle from thick wire, but smaller. Bend the ends of the wire into a tight ring. It is necessary to make sure that both curls fit snugly against each other. The lower part of the product can be flattened with a hammer. Just knock them slowly, slowly - they hit one place, see if it’s even, then move on. Otherwise, notches will form.

Now connect the outer frame, stone and the wrong side into a single whole. Secure several places with temporary wire so that the parts sit tightly and do not move. Thin wire now needs to wrap the outer and innerskeleton where there are voids (between the connecting rings on the outer part).

The last step is to make a pendant loop from a braided tail with curls. To do this, using a steel knitting needle, carefully, slowly bend so that the curls are found on the connecting rings of the product. Now thread the string or ribbon. As you can see, copper wire jewelry is just as good as jewelry.

Please note that the stone on the jewelry is held by external patterns (connecting rings, curls), which are fixed to each other with coils. If the wire is loose, the cabochon will fly out.

Wire hair ornaments

You can easily make invisible hairpins, hairpins, combs from wire. The easiest option is to string a bead on a wire, make a flower shape with a curl and attach it to the base. A more interesting pattern will come from a flattened wire. Then leave the end for the bead, and slowly flatten the rest of the wire, while shaping it. In this example, wrap the wire around the bead, then move on to the petals, ending with a spiral curl. Put on a bead, achieve a snug fit of the wire to each other, solder to the base.

Let's take a closer look at how to make jewelry from wire, beads, beads. On a sheet of paper, draw a diagram of the hairpin, starting from the curl and moving to the outer circle, the end of which goes into another spiral, which is higher above the first. It turns out a circle with two inner antennae. This element is made continuously. Then, at the point of contact of two curls with a thin wire, braid them with several turns.

Further with the same material, braid the frame of the hairpin, stringing beads, a bead according to the scheme:

• between beads six turns;
• 8 turns between small beads;
• between large beads ten turns.

The distance is determined by the diameter of the decorative material. Weaving begins and ends with small beads, and large beads in the middle. Curls are braided only with beads. Next, make a hairpin. Fold the wire in half so that one end is a couple of centimeters longer. Attach it to the hairpin, the hairpin from each edge should be 5-7 centimeters larger. Excess material is cut off. Twist the hairpin from the middle, twist the ends with a spiral.

To make copper wire jewelry harmonize with the frame, thread beads into curls (one piece at one end, braid the other with 3 beads, 5 beads). It is not necessary to braid the entire hairpin so that the hair does not get tangled. Only separately the antennae and between them the distance is 0.6 -1 cm, forming a triangle.

Simple ideas for original items

Handicraft stores offer a huge range of different decorative items for making jewelry. Buy a few, it will save your time, enrich your knowledge (now you will definitely know how to make connecting rings, fasteners, clips). Such prefabricated wire jewelry with their own hands is no different from purchased(unless at an affordable price).

Here is an example of how to make an ethnic decoration from square elements with round voids. From a thick wire, bend a square (the corners should be straight) and a smaller circle. Put a square, a circle inside it, braid the figures with a thin wire. Another option is to put a spring on the wire before connecting each figure, and then braid them. You will get massive decorations.

To match the necklace with earrings and bracelet, repeat the same plot. In the example with square earrings, the necklace will be simple from beads, and in the middle, attach a pattern of squares. Another example of an original wire jewelry (two-color bracelet master class):

• divide the wire into equal pieces;
• using shvenz, connect in turn the light finished semi-arc blanks and the dark wire;
• attach fasteners to the edges;
• form the resulting line into a bracelet of several rings.

Bracelets can be made without clasps, they are simply put on the arm. The shape of a snake or an arrow is most suitable for such a wire jewelry (photo of a hand with bracelets).

Summary of conclusions

It is better to train your hand and dexterity on copper wire when making simple hairpins, rings, hairpins. If there is no specialized equipment and tools, do not despair. Apply your imagination. Instead of a burner, use a gas stove to create droplets (and you can’t do without borax, it creates a perfectly smoothsurface). Replace Wigjik with sleight of hand, round nose pliers, and a paper chart. The crossbar can be replaced at the initial pores by knitting needles of different diameters.

In order not to patinate wire jewelry, use non-oxidizing wire. You can cover the jewelry with varnish for durability. If you need to create a patina, wash the wire well in a lemon solution. Then put it in warm water, apply a thin layer of sulfuric ointment on your fingers (pharmacies sell), wash the material under water. Without removing it from the water, wash off the sulfur with ordinary dishwashing detergent, wipe dry.

Or you heat the wire on fire, and then smear the warm wire with baby cream and rub it to the desired result, then wash it off with soap. Again, patina is an amateur color, created through trial and error. You can do without the color of antiquity. Someone just paints with gold or silver acrylic paint, varnishes.

There is no exact information on how to make a wire ornament. Each master finds something of his own, talks about it in his master classes, or simply offers his creation. Try your hand at simple items, practice on the finished items of masters: mentally divide the decoration into its component parts and reproduce it in practice.