Jewelry made of wire was made by ancient masters. Initially, the old Russian blacksmiths forged jewelry, chain mail, weapons, and from the twelfth century switched to the method of drawing. This allowed us to simplify the process of manufacturing a thin, even wire, as well as reduce prices for products from it. The time of wire chain mail has passed, but the craftsmen continue to amaze with wire products: hair ornaments, earrings, bracelets, rings, pendants, souvenirs, key rings, voluminous objects.
Information for Beginners
Although wire products are found from ancient times by different peoples, the names of craftsmen have not reached our days. Jewelry made of wire wrap, as a new type of needlework, went down in history with the name of Alexander Calder (Calder). A tendency to weave wire jewelry, souvenirs appeared from his childhood, when he made earrings, bracelets to his sister, and gave brass animals to his parents for Christmas.
He devoted all his activities to the manufacture of jewelry, toys, sculptures. He rarely soldered metal parts, more often he used the overlock method. This method allows you to create jewelry even for beginners. 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, since it holds its shape, and jewelry made of wire is braided around a thin wire. Different stones, beads, beads, bugles can add to weaving. When the wire is wrapped with thread, then this is a kind of needlework, which is called ganutel.
What do you need for work?
Often, novice craftsmen make wire products in mixed techniques, applying knowledge from areas such as wire wrap, ganutel, beadwork, quilling, and sinking. First, a sketch is drawn, then it is disassembled into individual elements, patterns, and only then proceeds to practical manufacturing. What will a beginner waierworker need (as the wizard working in the wire wrap technique is called):
- tool,
- all kinds of wire
- decorative beads, beads, stones.
Weaving of wire ornaments is impossible without pliers, pliers with pointed, curved, rectangular, nylon "tip", nippers, needle files (can be replaced with sandpaper for the first time), anvils (flaheisen), shperka, hammer, wigjik, drawing board, crossbar.
If you work with copper wire, then you can bend it with your fingers, help with pliers or other hard objects. To make a pattern of thick material or a more complex pattern, a wiggik and a crossbar are required. The first tool looks like a board with many holes and pegs. Arrange the pegs in the correct order and wrap them with wire, creating an unusual pattern. The 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 pliers.
To make jewelry made of wire with your own hands, like purchased ones, get sulfuric liver. Copper, bronze, silver, and brass wire products are patched with this material to give a touch of antiquity.
Key elements: pin and spiral
A pin is a wire with a tip, something like a needle for stabbing. To make it, they pinch the wire with round-nose pliers, stepping back a third from the edge (as long as they left, the ring will have such a diameter). Turn the wire 90 degrees. And they begin to wrap half the tip of the pliers, forming a ring. Then, near the base, the excess edge of the wire bites off, the ring is aligned with round-nose pliers.
The spiral is a simple circle with a ringlet. This pattern is great for making jewelry from wire and beads. With a pair of pliers, pinch the tip of the wire, making a tight circle around the tip. Then, between the tips, the obtained ring is pinched and the spiral is carefully screwed. The diameter of the pattern depends on the number of turns. At the last stage, the wire is clamped with round-nose pliers from the resulting spiral, 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 nippers.
The main elements: spring, rings, balls
The spring is used to braid the wire. Tightly wind the wire of the desired length onto the crossbar. It can be used to create some individual elements, or put on a pin, creating a volumetric edging, or make an unusual chain for men from braided pins.
Rings are used as connecting elements, especially if weaving jewelry from beads and wire. The wire is wound around the crossbar (the diameter of the rings depends on its thickness) by tight twisting, like a spring. Then it is removed and cut in the middle by nippers. If the space turned out to be large, then use a pair of pliers or fingers to close the ringlet.
Balls at the edges of the wire are created by heating on the burner (some craftsmen use a conventional gas burner). To get them, you need a high power burner and wire "unclean", as well as the drill, which creates such droplets perfectly even. You can blacken the wire with sulfuric liver and ammonia. They flatten the details 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, round pliers, wire cutters and a torch (if you work with a whole wire coil).
From thick wire, make rings of the desired diameter. To do this, find the cylindrical template of the desired diameter (pipe). Wrap the coils with thick wire, connect them in several places with temporary brackets (bend the wire along the width of the bracelet rings, cut it off, put it 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 a thin copper wire.
The weaving should go one after another, if the wire has moved away, then you move it with 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), continue weaving. Since the 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 braid the entire bracelet with wire or in the foreground attach other jewelry made of wire (wire wrap allows connection with stones, beads, flattened wire elements).
Make earrings with a 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 jewelry should be in harmony with the clasps and wire. If copper wire, then gold-plated clasps with amber stone. If the clasps are silver, then take a wire of light colors.
So, from thick wire you need to make a large and small ring. Make preparations for the second earring in mirror image at once, applying details to each other. Now with a thin wire, braid freely around 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 around the spring (in this case, the braid will be very even).
Next, fasten the fastener to the outer ring. Put the beads and stone on the wire and use the connecting ring to attach to the inner ring. You can make the connecting elements yourself. To give antiquity, copper is blackened and varnished. It turns out as jewelry wire jewelry.
How to braid a stone for a pendant
Well, when there is a bead with a hole, where you can stick a wire, and if the decoration is made of stone or 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).
Weaving jewelry from wire begins with the manufacture of the frame. Wrap the cabochon with thick wire. With thin-nose pliers, raise the wire tails to an angle of 90 degrees. Leave four centimeters and cut off the excess material. From this wire, you procure many connecting rings with a diameter of 4 mm.
Cut 1.3 meters of thin wire, leaving 50 cm, begin to attach the connecting rings to the frame. First, wrap around the frame with 4 turns, then wind the ring to the frame with five turns. Next, without breaking the wire, go to the ringlet and wrap the adjacent element in three turns, smoothly exit to the frame.
So attach all the rings. Periodically apply the frame to the stone, if it is convex, and form the position of the rings. It may be necessary to increase the rings when lifting. Connect the last ring with the first five turns, and cut the wire from the wrong side. You twist the ends of the thick wire with 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 originally left.
Wrong side of the pendant
The front side of the wire decoration is ready, now do the wrong side. To do this, make the same circle from thick wire, but smaller. The ends of the wire are bent into a tight ringlet. It is necessary to make sure that both curls fit snugly together. The lower part of the product can be flattened with a hammer. Just knock them on the sly, leisurely - hit one place, see if it’s smooth, then move on. Otherwise, notches form.
Now connect the outer frame, stone and the wrong side into a single whole. Secure several places with a temporary wire so that the parts fit tightly and do not move. Thin wire now needs to be wrapped around the outer and inner frame where there are voids (between the connecting rings on the outer part).
The last step from the braided ponytail with curls is to make a loop of the pendant. To do this, with the help of a steel knitting needle, gently, slowly bend so that the curls are found on the connecting rings of the product. Now thread the lace or ribbon. As you can see, copper wire jewelry is no worse than jewelry.
Please note that the stone on the decoration is held by external patterns (connecting rings, curls), which are fixed together by turns. If the wire lies freely, the cabochon will fly out.
Hair ornaments made of wire
From the wire, you can easily make invisibility, hair clips, combs. The easiest option is to string a bead on a wire, make a flower shape with a curl and attach to the base. A more interesting pattern is obtained from flattened wire. Then leave the end for the bead, and flatten the rest of the wire slowly, while shaping. In this example, wrap the wire around the beads, then go 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, and beads. On a piece of paper, draw a pattern of hair clips, starting from the curl and moving to the outer circle, the end of which goes into another spiral, located above the first one. It turns out a circle with two internal antennae. This element is being made continuously. Then at the place of contact of the two curls with a thin wire, braid them in several turns.
Next, with the same material, braid the hairpin frame, stringing beads, a bead according to the scheme:
- there are six turns between the beads;
- there are eight turns between small beads;
- there are ten turns between the large beads.
The distance is determined by the diameter of the decorative material. Weaving begins and ends with small beads, and in the middle are large beads. 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 on each edge should be 5-7 centimeters longer. Excess material is cut off. Twist the pin from the middle, twist the ends with a spiral.
To make jewelry made of copper wire in harmony with the frame, thread the beads into curls (one piece at one end, braid with 3 beads and 5 beads on the other). It is not necessary to braid the entire hairpin so that the hair does not get tangled. Only individually antennae and between them a distance of 0.6 -1 cm, forming a triangle.
Simple ideas for original products
Needle shops offer a huge assortment of various decorative elements for making jewelry. Buy a few, this will save your time, enrich your knowledge (now you will know exactly how to make connecting rings, fasteners, clamps). Such prefabricated ornaments made of wire with their own hands do not differ from purchased ones (except at an affordable price).
Here is an example of how to make an ethnic ornament from square elements in which there are round voids. Bend a square from thick wire (the corners should be straight) and a smaller circle. Put the square, a circle inside it, braid the figures with thin wire. Another option is to put a spring on the wire before connecting each figure, and then braid them. Get massive jewelry.
To match the necklace with earrings and a bracelet, repeat the same plot. For an example with square earrings, the necklace will be a simple bead, and in the middle, attach a square pattern. Another example of an original jewelry made of wire (master class of a two-color bracelet):
- divide the wire into identical pieces;
- with the help of screwdrivers, connect in turn the light finished semi-arc blanks and the dark wire;
- attach the fasteners to the edges;
- Form the resulting line into a bracelet of several rings.
Bracelets can be made without fasteners, they are simply worn on the arm. The shape of a snake or arrow is most suitable for such a decoration made of wire (photo of a hand with bracelets).
Brief conclusions
It’s best to train your hand and agility on copper wire in the manufacture of simple studs, rings, and 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 flat surface). Replace Wiggik with sleight of hand, round-nose pliers and a paper diagram. The crossbar can be replaced at the initial pores with knitting needles of different diameters.
To avoid patinating wire jewelry, use non-oxidizing wire. You can varnish the decoration 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 to your fingers (pharmacies sell), wash the material under water. Without taking it out of the water, wash off the sulfur with the usual dishwashing detergent, wipe it dry.
Or, heat the wire over a fire, and then lubricate the warm one with baby cream and rub to the desired result, then wash off with soap. Again, patina is an amateur color, created by trial and error. You can do without the color of antiquity. Someone simply paints with gilded or silver acrylic paint, varnishes.
There is no exact information on how to make a decoration from wire. Each master finds something of his own, talks about it in his master classes or simply offers his creation. Try your hand at simple products, practice at the finished products of the craftsmen: mentally divide the jewelry into its component parts and reproduce it in practice.