ARE YOU READY?

These are examples of hand crafted jewelleries. For the beginner, I know what will be running through your mind now is ' how the heck am I supposed to get this done?
I do not wish to keep you in suspense for too long, so let's go...

For a Beginner the most intimidating step in jewelry making is to begin. The obvious first question is what do I need to know. In the following posts I will try to show the basic skills that are necessary. These skills will include how to cut the wire, how to bend wire, how to make a loop, how to open and close loops, how to insert the bead, how to make connectors, how to make earrings with or without a bead....

HOW TO CUT WIRE

The wire cutters that is mostly used are called "Flush Cutters". Flush cutters are specifically designed for jewelry and wire work to make a cut that leaves one side of the cut wire relatively flat or flush and the other side relatively sharp. The cutters are designed to be used with the flat side of the cutters perpendicular to the wire to be cut and the beveled side of the cutters provides the sharp edge necessary to cut. Try cutting a piece of wire and see the two cut ends to understand this better.

• Always hold both ends of the wire as you cut it. When the cut is made, the loose end of the wire tends to fly. It can be a hazard to your eyes and it can be a hazard to your back as you crawl around on the floor trying to find the wire and pick it up. Wearing safety glasses when jewelry making is often recommended, but it is safer still to make sure the loose end of the wire does not become a hazard.

• A good habit to have, is when you are cutting wire from a coil , cut it so that the flat side of the cut remains on the coil of wire. This way the shorter wire segment that you work with will always have one sharp end and one flat end.
  

• Flush cutters can be sharp and may not be suitable for young children. Jewelry making is probably not appropriate for young children.

NOW TO REAL BUSINESS

For someone trying to get started in making jewelry with wire and beads, there are four basic topics that must be addressed.


1. The jewelry making tools that are required
2. The jewelry making supplies that must be available
3. Jewelry making skills and techniques must be learned
4. Are there any kits that can help me get started?

Let's begin by discussing what is meant by the phrase "making jewelry with wire and beads”. Just as it is in many endeavors, there are many ways to make jewelry.

Making jewelry for some means adding a gemstone to a finding like a ring in a manner that permanently fixes the gemstone in place. This is certainly making jewelry.

Making jewelry for others means stringing beads on silk or synthetic thread using knots or crimp beads. These two techniques are also making jewelry.

Another way to make jewelry is to use processes that involve heat, like casting or soldering components to make finished jewelry pieces.

Now to real business, we will look at the tools, supplies and techniques necessary for making jewelry components out of beads and jewelry wire and how to connect these components together with no soldering required. For some, this craft is called wire wrapping because instead of soldering, wire is wrapped around itself or other pieces of wire to form permanent pieces of jewelry. To begin learning about this craft please read on.

The jewelry making tools that are required
The mandatory hand tools required are shown below. You will not be successful in making jewelry without these three jewelry making hand tools.

1. flush cutter
2. round nose pliers
3. chain nose
4. Flat nose pliers

There are so many other tools; these are just listed for the starter who does not have too much money to throw around.

The jewelry making supplies that must be available
The supplies that are required for making jewelry are basically jewelry wire, beads and findings.

Jewelry Wire-- Jewelry wire is in general brass, copper, silver, gold, silver-plated, gold-plated or gold-filled wire. This wire is sold in several sizes, called gauges (based upon a standard called the American Wire Gauge in the US), with the larger gauge wire being smaller in diameter. For making jewelry the most common gauges are 16, 18, 20, and 22 gauges. 24 and 26 gauge are used, but less frequently. Beginners should avoid 16 gauge because it is harder to work with. For connecting wire components with the wrapped bead link, frequently 22 gauge wires will be used.

Beads--Beads are decorative items made from a variety of materials that in general have a hole used for holding the bead in position in your jewelry. Beads can be made of glass, plastic, wood, stone, metal, bone, and semi-precious or precious materials.

Findings--Findings are jewelry making components like clasps, head pins, ear wires, jump rings, and other manufactured or hand made components.

There are many other categories of findings, but the four identified above are in general more important and necessary for most beginners. These items can be easily made manually, but for a beginner you would be better off to purchase some silver-tone or gold-tone findings to use in practicing.

INTRODUCTION TO WIRE WORK

Wire may form the foundation of a piece of jewelry, or it may
be applied as a decoration. It can easily be formed into coils or line units of decoration for flat or curved surfaces. Twists and coils of wire can be made of round, half round, or square wire.

TYPES OF WIRE

Copper: You will see me use a lot of copper wire in projects on this site because I use this when I practice new designs. Copper will darken and discolor with age, which is called a patina affect.

Galvanized: You can find this (along with copper wire) in most hardware stores. It is a dull silver color and is also good practice wire. This wire is harder than the silver wire you may be used to, so get a small gauge if you plan to get some.

Sterling Silver: This is one of my favorite types of wire because sterling wire works the best for many of my finished jewelry pieces. Sterling indicates that the wire is 92.5% pure silver. The rest is made up of alloys (such as copper or zinc) to provide strength. Sterling will tarnish, called oxidation, so it’s best to keep in zip lock bags or sealed containers of some kind when not using it for jewelry or wearing the jewelry itself. When it does tarnish (and it eventually will)

Fine Silver: Made of 99.9% pure silver, many wire workers enjoy working with fine silver. Fine silver is softer than sterling. Since it has fewer alloys, it also does not tarnish as quickly as sterling silver does.

Gold-filled: First of all, never call gold-filled wire, “gold wire.” I’ve seen this too many times from jewelry makers. While gold-filed metal has many layers of gold, it is not pure gold. Though, gold-filled is of much better quality than plated gold (only one layer) so gold-filled lasts for a very long time if cared for properly. It is a wonderful alternative to gold, which as you can image is really expensive!

Gold: If you are daring enough and feel comfortable enough, go for the gold! Many jewelry sellers offer real gold wire in various karats (10-24 for example) and even different colors.

Coated Colors: Often coated wire is coated with an enamel to create the color of the wire. This wire has become very popular and is even available in many large craft stores. It is a lot of fun to work with. However, due to the coating, it can be marked by metal tools, so keep this in mind when using it.