Hello and welcome to another jewelry making video brought to you by KeepsakeCrafts.net
Today, we are going to shape some wire, hammer it out, wrap some beads and we will end up
with a pair of earrings with a great rustic appeal.
So to make these earrings, first you will need some heavy gauge wire. This is a 14
gauge copper wire. And you will also need some fine gauge wire. This is 28 gauge. You
will need some beads. And try to find smaller beads, three millimeters or less is good.
These are little wooden beads that I thought would be nice with the wire.
But I had also considered using these pearls which I thought would be a pretty contrast.
So dig through your bead stash and see what you have that will go well with the wire that
you have. You will also need a pair of ear wires.
And then for tools you will need a few: a file to clean up the ends of the wire. A large
round mandrel or some bail making pliers. I will be using a seven millimeter round section
of this. Some heavy duty wire cutters, chain nose pliers. You will also need a chasing
hammer. That's the one with the rounded head not a flat head and a bench block or a small
anvil to pound on. And then to get our oval shape, I am going to be using this oval mandrel
but if you have something you can wrap things around to get your shape then that's fine
too. So the first thing we are going to do is shape
the small round loop at the top of our wire. And I am going to use these pliers and I am
going to put the wire a little past. And I am just going to wrap. Making sure I stay
on the round part. And you can just keep tightening as you twist and then loosen to move.
And what I want, I want my loop to be round all the way around because there is a point
that you reach where you can't make it round anymore. And its longer the stiffer the wire
is. So you can see where this is straight here. So I made it sure I made it round past
that so I can cut off that straight bit. Then we are going to use our mandrel. These
mandrels actually comes in sets. You can make any shape you want. Here is square, here is
a triangle shape and then round ones. I like the oval and I took some time when I first
got these and wrote on them what sizes everything is.
So I am going to use a fairly large oval in this set, the 26 millimeter by 20 millimeter.
And I'm going to place the top of my loop right up here and it's a little tricky. Just
kind of use your thumb and hold it in place especially this heavy gauge wire. And just
wrap around the mandrel. And just like in the loop, I am going to go
past where I want to be so that the wire is rounded nicely. And then I will just twist
that loop up. And you definitely don't want to use your nice fine wire nippers to do this.
This is heavy wire so I am going to use some kind of beat up wire cutters.
And I'm going to cut the wire right where it meets that loop. Notice that I left it
on the coil and that way there is not much waste. You will end up using about five inches
of wire per earring. So there is that and I'm just going to make this loop a little
more elongated. Squeeze it a little. And then I am going to repeat up here on the loop,
cutting it off, I'm just going to bend it out and cut the wire off right where it meets.
Here we go right where it meets the other wire. I am going to hold on to that piece
because we don't want that to go flying. And I'm not going to worry about these rough ends
just yet I will use the file in a minute. Now the next step is to bring in your bench
block and your chasing hammer. And you want a round faced hammer so that when you pound
you are not going to be getting the marks of the sides of the hammer. And then it's
just a matter of pounding all around to flatten this out.
And I'm not going to demonstrate all the pounding. You see I'm not using a lot of force, I'm
just tapping. And just tap all the way around. Keep your finger out of the way and change
position. And keep going, flip it over. Do the other side.
Keep going until it's flattened out and you have a nice even thickness all around. It
will grow a little bit like this one. And if you like you can use the other side, the
rounded side of your hammer and give it this nice hammered finish. Pounding all around
and you have to do both sides to do that. Once that's done, you can take your file and
go in and file off those ends. In this one you can actually file at a bit of an angle
because that's how it meets that loop. And you may have to use a pair of pliers to twist
that end in so that it meets the frame neatly. So now that you hammered to your heart's content,
have shaped your frames the way you like them and have filed those edges smooth it's
time to add beads. By the way it's a good idea to first do the shaping of your wire
for both earring frames before you start hammering it. Just to make sure that they match in size
and shape. Otherwise you will have to do what I did which is make a third and then pick
the two that most closely match each other. But if you do that you can also make the third
one into a pendant. So now for the beads, we need our fine gauge
wire and some beads. And the first thing that we are going to do is make sure that we have
two frames that are opposite each other so we have opposites for the earrings. And we
are going to take one end of our piece of fine gauge wire and we are going to wrap it
around the end of the frame with a split three or four times nice and tight, make those wraps
right next to each other.
You can use a pair of chain nose pliers to
really crimp those wraps onto the frame. And then trim off the excess wire. I like to do
it on the inside and I'm going to tuck that end in but if it's on the inside, it's not
going to be poking or scratching anybody. And then string on a bead and hold the bead
to the outside of the frame. And then the way I like to wrap wire on a closed frame,
let me put that out of the way so you can see what I'm doing. I will poke up a loop
with my finger. In that way you have much less chance of getting kinks.
If you find you have a loop crossed over itself, stop right away and uncross that loop because
a loop is a kink waiting to happen. So then we are going to wrap around. Two full wraps
between each bead
and then string on another bead. So once again hold the bead. And then again
poke up the wire and then wrap. And once you get practicd at this you can move along pretty
quickly. And just repeat going all the way around your frame. And then when you end,
end the way you began with three or four nice tight wraps.
So once you finished all your wraps you just need to add your ear wire. Use a pair of chain
nose pliers to twist it open. Insert the loop of your frame. Twist the ear wire closed and
you are done. Repeat for your other earring. Here is another look at the earrings we made
today. I hope you enjoyed this project and that you will give wire wrapping and hammering and
shaping a try. If you have sterling silver wire, that would work great. Brass wire, any
wire really. If you have copper or silver or brass that is uncoated, it will tarnish
and you can actually use that to your advantage to get a great old antiqued look by soaking
the items in liver of sulfur then polishing up the high points. And the dark will stay
in the crevices in the wires. Here's a little bit of a bonus for you. I
took that third frame that I had made and wire wrapped on the pearls I had been considering.
This will be a necklace pendant is what I have in mind. I think I want to put something
in the center like a larger pearl or maybe a crystal. So you can see here is an example
of how you can take something and take an idea, change it up a little bit and run with it.
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bye-bye.