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Hi this is Megan with Beadaholique.com and I want to show you
how to make a wire wrapped setting
for a chaton
using a wire jig.
So what this is going to do is
make a setting just a simple
wire wrap
back-and-forth kind of zig zag setting.
You can
use
the sides
of the setting to attach
the chaton to
any other kind of wire
strand
or
other piece of hardware.
So what we're going to use is a wire jig.
This is a Thing-A-Ma Jig. It's a very inexpensive tool so
it's a good
starting tool. It's great if you're going to try this out if you're not going to use it
very often.
There are
quite a number of tools
different wire jigs available so you can pick the one that you want to work with.
We're also going to use some craft wire.
I have some artistic wire.
I'm using
24 gauge.
I've tried this with a few different gauges and
if you get too thick of a gauge it gets really hard to work with it. So
don't go too thin. It is going to be soft and you can definitely use some
glue to stabilize this to keep it more sturdy. In fact I would recommend
that anyway.
You're not relying entirely on the strength of the wire. So twenty four
is going to work really well. It looks nice.
You'll also need a
crimp tube or crimp bead
and it just needs to be big enough to fit two strands of your wire through it
because that is how you
connect your wire together.
So on your wire jig
insert your pegs
so that
you have a row and a row and that they are offset
by one.
You don't want them to be straight up-and-down you do you want to form
little triangles.
There will be some guesswork involved with how far a apart you set them and
for how deep it goes on your chitin. So how long you need to go in order to
go around
but you can just play around with it and see.
Go ahead and cut a piece of
craft wire.
Now you want to straighten it out
with a pair of nylon jaw pliers. You're just running it through a few times.
Just get out
any serious bends.
And then
anytime you're using a wire jig it's easiest if you start
with the loop.
So just
take a pair of round nose pliers
to create a little loop at the end of your wire.
Place the loop on the first peg
and then you're gonna go
back-and-forth
and make sure that you're
bending your wire little further over then it needs to go so thats
stays otherwise when you pull it will
pop out and not to keep its shape.
Go back-and-forth
and make a
little zigzag pattern like that
around the ends between each
and hold it down as you work so that it doesn't popped up off the top of
the pegs.
You want to use your
free hand to
pull the wire
a little further down the peg.
Using the jig
for this will help you have a nice even
piece of wire. You can use
pliers to do this but
I like the
uniformity that you get when you use the jig.
When you come back from last one we're not going to end this with a loop.
Just pull it
to where you get like a nice
right angle
and then take your piece off the jig.
Just that flatten out a little bit. You can just
use your nylon jaw pliers.
And you want
to have a nice flat piece.
Now you're only going to need
a little bit
like a quarter of an inch past the bend.
Go ahead and cut it a little longer maybe three eighths.
And then you'll need a nice
sharp corner
because you're gonna put a bend in this.
So if you're using a wig jig it has sharp corners. If whatever jig your using
has sharp corners you can use that. Otherwise you can use the of the table.
As long as its not a bevel edge. You just want a sharp corner.
You're just going to take
your piece
and put it right up against the edge of the table right
with the corner in the middle
press it down
to put a bend in it.
So that your
piece should have a nice ninety degree bend right about in the middle.
Then you're going to take your loop here and straighten it out
so that you have
a bent piece on both ends. You want this curve coming up from there but you don't
want the rest of it to be looped.
So just take your round nose pliers
and unbend it and then
kind of squish it around
with the nylon jaw pliers
until it's pretty flat.
Then you're going to take your chaton
and you're going to
wrap your wire around
to form a circle.
You want to be able to space out the little loops
to around it pretty comfortably.
If you are only getting part of the way around the circle you might want to
use more pegs and make a longer piece.
If you're all the way around the circle you might just want to trim it and not use the whole
thing.
That's pretty good
once you stretch and link the last two together. I think that's gonna fit
nicely.
So go ahead and
put your chitin aside. What you need to do
is you have these two bent
ends here.
What we're going to want to do is overlap them
so that they can be one
link
bends around the back of the chaton.
So
take a crimp tube
or crimp bead
and
go ahead and put it onto one of them
and then you're gonna want to bend the other one a little bit flatter so that
we can get it in there.
Then you're going to take
the crimp tube right
to the middle where both of these
bend to start to go
into the curve.
And then
use a crimp tool to crimp
that crimp tube.
Get that nice and secure so that the ends don't go anywhere.
Then use a pair of flush cutter to cut off the excess right next to the crimp tube.
Then take you're round nose pliers and
hold them up against you crimp tube there.
You're going to want to
put bend back in that part of
your wire.
Since it kind of went a little straight
you can use your fingers too. This wire is not that hard.
The ends might look a little jumbled up but when you put them back on your
chaton it will
straighten out.
So slide you chaton back into place.
You want to even out
the loops.
Just kind of use your fingers to pull them around until they're spaced evenly.
Then
hold
the crystal back
toward the back
and just press down
on the loops.
Once they're pressed down you can go back in and even them out a little bit
more
until they're spaced around evenly.
And that's the basic setting.
You can see it's
just wrapped around the front and back.
You can use
silver,
copper,
brass, gold
I think it looks really nice if you have a
plain colored
chitin to use a bright color of the craft wire because it really pops.
All you do to attach this onto a ring or wire
just gently open up
a couple of the prongs,
slide your wire in
and then bend it back down.
You do want to try to get it as secure as possible.
As I say you want to use a little bit of E6000 if you're gonna put it on
something and you want to
make sure that it's secure. This will move around as it is quite a bit. So
just put the glue on the back
of your chaton
and try to get it right onto the back of whatever
you're mounting it onto.
Just a little bit will go a long way and it will hold it in place
nicely.
That's how you make a wire wrapped
setting using a wire jig.
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