Hi there, welcome to another Friday Findings video. Today I am going to show you everything
you need to know about wrapped loops. So we like to use wrapped loops for a few
different reasons, first of all they are very secure, rather than a simple loop which can
be pulled open because there is an open space, a wrapped loop is completely enclosed. So
there is no chance of your jewelry coming apart.
I like to use wrapped loops, first of all for security, especially when I am using finer
gauge wire, I recommend using a wrapped loop anytime you are using wire finer than 22 gauge
and also for looks, they're actually kind of beautiful and you can make them very neat
and have a very tidy look or you can make messy wraps which are very interesting to
look at. So let me show you how to make a wrapped loop.
So here is a bead on a head pin, this is a 22 gauge head pin and I am going to use my
chain nose pliers and grasp the wire right where it comes out of the bead and I am going
to grasp it right where the chain nose pliers are about an 1/8 of an inch wide.
Now there are times when you may change this but for your average, nice tidy wrapped loop
that's what I would do and this little bit of wire here is where we are going to do our
wraps. The next thing to do is just to take that
wire and bend it over the chain nose pliers, so it's now at a 90 degree angle coming out
of the bead then you take your round nose pliers and if you want to make loops that
are consistent, I like 2mm loops, I have made a sharpie mark on my round nose pliers right
where they are 2mm in diameter, you can actually use a little set of callipers to do this and
measure right where that mark is. What we are going to do is tuck our round
nose pliers right into that 90 degree bend and place them at the point where you know
that you want the width of your loop to be and then just bend that wire up and over the
round nose pliers and because the pliers are in the way, you will only be able to get about
that far. Now we are going to tuck our pliers in now
with the lower jaw in the loop so that we can bring our wire around full circle and
now once again it is pointing in the same direction that it was at a 90 degree angle
to the wire that is coming out of the bead and of course if you need larger or smaller
loops, you just adjust where on your round nose pliers you make the loop.
For the next step I like to use 2 pairs of chain nose pliers. I am going to hold the
loop with one pair, now keep in mind this loop is going to be closed, you won't be able
to slide anything into it once you have wrapped it. So if you need to put a piece of chain
or a fused clasp or something that has a solid ring on it, you will need to do that now.
You can open this up a little bit, you can see there is a little space there, you open
it up and then you will be able to slide whatever it is you need on there and then make your
wraps, I am always getting all excited and making my wraps and forgetting to add what
I need. So hold your loop with one pair of chain nose
pliers and I love my bent chain nosed pliers for grabbing the wraps because the angle is
just very comfortable. You are going to grab the end of that wire
that is sticking out and we are just going to wrap and I am going to make nice neat wraps
right next to each other and that is what that little 1/8 of an inch of wire above the
bead is for and usually 2 or 3 wraps is good and there you have a wrapped loop and you
can see this is very secure, you can pull on this from today until next week and it's
not going anywhere. So we just need to trim off that excess wire
and often that last little bit of wire is sticking out straight, this one isn't bad,
but I like to take my chain nose pliers, again hold the loop, otherwise it will just
twist in your hands while you are trying to flatten it, hold the loop with one pair and
use your other pair of chain nose pliers to just tuck in that wire end and that is a beautiful
wrapped loop. Now the nice thing about wrapped loops is
you can make them out of very fine wire and let me show you a very economical way.
This is 26 gauge wire and there is no way I would ever make a simple loop out of this
in my jewelry because it wouldn't hold but making a wrapped loop it is going to be very
strong and secure. So let me show you a very economical way of
making wrapped loops and making messy wrapped loops right off the spool of wire and this
will save you a lot of wire waste. So the first thing you have to do is, you have to
put your bead on first, so there. Because this is so fine I can use my fingers, I am
just going to make a 90 degree bend, leaving a good 3 inches of wire and then as before
tuck in round nose pliers, make the loop, reposition finish the loop.
So at this point it looks just like our previous loop, if you need to add something in here,
now is the time to do it and like before, hold that loop with chain nose pliers and
I can actually use my fingers here because this is so fine. And I am just going to concentrate
on this last, again, 1/8 of inch of wire and I am just going to wrap and make just
kind of a pile of wraps here. This looks really great if you do it with
sterling silver wire or with copper wire and then apply a patina, tarnish it on purpose
and then you polish up the high points and you have the dark patina in all these
little nooks and crannies and that is it, it is kind of a cool look.
And then I just want to use pliers to kind of tuck in that wire end and now I can slide
my bead up and you can see that wrapped wire (lets straighten that out a little) that wrapped
wire almost looks like another bead, it really adds a lot of interest to the piece and then
on this end we do it the exact same way we do that other wrapped loop, about an 1/8 of
an inch, bend at 90 degrees, tuck in your round nose pliers, wrap and now because the wire
is still on the spool I am not going to have any waste I am just going to keep wrapping
here until this side looks about the same as the other.
And then I can trim off (I got a little excited there) I can trim off the excess, tuck in
the wire end, and you can see not only do I have a very secure bead in fine gauge wire, which
can be useful if you are doing things like pearls which the holes tend to be very small
and also a decorative element on each end with the messy wraps.
So I hope you found this helpful in knowing when to use wrapped loops and when to use
simple loops, if you want to learn more about simple loops I have made a video which will
be right here. If you like this video please make sure you've
subscribed to my YouTube channel so you'll see more like it and check out the other 2
jewelry making videos up on the screen and take a look at my blog, KeepsakeCrafts.net
where I have lots more creative ideas and inspiration.
Thanks so much for watching, happy creating, bye bye.