Ever since
I wrote about the tutorial for an easy coiled wire and wire wrapped bangle, I've wanted to try a different approach. Back then it was bad enough trying to form a coiled wire bangle with 16G wire let alone anything thicker. So this tutorial shows how to get the coiled wire look the easy way!
The solution was the
preformed 12G wire bracelets from Tierracast which I received for review. Saves a lot of hurting! Plus the easy to use integrated clasp makes the design look finished.
I used 20G wire for the coils and 26G wire for wire wrapping. These spools shown below were
courtesy of Parawire.
The first thing I did was to make test coils with scrap wire. The wire coil has to pass over the hook clasp.
You can use any convenient wire coiling tool - or even a knitting needle (see first link below). I used my Artistic Wire tool fitted with the largest mandrel for winding the 20G wire. The circumference of the bracelet form (not including the clasp area) was about 6 inches. So I created a wire coil about half as long i.e. 3 inches. Leave a 3 inch tail before cutting the wire.
Take the wire coil off the mandrel and straighten the part that was used to wind around the tool handle.
Wrap tightly a few times around the bracelet. These have to be very firm. So use chain nose pliers to squeeze down. Trim. The wire work must not move past the hook, otherwise it will interfere with the catch.
Now ease open the wire coil so that it covers the entire bracelet.
Wrap the wire tail around the bracelet itself on the other side. trim and make sure it is tight.
Then position the wire coils in groups of 5, with the excess evenly distributed at the clasp ends.
Cut off about 2 ft of 26G wire. This may not be enough so be prepared to end and start up another length. Begin by doing a few wire wraps around the last coil to the left of the first "hole" feed in a 4 mm crystal. I chose to go with an "up and down" design with the crystals for a good reason. This helps set the crystal in place with the actual bracelet itself.
Now wind the wire through the gaps in the wire coil, making your way to the next gap.
Once at the next gap, I wrapped the wire a few times on the bracelet itself and added the next crystal. This crystal was then secured with more wire wrapping to the top of the first coil in the next group of coils.
Keep going around until all the gaps have been filled! I used the tricolor scheme and TierraCast's volleyball charm in this Olympics inspired design. But really, you can use any charms you want!
Tune in tomorrow for the second tutorial which uses seed beads instead of crystals.
DisclosurePhotographyI used natural light, my iPhone 6S with the camera+ app and the Modahaus TS320 tabletop studio. As you can see above, I used white, grey and black backgrounds. To get the graduated grey backgrounds, I put the black sheet behind the white. The tutorial photographs were taken with the same camera using the Modahaus TS400 in my basement studio which was equipped with LED lights. Check out my
How to Photograph Jewelry Webinar - the webinars will resume in late August or September.
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