Famous Jewelry Collections: THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

Saturday, September 3, 2011

THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

A Challenging Wire Wrapped Coral Jewelry Project

Posted: 03 Sep 2011 04:00 AM PDT

Earlier this year, I completed a most challenging wire wrapping project. One of my colleagues had some coral which she bought in her native Algeria more than 20 years ago. Khalida said she bought it from people who collected it off the Mediterranean coast.

She loved the color but as you can see from the 3 pieces, there were a few issues for me to tackle. The first was obviously the shape. The main piece was akin to knobbly chicken feet due to the branching feature of red coral.

The two small irregular dagger pieces were also undrilled. After some consultation with Khalida, copper was chosen. So I tested out some grouped wrapping with swirls which worked because the wire work did not hide the coral. This was important to Khalida.

That design feature was carried over to the earrings. The only thing holding these dagger pieces to the ear wires is the wire wrapping. The coral pieces were not equal in length either but I tried to keep the distance between the top and bottom wrappings the same for both earrings. This makes the earrings visually "balanced."

The next decision was the necklace. Khalida wanted a simple necklace but she did not like the black cord I initially suggested.

She preferred a neck wire in the same metal as the wire wrapping. So I made one out of 18G copper wire, hammering it lightly with a nylon hammer to work harden it. I attached a lobster clasp and a short copper chain to the wire loops at the ends.