by Ashlyn Averbeck
Making your own jewelry is a fun and inexpensive hobby. The wire wrapping technique of jewelry making is an ancient practice that has recently made a comeback and grown very popular. The earliest findings of wire wrapping date back between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago in Egypt and South Iraq. (Dunn) Wire wrapping can be very easy and simple to learn and do in only a few steps. Or it can be complicated and intricate, taking a long time to understand and complete. I still do simple wraps and haven’t even begun to learn more complicated ones. Wire wrapping jewelry is an easy to learn but hard to master process including collecting supplies, creating a base, wrapping the item, and securing the pendant.
Specific supplies are needed for making wire-wrapped jewelry. The first thing you need is wire. Any color or gauge can work, but the thicker the wire, the harder it is to cut and bend. For this simple style, 22-gauge or above is great. Also, if the packaging says bendable craft wire, it’s the best-still check the gauge though. Next, you’ll need something to cut the wire with. Wire cutters, pliers, and scissors all work depending on the gauge. I can cut my 22-gauge wire with a sharp pair of scissors, so it’s all up to preference. Lastly, you will need craft pliers. I like to use round nose and flat nose, but you can buy them in kits with a bunch of different kinds. Some kits even come with wire cutters, again it is all up to preference.
Supplies for making a wire-wrapped pendant.
Picking the right object to wrap is the most important step of the wire-wrapping process. If you choose to learn how to do more complicated, expert-level wire wrapping, you can wrap virtually anything. This technique though can be a little iffy on what the wire will stay secure on. Raw crystals or stones, raw meaning not smooth, are easier to wrap than tumbled stones. The wire has edges to hold on to when they are not perfectly smooth. Most tumbled pieces are usually so smooth that the wire will slip off. If you can find a tumbled with a weird shape, it would probably work fine. Another good type of tumbled piece to wrap is ones that didn’t get a gloss coat, they have a rougher feeling to them kind of like how sea glass feels. Sea glass is probably the easiest thing to wrap. It is smooth but it’s also typically thin making it easier to wrap around. I’m not sure why but something about the texture of sea glass is good too, it’s not slippery like a cold tumbled stone; it feels coarse almost.
From left to right: raw amethyst, tumbled and polished rutilated quartz, tumbled (no polish) green aventurine, and white beach glass.
Another easy piece to wrap is something that comes in the form of a “blade” like kyanite. It’s thin and long making it simple to wrap. If possible, try to have a few options when you are trying to wrap something because your first choice might not work very well, especially on your first try. You can always go back to something when you get more experience and try again.
Now that you have your supplies ready, you need to make the base of your pendant. The base is basically just the loop at the top of your pendant so you can put your jewelry on chains, cords, bookmarks, or whatever you want it to be on. There are two different styles I like to use when making a base. Before you start making your base, you will need to cut off some wire to use. Cut about a foot, give, or take, depending on the size of your object- it’s better to have too much rather than too little.
Cutting 22-gauge jewelry wire.
The first way will use round nose jewelry pliers. You’ll take your wire and wrap it around one of the tips of your pliers. The farther down your wire is, the bigger your loop will be.
Placing wire in the pliers to start making the base. (Using flat nose pliers)
Wrapping wire around pliers to make the base.
Two to three times is usually good. Once you finish wrapping it around, make sure the rest of your wire is sticking straight down from the loop you just made. The second option will use flat nose pliers, and it is a better option for fitting the pendant on any necklace no matter the size of the chain or clasps. You will basically do the same thing with this one, take the wire and wrap it around one of the plier’s tips. Again, the farther down the tip you go, the larger your loop will be. Two or three times will be good and make sure the wire is sticking straight down from the loop you made.
Finished pendant base.
Wrapping your object is the most complicated part of the process. You can use your hands or your pliers for this step. This is the step where you’ll find out if your object can be wrapped or not. Take your object (for the sake of this instruction we’ll say rose quartz), place it on the wire leaving about a quarter of an inch of space between the loop and the sea glass, and make the wire flat against the back of the glass.
Placing rose quartz for wrapping with enough space for securing.
Then, fold the wire up to the front of the quartz. Take the wire around a lower corner of the stone, bringing it to the backside. Next, take it and wrap it around the object; this can be in an overlapping or stacked style. Keep wrapping it around, gradually going higher until you’re near the top of the object. Once you think you have wrapped it in the middle enough, take the wire and wrap it either around a corner, or upwards at an angle around the object. Then, instead of wrapping around the rose quartz again, take the wire and wrap it one time around the lowest part of the space you left between the object and the base.
Securing your pendant is important to making sure your object stays in place and the wire doesn’t scratch you. Now that you have successfully wrapped your object, you can complete the last step: securing the pendant. You will now keep wrapping the wire around the wire between the base and the object. You can do this in a messy sort of overlapping way, or you can keep it clean and tight gradually going up.
Securing pendant in a stacking style.
Once you have done that enough that you can barely see the wire underneath, you can cut off any excess wire if need be.
Cutting excess wire.
Then, take your pliers and get the last little bit of the wire wrapped around securely, and you are done!
Securing the last bit of wire so it doesn’t scratch at anything.
Wire wrapping is a simple yet complicated art form. Once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s easy as pie. Jewelry making was introduced to me by my mom and my Aunt Colleen. They would make beach glass jewelry by wire wrapping all the time. Once I got into crystals, I started wire wrapping on my own and it’s one of my favorite hobbies.
Works Cited
Dunn, Tristan. “Wire-Wrapped Jewelry: Historical and Personal Perspectives.” Rio Grande, 21 Oct. 2019, www.riogrande.com/article?name=TristanDunn.
