Making Copper Wire Earrings. Lora S. Irish

Stepped mandrel pliers also have a concave arm into which the stepped circular arm fits. The stepped arm allows you to control the size of loops, jump rings, and split rings very precisely. It is easy and quick to create a set of rings of exactly the same size using these pliers.

      18 Some lower-quality glass beads (typically produced in China) are manufactured on nichrome wires coated with bead release to prevent the hot glass from adhering to the nichrome wire. A bead reamer is used to clean that layer from the hole of a bead, making the center of the bead brighter and clearer in color. Bead reamers are small, thin metal cones that have a textured surface. Slide a reamer into a bead hole and gently file away any bead release inside the hole. You may find that beads can crack during the bead reaming process. However, those beads often were initially cracked during the glass-blowing process, and it was only the bead release that kept the bead from breaking. By cleaning the inside of glass beads before you use them, you can ensure that the beads will not succumb to their inherent flaws and break later during use.

      19 Long-nose pliers have extra-long, flat arms. They are wonderful when you are working large wirework links because they secure the entire link during a bending step, not just one or two arms of the link. The extra gripping room is great for when you are working large wire-wrapped earrings.

      20 Specialty nylon-jaw pliers have one flat arm and one cone-shaped arm. The cone-shaped arm can be used to hold and bend smooth and perfectly even loops, curves, and circles without damaging the wire.

       HOUSEHOLD ITEMS

      Many items you already have in your home can be used to help you make earrings. Be creative and open-minded.

      21 Assorted markers, medicine bottles, wooden spoons, and a whole host of other household items make perfect rolling forms for bending hoops, spirals, and more.

      22 Coiling tools are available for purchase and come in a variety of shapes and sizes for the coiling arm. The handle in which the coiling arm is secured, like the purple one shown here, makes turning the coil quick and easy. However, any even-diameter tubular household item can become a coiling tool, like the nail shown here. For small-diameter coils, though, you will likely need a coiling tool.

      23 Miscellaneous items like alligator clips, non-skid kitchen mats, scrap chipboard, permanent markers, measuring tapes, small metric rulers, and painter’s tape are often found in a jeweler’s toolkit. For example, the custom clamp shown here is created using two pieces of scrap cereal box and an alligator clip. The alligator clip holds the wire link secure as the scrap cardboard prevents the clip from scratching the link. As another example, painter’s tape is a low-tack tape that can be used to secure several bending wires together before beginning the wire-wrapping process. Use your imagination and whatever you have on hand to make your life easier while creating earrings.

       Cardboard Bobbin

      To work an extra-long wrapping or to add a series of small beads to a wire, try creating a cardboard bobbin. Coil the extra-long length of wrapping wire around a square of scrap cardboard with a notch in it, then add all the beads that you will be using. The bobbin controls the wrapping wire while making it easy to slide each bead into place. If you use this technique, you should not wrap the bobbin tightly, as it will kink and work-harden the wire. Small kinks like these are hard to fix and will show in the final wire wrapping.

BEADS

      Beads add bright spots of color to wire-wrapped links. There is a shape, color, and texture in beads for every jewelry style, and they are available in a wide variety of media, such as glass, acrylic, resin, gemstone, coral, shell, porcelain, clay, and metal. Beads not only add color to your earring design, but they can also become the base for a wire-wrapping pattern.

      Beads are sized in millimeters. The hole in the bead always needs to accommodate the gauge of the wire, but some general sizes tend to work well together visually. Small beads that work well with 20-gauge through 26-gauge wrapping wire are 2mm to 6mm. Larger beads, often used as the focal points of a jewelry design, may range from 8mm up to 20mm and work well with 16-gauge through 20-gauge wire.

      Throughout the projects in this book, bead sizes, colors, and shapes are provided, but you can use any beads you prefer when making your own version of a project. Just hold your bead options against your link wire to see if you like the effect.