Welcome back to Wire Jewelry and Wire Work Basics.
I have been working on a new series of videos and tutorials for you to enhance your basic wire working skills.
In the next few posts, we will focus on creating a variety of Wire Spirals which we can add to our jewelry designs as embellishments or components.
Wire Spirals can be used on many types of jewelry projects as charms, earring posts, head pins and more.
Wire spirals are a lovely versatile element and are easy to make with practice.
To date, we have learned how to make:
- Open Centered Closed Spirals
- Close Centered Closed Spirals
- Cone Spirals
Today, we going to focus on making Open Spirals. And we will talk about how to make identical duplicates..
TIP – If you haven’t worked with wire a lot or recently, I recommend that you practice with cheap wire before starting a new project.
Tools and Materials
Here is a list of materials and tools I used in the tutorials with my affiliate links provided for your convenience.
Using my links will help support this blog and the free content I share with you.
The Techniques
The full tutorial is in video form below. Here are a few tips to help you along the way.
- Try not to let mistakes frustrate you.
- By using cheaper wire, it is easy to cut off the booboo and start again.
- Practice is an important part of mastering the techniques of wire work.
- Check out other tutorials if you have trouble understanding.
Not everyone teaches or learns the same way. So explore other tutorials and lessons on your own.
To make duplicates, you need two wires with flush cut ends.
It is very important that the first loops in the center or the spiral are identical.
I find that using the same barrel of Multi-step Pliers works the best for this step.
Just like making closed spirals, we will work the wire, not the pliers.
I found that leaving a tiny bit of the center loop visible, helps you gauge the distance between the wires with ease.
Use the natural curve of the wire to your advantage.
Use your finger to smooth the curve very gently .
Working both spirals a little at a time, helps to get the intial rounds even and identical.
Check each component often to make sure they are as close to identical as you can get them.
Open Spirals are considerably harder to make and require even the most experienced jewelers to get frustrated.
Take you time and don’t be afraid to start over. I have found that startring over is easier than trying to fix the spirals.
If you practice with cheaper artistic wires, this won’t wind up costing you a lot of cash.
When you move into using precious metals, remember that you can anneal and straighten your wires if you make a mistake.
I hope you find this tutorial useful and have fun adding open spirals to your designs.
In the next post, we will take a look at coiling.
Coils in essence are a three dimensional spiral. The difference is that we work them on a mandrel and the coils are nested tightly upon each other.
