Ring with a Twist Video Tutorial

Ready for another ring tutorial?!  This ring is simple to make and the design can be easily adapted to suit your own style. You can use whatever beads you want but smaller (4mm and 2mm) round beads work best.


Materials: 
6 inches (15 cm) of 20 gauge wire;
24 inches (50 cm) of 26 gauge wire;
3 x 4 mm beads; and
8 x 2mm beads.

Tools:
wire cutters;
round nose plier; and
a ring mandrel (optional but will make life a lot easier!)

Watch the video below to see the tutorial:

Paper Beads Tutorial

I love experimenting with different mediums, especially paper! As I have said before, I LOVE traditional origami paper.  I love experimenting to see how I can work beautiful paper into my jewelry designs. Making papers beads is very simple.  They may sound like something you would have made as a child, but the results can be very elegant and totally unique. 

The style of bead you make will depend on how you cut your paper.  The first style I made was by cutting a square piece of paper into triangular strips.  For accuracy, I drew the triangles on the back of the paper. I then cut the paper into triangular strips. 

I then wrapped the paper, starting with the largest section of the paper, around a wooden skewer. It is best to wrap the paper tightly around the skewer for this stage.







Once you get to the end, glue the inside of the last section of the paper and wrap it around the wrapped part of the paper.









Hold the glued section closed for about 30 seconds to allow it to set.

You can change the shape of your beads by changing the way that you cut the paper in the first step.  You can make rectangular strips of paper to make the beads I used to make the earrings above.  Experiment with different shapes of paper to find something totally unique!

Three Bead Ring

Making rings from wire can be a little daunting but can lead to beautiful results.

To make this three bead ring, you will need:

1. 24 inches (50 cm) of 28 gauge wire;
2. 6 inches (15 cm) of 20 gauge wire; and 
3. 3 x 4mm beads.

I used opaque glass Czech beads with gold plated wire.  

Happy ring making!! 

Origami Leaf Earrings

I love origami paper - particularly the traditional Japanese designs.  I recently bought a bunch of beautiful paper online and I have been incorporating it into my jewelry designs.

These leaf earrings are very easy to make and look beautiful.

You will need:

1. once piece of square origami paper (the piece I used was about 5 inches x 5 inches (12cm x 12cm), and the earrings I made were quite large.  You therefore might want to try using a smaller piece of paper if you do not want your earrings to be so dramatic);
2. 10cm (3.15 inches) of 24 gauge wire; 
3. 2 earring hooks; and 
4. a small amount of craft glue. 

The first step, is to cut your square paper in half diagonally.

Next, turn the paper face down.  Fold the largest section of the paper, about 2mm from the edge of the paper.

Continue folding the paper, turning it onto the other side every time you do, so that is is folded like an accordion. 

Fold the paper in half, bringing the largest sections of the paper together. 

The next step is to make a wire loop so that you can connect the paper to an earring hook.  You could use a jump ring to do this, but I prefer to make a wrapped loop so that the structure is stronger without the need for solder.  Take a 5cm length of wire, and bend the top of the wire around pliers to make a loop. 

Bend the longer length of wire around the pliers so that you make a second, larger loop. You want the loop to be large enough so that the folded paper can be threaded through it. 

 Wrap the wire twice around the 'stem' wire, towards the top of the smaller loop. Trim the excess wire.

Thread the folder paper through the large loop. The loop should be held in the section where the paper was folded in half. 

Place glue along the edges of the inside of the folded paper.  Make sure not to glue the other folded sections together, otherwise the earrings will not fan out. 

Thread the top small loop onto an earring hook, and your earrings are complete!

You can cover the earrings with Mod Podge or an acrylic spray to make them more durable. 

How to make hair sticks

This is one of my favourite projects. I love hair sticks - I stick one in my bun or wrap my hair around the stick to cover up a bad hair day.

In my experience, hair sticks are very popular with consumers. They are really simple to make, and you can adapt them to suit your individual style.

They are incredibly simple to make.  All you need is:

1. a pre-drilled hair stick (you can buy them online or you can buy a wooden chopstick and drill the centre)
2. a couple of beads,
3. a bead cap; and 
4. a small amount of super glue. 

The video tutorial is below. I hope you love them as much as I do!

Wire Fringe Necklace

Once you have learned the basics of jewelry making, I highly recommend experimenting with different styles and creating unusual pieces.  Not only is it fun, but, if you want to sell your jewelry, you will find it is a great idea to offer something original and completely unique.  You may not appeal to the mass market, but you may find that a smaller group of people will fall in love with your individual designs.

This necklace is a little different - you can make it as elegant or dramatic as you like. You can see that I have made it into a 'bib' style and added chain.  You could make it longer to create a more dramatic effect.

For this project I used:

1. 40cm of 24 gauge wire;
2. 2.5m of 28 gauge wire;
3. 39 beads;
4. 1 necklace clasp; and
5. 18cm of chain.

If you do not want to use chain and want to make the 'fringed' part of your necklace longer (you could make it the entire length of the necklace), then you should allow for up to 3.5m of 28 gauge wire.  How much wire you use will depend on not only the length of the fringed part but also the length of the 'fringes' themselves.

If you would like to know more about the different types of wire used in jewelry making, check out the previous post.

The video tutorial for this project is below - happy twisting!

Jewelry Making Materials - Wire

Choosing Wire 

There is a lot of choice when it comes to selecting materials, particularly wire.  Below, I have outlined some of the basics which may assist you getting started.

Thickness

Wire is usually described by its 'gauge, being a reference to its thickness.  In some countries, its thickness is referred to in millimeters.  A higher gauge will mean a thinner wire.

Thick wire (16 to 20 gauge or 1.3mm to 0.8mm) is great for making components, like jump rings.  It is also great to use to create a  'structure' like a circle or a square, to base you design around, so it can be particularly useful in making pendants. It is strong and will hold its shape. I used 20 gauge wire to make the bangle on the right.

Medium wire (22 to 24 gauge, or 0.65mm to 0.5mm) is perfect for wrapping beads.  It is flexible but holds its shape fairly well. It is great for making connections between beads, or for wrapping large beads. I used 24 gauge wire to make the necklace on the left.

Thin wire (26 to 28 gauge, 0.3mm to 0.4mm) is great for wire crochet or delicate weaving.  I used (a lot!) of 28 gauge wire to make the twisted vine necklace on the right.  It is also great for filling shapes made from 20 gauge wire (I will be posting a tutorial for that project soon!)

Tiger tail is a thin, flexible nylon wire.  It can't be used for wrapping but can be used with crimp beads for 'floating' earring or necklace projects, like those on the left.










Materials

Wire comes in a number of different types of materials. You should be mindful of the coating of your wire. Some wire, like aluminium wire, is inexpensive but will tarnish in a small amount of time.  Some cheaper wires will also snap when bent (which can lead to some real frustration!). It can be great for practicing (provided that it is fairly strong) but is not ideal for final projects.

Generally, I like to use silver or gold plated wire.  It is not overly expensive, looks great and does not tarnish. It is also really strong - even the thinner wires don't snap after repeated bending.

If you want something even stronger, you may want to try gold or silver filled wire.  It is like plated wire, but the coasting of the gold or silver is much thicker.

If you have any queries at all, let me know and I will do may best to help - email me or comment below.

Happy wrapping!