Wire Jewelry Making Made Simple
Making jewelry is an excellent past time, whether you're doing it alone or with your kids, and can also become a profitable business as well. For someone just starting out making jewelry, it can be a bit confusing, what with all the different types and styles of beads, string, wire, etc.
One of the most beginner friendly wires would have to be memory wire.
Memory wire does not need fancy crimping or clasps, and one size fits all. Memory wire is flexible wire that springs back into it's original shape when not stretched, similar to a slinky. It comes in different sizes, such as necklace, bracelet, and ring. You just cut off a section to the size you want and start stringing on the beads!
Selecting Beads For Memory Wire Jewelry Making
The first step to making any type of jewelry of course it to decide what beads to use. Some people prefer glass beads, some prefer gemstones, while others enjoy wooden beads. Some like to mix and match beads, using a variety of shapes and sizes to create a unique, fun design.
There is no "wrong" type of bead, so choose the one's that you like the best and start stringing! If you don't like how it turns out, you can always take off the beads and start again.
Tools That You'll Need For Memory Wire Jewelry Making
- A memory wire cutting tool; these can be found in craft store, just make sure they aren't normal wire cutters, or they'll soon become ruined.
- Memory wire; you can find this in packages at most craft stores.
- Needle nose pliers
- Lots and lots of beads!
Step By Step Guide To Memory Wire Jewelry Making
1. Cut memory wire to size. For bracelets or rings, decide how times you want it to be wrapped around your wrist or finger, then wrap the wire around your own wrist or finger and cut to size. For necklaces, you want it to be a size that you can easily put on and remove.
2. Now you need to close up one end so that the beads don’t slide off. Take the tip of your needle nose pliers and place them right at the very end of the wire. Now take the wire in your other hand and bend it around the pliers. The wire is pretty hard, so this might be difficult and yoy may have a hard time with this at first.
Try practicing on some smaller pieces first until you can make a perfect little loop. Make sure the loop is closed off so no beads can escape. Don’t worry - if you screw up you can just cut off the end and try again! You want the loop to be as small as possible so it doesn’t detract from our design
Tip - Some people like to glue little colored cap beads to the ends. While this does look a bit better, there's a risk that the glue wont hold and all your beads will go sliding off. Instead, try dangling some small beads from the looped ends to fancy them up a bit.
3. Start stringing the beads! If making a necklace with a certain design or focal point, be careful to space beads so that they'll accentuate the focal point instead of drawing attention away from it.
4. Close the other end using the same method you used for the first loop in step 2.
Now that you know the steps, you're ready to start creating unique, one of a kind jewelry that all your friends will envy.