Working with Wire

Wire work really adds to a necklace or earrings and is usually the backbone to a bracelet. I really like working with wire because it gives a freedom to bend and mold into different shapes, twist, links, cages, almost anything to touch of flare or spice in a piece I’m designing. It can be very fund but it means having patience (loads of it), a creative and imaginative mind and being able to ‘see’ your piece within the wire are the many talents and gifts of artists around the world.

Wire is one of the essential supplies in my jewelry making business because it gives me the ability to take the jewelry beyond the normal beading limits. One of the questions I get asked regularly is do you know which is the right size and what material is best?

At first when I started working with wire, it was difficult and it much of a ‘trial and error’ method and to some degree it still is when trying out new techniques or creating new designs. But what I do is that once I have down what I’m trying to do with wire, I then write down how I did it, which gauge works best and how much wire I used. You also need to look at durability, malleability, style, color and manufacturer when working with wire before designing.

Wire is measured in gauges, from 16 all the way to 34; with 16 being the heaviest/thickest and 34 being the smallest/thinnest wires. Typically, the thicker the wire, the sturdier it will become. However, the type of material used for the wire also affects how flexible a particular gauge will be.

Rules of Thumb

*For bracelets, heavy necklace pendants designs or winding wire around very large beads, making charms or creating chain links, a 16 to 18 gauge is suggested.

*Gauges 20 to 24 are considered medium to thin thickness and are good for wire wrapping beads, as well as for constructing findings, headpins, and ear wires. This is typically the gauge used for making earrings and 20 or 22 are the best for ear wires.

*The smallest, skinniest wires are 26 to 34 gauges. They are easily manipulated and flexible, perfectly for use with small beads in embroidery and stitch projects.

You can find wire in brass, copper, pewter, or artistic non-tarnish are inexpensive and typically soft wires to work with; while sterling silver and gold filled are more expensive and typically vary in hardness’s from dead-soft to half-hard.

*Sterling Silver is great looking and made soft or hard. The only thing to remember is that silver will tarnish.

*For wire that will not tarnish and will retain its beauty and luster, try working with non-tarnish wires; it is very inexpensive and usually made from a copper core; covered with silver, gold, or colored coating that has been treated so that it will not tarnish.

*While the others run the spectrum of price; the most expensive wire to work with is gold or gold-filled, which does not tarnish. Some wire works will substitute gold-plated wire for cost effective designs.

Whatever your choice for your design, you will find that working with wire brings out the artist and craftsman in every design.

Browse our collections that incorporate metals including wire working on our website.

Wire Technique in Bails

Though I’m no expert by any means; there are many different ways you can wire a bail. Whether you are using a cabochon, drilled or glass pendant, how someone finishes off the piece by making the bail will sometimes make or break a particular piece. I’ve learned many different styles of bails, incorporating my own little style into some of them as my own ‘added touch’. But in the mainstream, whatever you create, make sure it sets off the pendant or piece; rather the pendant will stand on its own or be incorporated into a necklace.

Here is a simple bail to the right that many people call a ‘rabbit ears’ or ‘simple bail’ or ‘tv ears’; whatever your definitions, it’s how the bail is finished either with swirls, spirals, or whatever makes the pendant ‘pop’.

This bail to the left, is a spin of the rabbit ears simple bail. All I have done is modify it a little and twisted wire back and forth between the ‘ears' to give it a textured look.

With these two bails to the right, I learned it recently in a class with a national instructor. What I did was modify it slightly to be used with a coil instead of a graduated bail.

On this last bail to the left, I simple used a regular pic-bail and highlighted it with large double coils. It really added to the piece and as an added bonus, it gave a large silver look near the bail and less ‘spacers’ were used.

Learn from others, take their advice and expertise and create your own piece of art. It’s just a matter of letting your imagination run and creativities explode!

Brazilian Ocos Geode Agate

Agate geode halves which are found in the Ocos region of Brazil, are small agate nodules with a crystalline interior. Agate is named after a river in Sicily called Achates, where it was found in the Fourth Century, B.C. In the center of the rock, where there is a cavity, crystals often form, thus the name geode.

The formation in which the geodes are found is 50 million years old and located in the country of Brazil. Farmers have gathered the oco’s for many years. After the crops have been harvested and the farmers are unable to work, the fields are tilled under allowing the oco’s to appear. They are then gathered and sold for cutting into the geode half.

Agate tones and strengthens body and mind, as well as imparting a sense of strength and courage. It enhances creativity and stimulates the intellect. Agate is calming and soothing, and can dispel feelings of jealousy.

Browse and shop our website for these and many other unusal gemstone jewelry pieces.

*Ocos Agates from Panther Creek Minerals, San Antonio, Texas.

Gemstone of Virtue

Leonardo Da Vinci said, “Amethyst dissipates evil thoughts and quickens the intelligence.” The mystery around Amethyst; it is a variety of vitreous Quartz with purple, violet, or red-purple coloration, Amethyst derives its name from the ancient Greek ‘amethustols’, meaning literally ‘not drunk’. Traditionally associated with purity and piety, amethyst has also always been favored by royalty as purple is considered a regal hue.

Ancient Greeks believed that drinking wine from a cup of Amethyst would make them immune to intoxication. This belief is founded upon the origin of Amethyst as described in Greek mythology. According to ancient myth, amethyst was created by Dionysus, god of fruitfulness and wine. Angered by the purity of a young woman named Amethyst, who preferred to pay homage to the goddess Diana, he ordered two voracious tigers to devour her. Diana came to her rescue, transforming Amethyst into white Quartz. Overcome by remorse, Dionysus shed tears into his goblet of red wine. Some of the wine spilled, running onto the white stone, which absorbed its color, creating the stone Amethyst.

It can be found in most countries where granitic rocks are exposed, amethyst occurs in alluvial deposits and geodes. Its coloration is principally due to traces of iron, and it is sometimes color-zoned due to twinning or preferential absorption on the rhombohedral faces. Major commercial sources of amethyst are Brazil, where it occurs in geodes that are frequently human-sized; but it is also found in Uruguay, Siberia, and North America.

Amethyst traditional properties: Contentment, spirituality, dreams, healing, peace, happiness, love, intuition.

Raw Amethyst cluster is provided by Panther Creek Minerals, San Antonio, Texas. It has been free form wire wrapped in non-tarnish Silver wire.

See more natural gemstone beauties mixed with wire work at Timeless Designs.


*Information re-printed from various rock, mineral and gemstone books.

Wire Wrapping Techniques

On some jewelry, lapidary and gem forums chatter has been wire techniques. I’ve been asked by several people lately from these forums what is exactly a wire wrapping technique.

There is the traditional wire wrapping done mostly on the East coast, from what I’ve found of many wire wrappers. This is the Victorian style with big looping and swirls; most over-do the technique and end up overshadowing the gemstone.

Another technique that is emerging on the West coast is more of a free style or form. This form of wire wrapping is being referred to by East coasters as ‘just wire holding’ and not even a real technique. The free form follows the form of the stone or just creates different corners to hold the stone among the wires.

Emerging somewhere in-between is a very unusual technique, wire sculpture where the individual has really used their imagination and done a mix of many techniques; traditional, free form, and soldering. This is really more of a form of artwork and very intense.

It really doesn’t really matter what type of technique you use, as long as you create something that is unique, a piece of art that you are proud of to share with everyone else!

Red Flame Agate

I came across this beautiful cabochon Red Flame Agate at Tucson and couldn’t resist it! I did traditional wire work in copper and hung it from an off tone matching ribbon cord. It is removable like most of the pendants I create and can be put on another cord or chain.

Agates: Balancing physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies; perceptiveness, strength, inspiration, awakening talents.

For more pendants visit Timeless Designs.