How to Wire Jewelry
Wire can form the basic shape of jewelry and be used to string beads, or it can be used as a decorative wrap around the outside of crystals, rocks, beads or almost anything you can think of. Although wire for stringing beads often comes in a nondescript color, decorative wire is usually made of gold, copper, silver or sometimes bronze. When selecting wire to use as a foundation for your work, make sure it's thin enough to poke through the holes in the beads you've selected.
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Instructions
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Necklaces and Bracelets
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Cut a length of wire to the desired length for a necklace.
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Run the wire through your fingers, gently bending it into shape a bit at a time to avoid creasing or crinkling it.
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Poke the end of the wire through the holes in beads, stringing them onto the wire just as you'd string them on a piece of thread.
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Use your chain-nose or flat-nose pliers to crimp the ends of a clasp onto each end of the wire. Which set of pliers you use will depend on how wide the clasp is.
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Follow the same procedure, using a shorter piece of wire, if you'd like to wire a bracelet.
Earrings
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Start with a head pin--this is a short, straight length of wire with a stopper at the bottom to keep beads from falling off.
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Poke the head pin through the holes in your beads, effectively skewering them in place. Leave at least 1 inch of wire at the top of the pin without any beads on it.
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Use your chain-nosed pliers to bend that extra wire into a tiny loop, as small and as close to the beads as you can manage.
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Poke a premade earring wire through the tiny loop. Use your chain-nosed pliers to twist the loop tighter until it's as close as possible to the tops of the beads but not so tight that they can't dangle freely.
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Snip off any extra wire left from the head pin using your wire cutters.
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Repeat the same process for the other earring.
Wire Wrapping
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Grasp the object to be wrapped in the fingers of one hand, holding the wire against it with your thumb.
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Smooth the wire around the object to be wrapped using your fingers or, if the wire is especially stiff, use flat-nosed pliers to grasp and manipulate the wire without crimping it. You may want to wrap the wire many times or just a few; it's up to you.
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Tuck the ends of the wire in what will be the back side of the wrapped piece, or use chain-nosed pliers to twist them into a tiny loop for hanging the item. If you don't craft a loop out of wire, you'll need to either glue a loop to it or drill a tiny hole through which to pierce a head pin and craft a loop out of the head pin with your chain-nosed pliers.
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Tips & Warnings
The key to successfully wire wrapping a stone is making sure that the wire fully encases the stone so it won't slip out.
