Uses of Half-Round Wire for Jewelry
Half-round wire is used to for many things in the craft of jewelry making. The versatile wire can be shaped into links to form chains of all sizes. It can also be wrapped around items to create pendants, decorate stones or construct elaborate shapes to include in rings, bracelets and necklaces. There are different gauges and different hardnesses for different shapes and purposes.
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Wrapping
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Thin half-round wire with a high-numbered gauge can be wrapped around pendants, beads or shapes of wire. Large beads can be created into pendants by wrapping the wire around the bead and leaving a small loop at the top to string on jewelry wire or a chain. Smaller pendants or beads, wrapped elaborately with thin wire, can be strung together into a bracelet. A ring can also be created by attaching a stone wrapped in thin wire to a ring base.
Chains
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Small pieces of half-round wire of can be wrapped around the nose of needle-nose pliers at various points to create chain links. Each of these links can be clamped to another to create a long chain for use in bracelets and necklaces. Beads or pendants can be attached with half-round wire to any of these links to create a charm necklace or a charm bracelet.
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Bundles
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Bundles of wire can be wrapped together to more easily create a pendant from a stone or trinket. Starting at the top of the short bundle, wrap a single piece of half-round wire close to itself until the bundle is as long as you desire. The extra pieces of wire hanging from the bundle can now be wrapped around a stone to make rings or interlaced decorations.
Knitting
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Very thin half-round wire can be knitted together to create structural pendants. Using similar techniques to knitting or crocheting with needles, the wire is looped in and around itself or another piece, forming a structure of its own. Beads can be knitted or crocheted into the piece for added decoration.
Mixed
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Rings, earrings, necklaces and bracelets can be made entirely out of half-round wire through a combination of each of the previous techniques. Wire wrapped in bundles can be woven into itself. Elaborate structures created out of the wire can hang from chains made from small pieces of thick wire links. Crocheted strings of wire can hold pendants made from thin knitted wire. This material is versatile enough to serve a purpose in every jewelry maker's style.
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References
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