- A wire jig is a peg board you use to bend wire into looped designs. You can wrap the wire 360 degrees around a peg to form a closed loop or wrap from peg to peg in a zigzag or figure eight pattern for a different shape. The resulting designs can be used as pendants or earrings, or you can join them together by linking the closed loops to form chains. Between 18 and 26 gauge wire is good to begin. You want the wire to be thin enough to bend easily, but not so thin that it loses its shape when worn in a jewelry design.
- Wire rolled into flat coils, also called spirals, can be linked together to form necklaces and bracelets or joined to lengths of chain like charms. You need flat nose or chain nose pliers, round nose pliers and wire nippers to create spirals. Start by creating a small loop in the end of a wire by rolling it around the jaws of the round nose pliers. Hold that loop flat in the flat nose or chain nose pliers and gently bend the long end of the wire around the center loop in a continuous circle. Rotate the loop in the pliers as you bend. The coil will grow as you continue to bend the wire, and the pliers will keep it flat. Add a loop to the opposite end of that piece of wire and now you can hang the coil or join it to the loop of another coil you make.
- If you make loops on the ends of beads, you can join them into chains to form necklaces, bracelets or earrings. Round nose and needle or chain nose pliers are used to create the wire loops either from a piece or wire or, more commonly, from a head pin or an eye pin. The eye pin already has a loop on one end, so using them to make beads with loops on both ends will save you time. To make a simple loop after a bead is on the pin, bend the end of the pin 90 degrees to the bead, trim the end to about 1/4 inch from the bend, then grip the end of the wire in the round nose pliers and roll it into a closed loop. Wrapped loops are made in a similar fashion, except when you bend the wire 90 degrees, you leave a little room at the top of the bead for the wrap. Use the round nose pliers to roll the wire into a loop like before, except the end will be longer now and will cross over itself. Use the needle or chain nose pliers to wrap the long end of the wire around the space you left above the bead two or three times and trim the excess with wire nippers. If you plan to join several wrapped looped beads together in a chain, insert the end of the wire through the loop of the next bead before you close the wrapped loop.
