Handmade pendant. Wire Wrapped Stone Pendants. How to wire wrap stones for beginners. Free Wire wrap tutorials.
Today we are going to make a Handmade pendant out of copper wire and a natural stone bead with a hole. These step-by-step instructions are suitable for beginners as well as for craftsmen with experience.
Table of Contents
Handmade pendant. Wire jewelry tools.
In order to make the pendant with our bare hands we need a small set of hand tools, which can be purchased in the store.
I would like to talk a little more about the silicone tipped pliers. This is a must-have for any craftsman. I have two of these tools. And now I am going to explain to you why. On one pair of pliers the tips are hard – they are good for tightening the weaving. In my video tutorials you can see it when I weave the wire – it is really comfortable. The second pair of pliers has soft tips. I use it while bending the wire. But having only one pair of silicone tipped pliers is enough.
The rest of the tools are probably familiar to you. If not, check out the detailed description of the hand- wire tool in this post.
Handmade pendant. A stone for a pendant.
We will use a flat bead with a hole. I recommend using beads made from volcanic stones. Sedimentary rocks are soft and easy to damage while working. They can easily be scratched with a tool or damaged when sanding or polishing the wire.
If you use soft stones, try to work carefully. Cover the stone when you are sanding or polishing a whole piece.
Wire that we will use to make a DIY pendant.
I often choose copper wire for making my jewelry. I really like the color of copper. I like to patinate and polish the copper wire in the final stage. Copper wire weaving look really great. By the way, this wire is very cheap.
As someone who has been making wire jewelry for over 20 years, I recommend that beginners pay attention to the selection of wire thickness when making weaving.
If you are a beginner, I recommend using 1mm thick wire for the base, the stiffness should be medium. For weaving, it is better to use 0.4mm thick wire. This one should be relatively soft.
In this lesson, I use two types of wire – the ones I have just described for you.
Wire wrap tutorial for beginners.
Beforehand, make sure that the 1 mm thick wire fits through the hole of your stone.
We will need four pieces of 1mm thin wire. The length should be about 40 – 50 cm each. You should always have a lot of 0.4 mm thin wire. This type of wire is extremely important in our work.
We push one piece of wire through the hole in the stone and bend it as shown in the photo below.
Next, approximately in the middle, we should weave three wires.
It is enough to weave only 3-4 cm area. Then weave the fourth piece of wire.
Next, we should weave it to both sides – left and right. Bend the weaving as shown in the photo. Bend it around the stone. I usually do it very carefully – I do it with my bare hands. You can help yourself with silicone tipped pliers.
The other end of the wire that comes out of the stone should be weaved into the weaving.
Do everything as shown in the photo. You may have noticed that I have changed the way of weaving on one side. Using this type of weaving we will make a pendant eyelet for the cord.
Bend the ends of weaving neatly. Try to make smooth bends without sharp angles. It is better to bend them with a first try. It is very difficult to return the bend to its original state – you have only one try to bend.
Direct the ends of the wires as shown in the photo.
We will bend the two ends into rings. Measure and cut off the excess material. Bend the ends with round pliers.
We flatten the remaining two ends of the wire with a hammer on the anvil. Cut off the excess.
Flatten the ends and file them with files.
Let’s move to the making of the eyelet for the cord.
Just use any round object. As for me, I used a brush.
On the back side of the pendant, let’s divide the wire into two pairs. Now, we will weave two wires at a time. Bend the weavings, so the stone will not twist. We press the wire to the stone. It should be placed tightly.
In the bottom photo, you can see how I “sew to the lower weaving”. If you see this phrase in the tutorials, it means exactly that.
The ends of the wire should be hidden behind the weaving, so that they do not damage your clothes or scratch the skin on the body.
Make the second loop. It prevents the stone from twisting and moving in general.
The ends of the second pair should also be hidden behind the weaving.
Examine the pendant, eliminate the flaws, if there are any.
I usually patinate copper wire and then polish it. You can use special solutions that are sold in stores to patinate copper.
Then I polish the copper with felt circles using polishing pastes. Then, so that the copper will not darken over time, you can cover it with a special colorless varnish.
The Handmade pendant of copper wire and a stone is ready!
Good luck with your creative projects!
Handmade pendant. Wire wrap tutorials.
Wire wrapped tutorials PDF Valeriy Vorobev
I have several thousand students all over the world. But unfortunately I do not speak other languages and I have to use the help of translators. Not knowing the languages do not stop me from creating educational web sites, providing free lessons and make stuff for internet shops in different languages. You can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter.
Valeriy Vorobev
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