Twisted wire jewelry tutorials.

Twisted wire jewelry tutorials. How do you make a twisted wire? How to twist wire with a drill.

Table of Contents

Tools

For my jewelry, I often use twisted wire of different thicknesses. Today I want to share with you my simple ways to make twisted wire at home without using expensive tools. I think you can find these common tools, you can find them in almost every home.

You will need wire cutters and any drill. All types of drills are okay – hand or electric (corded or cordless). I use both a hand drill and an electric drill with a battery. Each of them is good in certain cases.

The thickness of the wire depends on what you are going to use the twisted wire for. I will tell you and show you the cases when I use a certain wire thickness (and what thickness is best for each type of jewelry).
In this tutorial for twisted wire jewelry, I will use natural copper wire.
Remember that the wire will get shorter after twisting the wire.

Twisted wire 0.3-0.4 mm. Twist the two wires together.

I use twisted wire of this thickness to make coils. I use such coils of wire for wire twisted jewelry. I use different natural wire: copper, silver, brass, bronze, nickel silver, german silver. The wire must be soft.

Usually, I twist together two wires of 3-5 meters each. On one side, I attach the two wires to any rigidly fixed object. In the video tutorial, I fastened the ends to the rollers that are attached to the window sill.

The other end I connect to a hook that is fixed in the drill. I made the hook out of a rivet. The hook can be made from any stiff wire.

Hold the wire taut and turn on the drill. I usually make a tightly twisted wire. I twist the wire until it tears. Usually, the wire breaks off near the hook. If you need to twist the wire even harder, then hook the wire again and keep twisting until the next break.

VIDEO

Twisted thin wire can be used to make a coil. This will be a ready element for your twisted wire jewelry. Twisted wires can be twisted on a usual metal knitting needle clamped in a drill (see video).
Check out my twisted wire jewelry with a coil of thin wire.

Twisted wire. Twist two thick wires.

I use the thick twisted wire as an extra element for my twisted wire jewelry. The process of twisting is no different from twisting thin wire. But there are nuances.
I usually twist short lengths of thick wire (up to 1 meter). The short sections are more evenly twisted.
Thick wire is usually twisted with a hand drill. Thick wire should be twisted slowly.
Short sections of 10-20 cm can also be twisted in other ways.

Fold the wire in half. Put the loop, for example, on a self-tapping screw screwed in the table. Use any rigidly fixed object on which you can throw the loop. On the other side, grip the two ends with pliers, pull the wire taut. Hold firmly and twist the wire to the desired condition.

As in the first case, put the loop on the self-tapping screw. Fix the other two ends by the hook in a hand or electric drill. The ends of the thick wire can be simply clamped in the drill, even without a hook (clamped directly in the chuck). Stretch the wire and twist it to the desired condition.

Two ends can be clamped in a vice and the loop can be placed in a hook attached to the drill. Tighten and twist the wire.

If you want a very tight, evenly spread twist, the wire should be annealed. After the first twist before breaking, the wire becomes stiffer. In order to make it softer, it should be heated evenly with a gas torch burner until it turns crimson. After that, it should naturally cool down. After annealing, the wire will become softer and easier to twist. Continue to twist the wire until you get the tightness of the twist you want.

As you can see, you can make twisted wire in many different ways available. You don’t need expensive tools to do it. You can use tools that you probably have at home.

In some cases, the twisted wire can be slightly flattened. The twisted wire will look completely different. Be sure to use this technique in your twisted wire jewelry.

It is best to flatten the wire in a special jewelry rolling mill. If you do not have it, you can use an anvil and a hammer. Small sections of thick twisted wire are easy to flatten on the anvil with a hammer. I often do this myself.

Single twisted wire of different shapes.

I decided to conclude by showing what a single twisted square wire looks like. I clamped one end in a vise. The other end I clamped with pliers and twisted. You can twist small sections this way.

A thick round wire flattened by a jewelry rolling mill. One end was clamped in a vise. The other end was clamped in a hand drill. You can also use this technique to twist wire.