Wire wrapped cabochon pendant.

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Wire wrapped cabochon pendant. Wire wrapping a stone pendant. Handmade jewelry. Free Wire wrap tutorial Valeriy Vorobev.

Before I start, I don’t exactly think about the design of future jewelry. Before I make a jewelry piece, I first think about how to fix the stone. This is the most important in making a wire wrapped cabochon pendant. I do the design of the jewelry later. First, I need the idea of how to set the stone.

It is better if the stone has a hole, because it makes the process much easier. When I use a cabochon without a hole, there are certain difficulties in attaching it. We do not use soldering, so we cannot solder the cabochon as most jewelers do and fix it in place.
While working with stones and wire throughout my whole life, I have developed several ways to fix (without soldering) stones without a hole. I’m not saying that I invented these methods of fastening. I have several methods of fastening stones, all of them are great. One of which I will tell you about today.

This method helps us to secure the cabochon with help of elements of the jewelry design. Weavings, coils, spirals are used to prevent the stone from falling down, falling forward and moving around. In other words, it is tightened on all sides.
This is exactly what we are going to do today – we will make a pretty wire wrapped cabochon pendant out of copper wire and a stone cabochon.

We have already used this method in previous lesson – Wire wrapping pendant tutorial. DIY wire jewelry.

Table of Contents

Wire wrapped cabochon pendant. Cabochons without a hole for a wire pendant.

This method is good for thin cabochons. The thickness is up to about 5 mm. The shape of the cabochon can be different. The only recommendation is to use cabochons and cut stones made of volcanic rocks. To put it simply, use hard stones.
I used a cabochon of this shape.

What kind of wire you need to make a wire wrapped cabochon pendant.

What you need to pay special attention to when choosing wire.

The hardness of the wire. There are three types of wire – hard, medium and soft. I mostly use medium-hard wire for the base and soft wire for the weaving.

If you plan to patinate the wire and then polish it, you need natural wire (copper, silver, brass, bronze, nickel silver, cupronickel). Please note, you need different patination solutions for different wire compositions.

If you plan to flatten the wire, heat with a torch, change the shape, grind – you need only natural wire.

Pay special attention when choosing the hardness of the wire. If you are making jewelry, I recommend that you start with 1mm thick wire for the base and 0.4mm thick wire for the weaving. Second option: 0.8mm thick wire for the base and 0.3mm for the weaving. Use a medium-hard wire for the base and a soft wire for the weaving.

Tools for working with wire.

We will need a small set of hand tools.

To work with wire, I recommend using silicone tipped pliers.

The rest of the tools will be explained in the lesson itself.

You can use all my lessons and create your jewelry by my design! But I have a request for you to specify me as an author. If possible, share the link to my blog. Thank you!
Valeriy Vorobev

Wire Wrapped Stone Pendant. DIY, Wire wrap tutorial.

We will use natural copper wire to make a wire wrapped cabochon pendant. Let’s take two pieces of 1mm thick copper wire about 50 cm long and 0.4 mm thick copper wire to weave the main wire. For the additional element, we use 0.5-0.6 mm thick wire.
Stone cabochon without a hole.

Twist together two pieces of soft copper wire 0.5-0.6 mm thick. You can clamp them in a vise and twist with a hand drill.

Next, you need to slightly flatten the twisted wire. To do this, you can use special jewelry rollers or just flatten it with a hammer on an anvil.

Flatten the wire at once or after you bend it around the cabochon. Cut off the excess wire.

Approximately in the middle begin to weave the two prepared wire. At the same time, in the process of weaving bind with the twisted wire.

Check out my Free wire basic weaving course.

Weave across the edge of the cabochon.

Let’s try on the cabochon.

Continue weaving the wire. In the process of weaving, staple (sew) the two weavings together.

One of the ends should be bent as shown in the photo.

From the second weaved pair of wires, we make a loop for a cord or chain. Now we need to support the cabochon from the back side, so that the cabochon does not fall back. To do this, we put the weaving in a certain way. We make a platform on which the cabochon will lie.
The arrows show the stitching (sewing) places of the weaving.

The excess wire should be cut and the ends should be hidden behind the loop of the pendant.

Let’s try on the cabochon.

Let’s summarize a little. The stone is fastened on all sides. The cabochon does not fall out. The only thing left to do is to tighten the cabochon so it doesn’t fall out the front.

Randomly stack the weaving on the front side. The weaving should go over the cabochon itself to secure it. Do not forget to fasten (sew) the weavings to each other. Hide the ends of the wire behind the weavings so the wire won’t scratch your skin and won’t cling to your clothes.

I like to patinate the wire. I use special patination solutions for this purpose. Then I polish the copper wire. I use a special grinder with a flexible cord. I use special nozzles and polishing pastes.

So that the wire does not darken over time, sometimes I cover it with a special colorless varnish.
Add a chain or cord with a clasp. Jewelry can be worn, given as gifts or sold!