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Brenda Schweder offers her artistic interpretation of a sophisticated jewelry design.





Beginner Wirework Technique

Want a way to make consistent parts and a lot of them? Or a way to work wire with tired hands? Try creating your own low-tech jig from scrap lumber and a few bolts from the hardware store. This model was inspired by a length of vintage sheet brass!

Materials

  • 7/16” x ½” sheet metal screws (available at your local hardware store)
  • Scrap lumber
  • Clamps (to hold jig to work surface)
  • Dark annealed steel/rebar tie wire, 16-gauge (available at your local hardware or big-box home improvement stores [my last AJ article had a whole sidebar about where to get it])
  • Brass wire,16-gauge (available at your local hardware store)

Toolbox-wirework

  • Bent nose pliers
  • Chain nose pliers
  • Round nose pliers
  • Benchblock

Additional tools and supplies

  • Heavy-duty flush cutter
  • 1/8” mandrel
  • Ruler
  • Pen/marker
  • Drill with 3/16” drill and Phillip’s head bits
  • Jeweler’s saw with #2 blade
  • Gloves (optional)
  • Wire brush
  • Microcrystalline wax
  • Clean rag

 

(Note: Use a separate set of tools for working steel wire than for working more precious metals. Finer metals may be marred due to its strength or become rusted due to steel’s propensity for corrosion.)

  

Part 1
Preparing the Jig

  1. Choose a short length of scrap lumber with a width that can be easily clamped onto your work bench. (I used a leftover length of 2”x4” pine.)
  2. Mark two dots 1-3/8” apart and pre-drill the pilot holes.
  3. Screw the machine screws in leaving a 1/16” gap between the screw and the board.

Create the Links

  1. Cut 18 6-inch lengths of the 16 gauge of the dark annealed steel. (18 links makes a 18-1/4” necklace. Make less or more depending on your desired necklace length.)
  2. Place one length between the two screws and bend the long end up and over the top screw, forming it exactly to the screw edge.
  3. Continue forming the wire in a figure-eight path down around the bottom screw edge and back to the center, overlapping the two.
  4. Take the link off the screws and trim each end to 1/8 inch short of the intersection.
  5. Form all the links.
  6. Hammer each link, reshaping the “8” if necessary.
  7. File the ends.

Create the Jump Ring Accents

  1. Create a 1” (minimum) length coil around a 1/8” mandrel with the brass wire.
  2. Saw 18 jump rings from the coil. File the ends.

Create the Clasp

  1. Cut a 2-1/2” inch length of wire.
  2. Create a plain loop with the first ½” of one end of the wire.
  3. Hammer the length and forge 3/8” of the remaining end flatter, widening the tip a bit.
  4. Bend the wire into a hook shape (parallel to the flattened end) around a 5/16” mandrel so that the ring end extends farther out than the hook end.
  5. Bend an angle to the forged end.
  6. Create one 9mm (inner dimension) and one 5mm (inner dimension) jump ring from a 16-inch gauge steel wire coil (as above).

Part 2
Assemble the Necklace

  1. Slip one link over the “wing” of a second link.
  2. Secure a brass jump ring around the point where the wings intersect.
  3. Continue until all the links have been added.
  4. Open and close the hook clasp to the last link on one end of the necklace.
  5. Open and close the smaller jump ring around the larger one to the remaining side.

Finish the Necklace

Clean the necklace with a wire brush.

  1. Add a bit of wax to a clean rag and apply to the necklace, then buff.

TIP: Need a better grip to hold wire securely? Try using Teflon? coated gloves
For more information visit: www.brendaschweder.com .

Brenda Schweder & Katie Hacker

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