Tutorial - Beaded Spiral Wire Bangle

Today I'm sharing with you another design featuring one of my favourite fusions - macrame and wire work which combine to create this lovely rigid beaded Bangle. You can adapt this to your own style with your choice of beads and can also change the weight of the piece by using a heavier gauge wire

Materials
2mm copper wire
0.60mm copper wire
Focal bead, accent beads and spacers
Copper head pin
10mm heavy gauge closed jump ring
Cutters round nose pliers
Bench vice

Note: This bangle measures 6 1/2 inches (2 1/3 inches diameter). You will need to adjust your wire requirements for the finished size you require and to take into account the size of the beads you use.

Step 1
Cut an 8 ½ inch length of 2mm copper wire. Add the focal beads, centre on the wire and mark the position with a sharpie. Remove the beads and secure one end of the wire in a bench vice.

Step 2

Cut 2 3ft lengths of 0.60mm copper wire. With one length and working from a mark out towards the end of the core work a macrame half square knot spiral pattern until 1 ½ inches of the core wire remains. Use 2 pairs of pliers to pull the wire taught. Instruction for a macrame half square  knot can be found here.

Step 3

Remove from the vice, wrap one of the wire tails around the core 3 times and trim. wrap the second tail it over the first and trim. 

Step 4

Add the central beads for the central section, return the core wire to the vice and repeat steps 2 & 3 on the other side,

Step 5
Add a bead to each end of the core wire and turn a simple loop.

Step 6
Take a 10mm copper jump ring and place it over the close tips of a pair of round noses pliers. Open the pliers to make an oval jump ring.

Step 7
Gently shape the bangle over a mandrel then open the loops one at a time, attach the jump ring and close the loops.

Step 8
Make a beaded dangle and wire wrap to attach to the oval jump ring.

Step 9
Use Liver of sulphur to patinate, polish back to your preferred finish and tumble if desired.

           

And there you have your completed bangle...

Heart  bead by Josephine Wadman Designs

Mini melon beads by Pebble Dreams

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you give it a go don't forget to share your makes with us on the AJE Facebook page.

Beaded Wire Macrame Toggle Bars Revisited

I have all sort of beads and components in my stash that could be used as clasps if they had a bar to go with then and a while back I adapted the wire macrame techniques I used for these earrings to create some alternatives to the usual plain wire option.

This technique utilises simple macrame knots interspersed with small beads that can be adapted to match the component and give your clasps some individuality.

Here I use a half knot (spiral) with little etched beads to create this bar and added a jump ring to the centre by which it can be attached to a piece of jewellery. 

This works fine but I really wanted to see if I could include the connection loop within the bar itself so this time I formed a loop in the centre of the core wire and instead of knotting from end to end as with the earrings I attached the wire through the loop and knotted from the centre out, wrapping the wire end over each other to finish.

This method takes a little bit longer but does create a slightly cleaner looking bar although personally I'd be happy to use either version.

For this one I used a square macrame knot again but this time gently curved the bar when I finished knotting to add a little something extra... 

I think it makes a lovely focal closure for this beautiful ceramic element from Karen Totten.

For this ceramic link component by Marla James I used a spiral knot and teamed it with some lovely rustic faceted Czech glass beads to create an unusual clasp.

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And finally, some simple seed beads add a little interest to a plain sheet bronze clasp - an idea that would translate easily to washers or large jump rings.

So it's really quite easy to add a little extra interest to your jewellery designs with a few beads and a length of wire and if you don't have any suitable components in your stash don't worry - there are plenty out there to suit all tastes.

Outwest Art Glass

Classic Bead

Tree Wings Studio

Suburban Girl Beads

Mary Harding Jewelry

Starry Road Studio

Beaded Wire Macrame Toggle Bars

Those of you who visit the AJE Component of the month blog hops may remember that my last COM design was incomplete because I'd made a bespoke bronze clasp and hadn't had time to fire it. Well, I still haven't fired it but I have managed to play around with some toggle bar ideas to go with it when it is fired.

 

Rather than use my usual hammered wire bars I wanted to try and come up with a design that carried the beaded element of my bracelet into the toggle bar so I decided to try the wire macrame technique I've used before for earrings. For my first attempt I use a spiral knot with the little etched beads featured in the necklace to create this bar and added a jump ring to the centre by which it can be attached to the bracelet. 

This works fine but I really wanted to see if I could include the connection loop within the bar itself so this time I formed a loop in the centre of the core wire and instead of knotting from end to end I attached the wire through the loop and knotted from the centre out.

This method takes a little bit longer but does create a slightly cleaner looking bar although personally I'd be happy to use either version.

Once the clasp is fired and patinated I think this will complete the design very well.

I have all sort of beads and components in my stash that could be used as clasps if they had a bar so I made a few more to see how they worked. For this one I used a square macrame knot and gently curved the bar when I finished knotting.

I think it makes a lovely focal closure for this beautiful ceramic element from Karen Totten.

For this ceramic link component by Marla James I used a spiral knot and teamed it with some lovely rustic faceted Czech glass beads to create an unusual clasp.

t

And finally, some simple seed beads add a little interest to a plain sheet bronze clasp - an idea that would translate easily to washers or large jump rings.

So it's really quite easy to add a little extra interest to your jewellery designs with a few beads and a length of wire. I'm sorry I didn't have time to write a complete tutorial for this post but I will do that as soon as I can and post it here and on my own blog.

Lesley

The Gossiping Goddess

Wire Macrame Earring Tutorial

When I submitted these earrings for the AJE challenge a few months ago a lot of people asked me about the the wire macrame technique so I decided to put together a tutorial which you can adapt to your own design. I had a little difficulty photographing this today as it's a two handed technique and my tripod has gone awol but you can find the basic knotting technique here if you need clarification.

Materials 

Approx. 6" 0.9mm bronze core wire
Approx. 12" 0.5mm bronze knotting wire
2  focal beads
2 accent beads/dangles
1 pair of earwires
Headpins/wire
2 pairs of pliers
Table vice or something to secure your wire

Note: Different types and gauges of wire can be used for this and these will give different effects but remember that you may need to adjust the length of the wire according to the gauge used.

Step one
Secure your core wire to something that will keep it firmly in place -  I use a table top vice but you could also wrap it round a rigid object - don't forget to cut extra wire if you do the latter.

Step 2
Place your knotting wire beneath the core wire and bring both ends up around the sides. Pass the wire on your left over the wire in your right and back under the core wire and up through the loop of the wire on the right.

Grip both ends of the wire with your pliers and pull to tighten keeping an even tension. Don't be tempted to do this with your hands (especially with bronze wire) - it may not hurt at first but you'll find you have very sore fingers the next day - I know I tried!

Step 3
Repeat step 2 taking care to pass the wire in the same direction as this will create the spiral pattern.

 Continue repeating step one and the spiral pattern will begin to emerge...

Step 4

When the spiral is the length you want remove it from the vice and wrap one end of the wire around the core wire 3 times, cut off the excess and press against the core wire. Repeat the process with the other end of the wire wrapping it over the first wrap. Trim the excess and file any sharp edges.  This will form the top of the earring.

Step 5
Trim the top end of the core wire to remove any vice marks, file the end and turn a simple loop. Gently push the spiral up to sit snugly against the loop.

Step 6
At the other end add your focal bead, trim and file the wire and turn another simple loop or warp a loop if preferred.

Step 7
Add a headpin to an accent bead and turn a simple loop to create a dangle then add this to the bottom of your earring.

Step 9
Add an earwire of your choice.

Step 10
Repeat this process for the second earring to complete the pair.

Step 11
This technique is greatly enhanced by oxidising the wire and polishing back the high points to give added depth and texture. I've done this when the earrings are complete but if your beads are not waterproof you will need to treat the wire before you make up the earrings.

And there you have your wire macrame earrings.

I hope you'll have a go at making these and perhaps we'll see some of them coming up on the AJE Earring Challenge Pinterest board.

Lesley
www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com