Freeform Friday: the briolette wrap

I have escaped from the bench for a few minutes... I am down to the wire (accidental pun, but appreciated...) making presents for my sisters - which I will post about soon. Can't spoil a surprise, can I?

Last week my friend Marsha wrote a post over at Love My Art Jewelry and gave me a shout out. She had misplaced her mojo and came over for coffee and a work session in my studio. We made earrings with her new pod/rattle/droplets and her Muse returned... but I digress. I showed her my way of wrapping briolettes and the like. It worked for her pods and got me thinking...

I have shared this with many friends - why not here? Its only one way of many to address briolettes, but its my preferred method. I like a neat and tidy wire wrap. Maybe its the Virgo in me...

1. I like 24 gauge as many stone briolettes are very fragile. Leave yourself a good tail - 2" or so. 

2. bend the wires up as close to the stone... this is the danger zone. applying pressure to the fragile stone at the hole is tricky. Be gentle but firm... 

 

3. cross them over... 

4. And then bend each with your chain nose pliers to create a straight "spine" centered over the briolette itself. 

5. Treat the 2 wires as one - and create a wrapped loop... 

6. I keep the round nose pliers in the loop as I wrap. This keeps the 2 wires aligned, un smooched, neat and tidy... 

7. Wrap it up, snip, tuck ends as needed. 

I positioned these loops high above the stone as I wanted a visible wrap to add a little presence. If you like it closer in, adjust your loop at step #5. 

I looked around the table - and what did I spy? The super cool beaded doughnuts from team mate Kristen. Whoa. copper and ice blue for the win. 

I hope that was useful - may be simple to some and an "A-ha" moment to others - so enjoy! I would love to hear your take on briolettes!

Back to the studio, coffee in hand... 

Jenny
www.jdaviesreazor.com

Saturday Share: Be Still!

We all have some of these beads in our stash.  You know, these little flower beads that are shaped like shank buttons...flat faces with the hole through the pointy backside?  Or those little blobs of glass with the loop in the back?  We see them and say, "oh, how sweet...they will be perfect in this design! I will wow the country and make a million bucks!"  Then, you start trying to incorporate them and they just. will. not. stay. put!

What usually happens when you try to wire wrap these!

I have taken apart so many pieces trying to get these sort of beads just right.  Sure, you can wire wrap them like charms, but they usually end up facing down, so no one can see their pretty carved faces!

Pretty ceramic charms by Diana P. of Suburban Girl Studios, my torch-fired enamel components, and yes, the evil Czech glass flowers with the hole in the backside!

A couple of days ago I created these earrings and I really wanted to use these little flower beads.  After watching one spin around on the wire, making me dizzy, I had a V8 moment,. Duh!  It dawned on me that I could use a technique I learned long ago...a herringbone wire-wrap.  I have always used it as a decorative technique, but never as a functional one.  I thought I would share it with you today.

Materials needed:
evil bead in question
wire of your choice...1 guage that is strong enough to support your bead, and 1 smaller gauge, flexible enough for wrapping
Flush cutters for close snips

• take desired wire you want your bead to be strung on (I'm using 22g sterling), then take your smaller gauge wire (this is 28g) and start a wrap around the larger wire
• Once you have it wrapped tightly 1 and 1/2 times, trim the small gauge wire and squeeze the end as tightly as possible
• slip your bead onto the wire

• Bring the small gauge wire over the top of the bead and wrap around the wire in an overhand direction
• bring the wire around the other side and wrap around your starting point, also overhand.  
• Continue this pattern until your bead feels secure.  I usually use 3-4 wraps.  As you are wrapping, smooth the wire against the previous wrap, so that is lays nicely and doesn't kink.

• nice and secure!
• depending on how you are using your bead, finish the ends.  Here I have made wrapped connector loops.

Here is one of the cute Unicorne Glass blob beads that I have always frustrated me!  The holes in these are big, so I used 16 gauge sterling and created a ball, then did the same wrap.  I am using 22 g to wrap, so I had to anneal it a bit to make it easier to wrap tightly.  This technique does double duty for this type of bead...decorative and functional.  Keeps the bead in place but still provides a nice frame!

Well, there you have it!  Hope this inspires you to pull out those frustrating beads and give them a second chance!

Happy Saturday!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

Saturday Share...Ball Chain End Loops

Earlier this week on Facebook, a dear friend and fellow artist, Carol Myers, asked if anyone knew of a tutorial to make wire loops for the end of ball chain.  After several folks chimed in and googled and left links, we found several links to mass produced findings that would add a loop to the end, but not any hand-made ones.  

The standard connector for ball chain...boring!

I took this as a challenge and vowed to come up with a workable solution for today's post!  I had actually toyed with this before and never really got it worked out...the wire has to be sturdy enough to actually function as a hook for a clasp, but flexible enough to twist around the tiny wire between the little balls.

Some early attempts...pretty pitiful!

My first attempts were not pretty...but surprisingly functional.  I originally thought I would start about 3 balls from the end and wrap the wire around each ball until the end one and then make a loop, bringing the wire back down to wrap around the same 3 balls in the opposite direction.  That actually works and I am going to try it again with bigger chain and making it cleaner.  My next attempts utilized larger wire structures that were wrapped on with smaller gauged wire.

Here is what I finally liked.  You will need:

wire - 26g soft 6-8 inches
wire - 18g soft approx 3 inches
round nose pliers
flat nose pliers
butane torch
steel block or anvil
hammer
a bit of perserverance!

• Cut 18g wire into 2 pieces
• Using your torch, ball the ends of each piece.  You may go through a practice period to get 2 finished double ball pins the same length (I neglected to take a photo of that, sorry)
• Wrap the pin around the base of your round nose pliers
• Using flat nose pliers, right next to the ball ends, make a sharp bend to straighten.

• Using your steel block and hammer, gently harden your loop.  I put mine back over the round nose pliers and straightened out the legs a bit.
• Attach the end of the 26g wire to one of the legs of the loop.  I wrap around once just so it won't come off.  Then you can place the end of the ball chain where you want it and begin weaving the wire around.  It is hard to see the actual wrapping in the photos, as I was taking my own photos and only have 2 hands!!

The actual weave is an over/under, like a figure-eight, but with a third wrap...here is a crude diagram I drew that hopefully will explain it better.  I am sure there is a technical term for this.  The dots are the legs of the structure with the ball chain in the middle, and the arrowed lines are your 26 gauge wire...clear as mud?

• Continue wrapping until you feel the structure is secure...usually about 3 or 4 passes. Snip the wire and tuck it firmly so that it won't snag later.  You can straighten your wraps with your pliers or your fingernail. 
• Attach clasp of your choice.
• Optional: Use desired patina and give it a whirl in a tumbler for strength and polish.

I know you will do a better job of getting your wraps neater and more symmetrical!!

So there you go... would love to hear of ideas or methods any of you have played with finishing ball chain ends!

Happy Saturday! I am off to BeadFest for the afternoon!

Melissa Meman

Melismatic Art Jewelry

Art. Life. Love.