# Silver wire wrapping earrings (Pic Heavy)



## kazuma78 (Jun 21, 2015)

@Jerry B requested that I show him how I wire wrap my earrings so that he can give it a try in the future if he wants so I'll try and make sense of it in this thread. Also since this will be a kind of long thread I'll post it in sections since I'm doing it from my phone and don't want to lose everything if it messes up. 

It was difficult taking the pictures one handed so bear with me on the pictures. It's pretty easy really but does take some practice so I would suggest using some copper wire first in the gauge you plan to use to get a feel for it before you transition to silver wire and waste it if you mess up since it's considerably more expensive. 

First you will probably need some more specialized wire wrapping pliers. You don't need all of the ones in the picture and could probably make due with just a couple of these but I'd say you definitely need the half circle ones and the round nose pliers and probably the really needle nose ones. The crimping pliers just make life a little easier but aren't a necessity.

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## Wildthings (Jun 21, 2015)

In!!


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## kazuma78 (Jun 21, 2015)

I use 20 gauge round half hard sterling silver wire for the earring wrapping portion which I buy from Rio Grand jewelry. They have been a good and reasonable supplier for me so far.

I cut a piece about 2.5" long and put it about 1/3 of the way through the hole in the piece leaving the other 2/3 sticking out what will be the front of the piece. 


 


 
Then you fold both wires up and over the top so they face opposite ways. I always bring the short part around on the left side of the longer wire because I like wrapping from left to right (probably because I'm right handed).

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## kazuma78 (Jun 21, 2015)

Then I take the round nose pliers and kind of indent the long wire close to the earrings so the wrapped portion of the wire will sort of be centered on the earring, if that makes sense.



Then I wrap the short wire around the long wire twice, trying to keep the wire wrapped as closely to itself as possible. If you keep space in between the coils it doesn't look very neat in the end. I wrap the wire with my fingers at this point. If you make the shorter wire long enough it's easy, but if you cut it close then you need to use the pliers to wrap it probably, or else the wire will end up breaking through the skin of your finger or thumb and stab the crap out of you.

I wrap the wire around the front of the earring twice and then clip the extra off in the middle of the back so the end won't be seen when the earrings are being worn.















You can use the crimping pliers to kind of clamp the wire down a little better at the end if it's not totally curved around the main wire.

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## woodtickgreg (Jun 21, 2015)

Good pics for phone pics! Cool to see how it's done.


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## kazuma78 (Jun 21, 2015)

This is when you need the half round pliers, or at least it makes it easier if you have them. It's easier to get consistency if you have them. These have one round side and a channel in the other side.


 


 
I use the smallest end of these to bend the wire over. And just but one of the channel side against the lowest coil and the bend the wire over. Usually I'll bend it at a 90 degree angle which sometimes requires a little more of a bend with the round nose pliers. I bend mine to the right.

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## kazuma78 (Jun 21, 2015)

Then I put one of the round sides right at the angle and wrap the wire around it. Sometimes you need to bend the circle you are making back to the side just to make it better centered.



Bend the wire around the back of the loop you are making and keep the pliers in the loop as you bend it so the circle keeps it's shape better. If you don't bend to the same sides I have been bending to in these pictures, just ensure you are bending the wire so that the ends of the wire actually meet instead of wrapping around the same way with both ends facing in the same direction, because that matters. 



Once you have the wire around the back and sticking out the other side again you wrap it around the post wire until the gap is gone (based on the spacing made by my half round pliers it's 2 wraps). where you position your round pliers on the angle when you make the circle will also help determine the length of the post wire.









Then I'll look at the loop straight on in the front and adjust it so the loop is centered and not bent too far right or left so that the earrings actually hang straight. I had to bend the loop left a little on this one to make it look straight.

Then I clip the extra wire off and use the crimping pliers to help get a good round shape to where I clipped it off.

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## kazuma78 (Jun 21, 2015)

My wrapping wasn't as tight as I'd have liked because I was trying to take pictures too but it's sometimes fixable. This is when the long skinny pliers come in handy. Go around the coils and try and squeeze them together to try and close the gaps. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and you either have to live with it or clip it and start over. This next picture is from the back and you can tell there are some pretty bad gaps. The gaps in the back don't matter as much if the front looks ok.




Here I'm trying to squeeze the coils together.



Crimping the ends down with the crimping pliers.




once this is done I'll take a small file like a little needle file, and file down the ends if they are sticking up at all so they are smooth and don't catch on anything or catch hair or whatever. And this is what it will look like from the front!






I'll try and do a tutorial on how I make the ear wire portion in the next few days.

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## Jerry B (Jun 21, 2015)

Excellent post Josh , and many thanks for the pictures 
I have all the pliers needed, plus a few more , and I too get my stuff from Rio Grande as they seem to be very competitive in pricing, and have a wider selection of other items.
will be saving the photos, and yes, I do want to start wrapping my own, as it's a better selling point for customers if you did all of the work by hand,
not just some of it, and bought the rest ............. also justifies a higher cost as customer feels they are really getting thier money's worth .

Gonna be ordering the wire wrapping books from Amazon that we talked about previously ...... 
figure I can add wrapped elements to my wooden earrings that'll enhance them, and give them a higher quality


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## kazuma78 (Jun 21, 2015)

I hope my explanations all make sense. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask away! And this particular piece of wood is a piece of Carob from @barry richardson, nice stuff!

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## woodtickgreg (Jun 21, 2015)

Great tutorial, looking forward to the finish.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 2


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## Kevin (Jun 21, 2015)

Excellent content Josh! I also want to applaud your fingernail hygiene - very nice. I would dine at your table anytime lol.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Funny 4


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## kazuma78 (Jun 21, 2015)

Jerry B said:


> Excellent post Josh , and many thanks for the pictures
> I have all the pliers needed, plus a few more , and I too get my stuff from Rio Grande as they seem to be very competitive in pricing, and have a wider selection of other items.
> will be saving the photos, and yes, I do want to start wrapping my own, as it's a better selling point for customers if you did all of the work by hand,
> not just some of it, and bought the rest ............. also justifies a higher cost as customer feels they are really getting thier money's worth .
> ...


Yeah there's definitely other ways to do it and make it fancier. I've just been sticking with this one for now so I can do more quantity than specialized but I want to play with some other stuff in the future. 

Thanks for the carnauba and renaissance wax tip. They make them look MUCH better and they really resist fingerprints. It's great! My wife sent me the spalted hackberry so I'm looking forward to getting it in the mail! Can't wait to mess with it!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Jerry B (Jun 21, 2015)

will be watching for pictures 
that, and not doing such a round over on edges, will cut your production time down immensely


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## kazuma78 (Jun 21, 2015)

Jerry B said:


> will be watching for pictures
> that, and not doing such a round over on edges, will cut your production time down immensely


Yeah I'm not rounding over the next ones. I'll just be softening the edges a little bit.

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## CWS (Jun 21, 2015)

Excellent Thanks
Curt


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## ironman123 (Jun 21, 2015)

That is great information. Keep it going. Cool.


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## rockb (Jun 22, 2015)

Great tutorial, thanks for sharing...


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## TimR (Jun 22, 2015)

Very cool Josh, don't even have to read with sequence and quality of the pics!!

Reactions: Agree 1


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## kazuma78 (Jun 22, 2015)

So here is how I make the ear wires. I start off with an 1 3/4" piece of 20 gauge wire.


 
using the round nose pliers I take the end of the wire and curl it in towards itself to make the loop where it will attach to the wrapped part of the earrings. 

 

 whatever side you make the loop on will be the outside of the ear wire. Then I take the half round pliers and bend to define the post portion at the bottom. 


 


This is where I use the small stepped mandrel to bend the curve in the wire. I use one of the smaller steps first and then force it down to the appropriate size I want the loop to be. You might need to bend the bottom straight piece to get the desired look of your loop and such.

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## kazuma78 (Jun 22, 2015)

Then I put a nice little bend in the end of the wire. I don't know that it serves a huge purpose but style, but I see the manufactured ones with an end bend like this so I just copied it.


 


 
Then I like to add a little wire detail to my ear wire so I coil a smaller wire around it to give it a little detail. I use 22 gauge round half hard wire for this. I cut it to about 1 3/4 inches also.


 
I pinch the wire between my thumb and finger and fold it over to make a small loop on the bottom. This makes it alot easier to start the wrapping.


 


 


 
Then I slide the loop over the wire and move it to the bottom and start wrapping coils. I clip it off, file the ends to make it smooth and then sand the end of the wire where it goes through the ear so it doesn't cut the wearer and attach it to the earring from the prior tutorial and voila! You have a wrapped earring.


 


 


 
Pretty easy, it just might take a little practice. Sometimes when you connect the 2 pieces you need to bend the loop left or right on the earring portion so that it will hang straight. But then it's done.

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## woodtickgreg (Jun 22, 2015)

Very nice!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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