Tuesday Morning Tutorial and Invitation~

Good morning!

I’m so excited that Love My Art Jewelry just posted the invitation to their 3rd Boot Camp.

I’ve participated in their first two and had a fantastic time of learning and fun.

This one is all about wire work!

If you have never tried this before or even if you are a veteran at working with wire,

do go check it out.

This group of artisans provide inspiration, tutorials and encouragement

to stretch your jewelry making repetoire by adding some new skills

or looking at new ways to apply ones you may have already  mastered.

 Their first post also includes a tutorial on the traditional method of rustic wire wrapped briolettes.

I have posted before my struggles with neatly wire wrapping these types of stones and beads,

so I’m going to post a little tutorial here with an alternative way to do this

that I have found suits me better.

 This is NOT my discovery…but in searching for some help, I came across someone else’s tutorial.

Sadly I don’t know whose, but will continue to search out the original and amend this post.

If you know who might have posted this first, I’d be grateful for a name.

 I am indebted to this creative soul for helping me get more comfortable with wrapping up brios,

because they are beautiful additions to jewelry when done well.

That said, this style of rustic wraps is a favorite of mine for two reasons…

First, they don’t have to be perfect!  In fact, imperfect is perfectly wonderful!

Secondly, I absolutely love the effect of oxidizing both copper and sterling wire

with all the interesting nooks and crannies in the wrapping.

This is only my second photo tutorial, so thanks for bearing with me.

For this tutorial, I used an inexpensive faceted glass briolette and 22 gauge copper wire.

Supplies and tools needed:

large briolette

dead soft wire that comfortable fits through the brio holes

nippers

    round nose pliers

   chain nose pliers

Step One:  Cut an 18 inch piece of wire and make a wrapped loop on one end with only two wire wraps.

(note:  If you are making earrings, I’d highly recommend doing them at the same time,step by step.

I’ve found that I have better luck achieving more similarity in the pair of briolettes when I do this.

Actually, this is great advice when making anything in pairs or multiples.)

Step Two: Insert the wire into the briolette and

bend the loop to sit just above the very top of the brio.

Step Three:  With your fingers or pliers bend the loop to ‘sit’ upright on the top of the brio.

Step Four:  Bend the wire end up to cross the wrapped loop.

(note: you could finish the wrap up here and have a simple wire wrapped briolette)

Step Five:  Begin wire wrapping down the brio and stop when the wire covers the side holes.

These wraps do not need to be perfect, but serve as an under layer, covering the brio.

Step Six:  Now, the fun part! Begin loosely wrapping the wire back up the brio,

criss-crossing a few is great. Finish with a tight wrapping up under the top loop.

Step Seven:  Oxidizing with Liver of Sulphur or some other agent is optional,

but I promise you that it will give an amazing finish to this style of wire wrapped bead.

These are the finished pair of earrings with a dark oxidized finish on the copper wire.

If any of you decide to give this tut a try, I’d love to have some feedback…

was it helpful or not, too much or too little info, something needs more clarity???

 Or anything else you’d like to tell me, I’d be ever so grateful!

Again, I’d love it if you all hopped on over to the Love My Art Jewelry blog

and checked out their post on this great opportunity to learn more about the art of wire work!

They will be posting some great lessons and techniques over the next month or so.