Make a Ring from Scrap Wire & a Bead

Rings are a great fashion accessory. Rings require little metal and are a great project to make with limited resources. You can make a wire wrapped ring using scrap wire leftover from other projects and a bead or two.  

Materials
16-gauge copper wire
Lampwork glass bead(s),


Tools
Ring mandrel
Raw hide hammer or plastic mallet,
Cup burr or needle file
Tumbler &  stainless steel shot (optional)

Step 1
Assemble your tools and materials. In our example, we used 16-guage copper wire, but scrap wire in gold, silver, brass or any other nonferrous metal can be used to make a ring. Similarly, different gauge wires can be substituted if you want a ring with a finer or heavier look. Select the lampwork bead, checking to be sure the wire will fit through the bead.

Step 2

Check ring size

Measure your finger or the finger of the person for whom you would like to make the ring.  Use a ring that fits well and slide the ring onto the ring mandrel to measure ring size if you do not have a ring sizer.

Step 3
Slide the focal bead onto the wire.

Step 4
Wrap the wire around the ring mandrel the number of times needed for your wire wrapped ring. Fit the wire through the bead each time you wrap. In our example, we show rings with one, two and three wraps.

Step 5
Check the ring as you work to be sure the ring is sized  correctly.

Step 6
Stop wrapping with the ends of the wire close to the bead. Tuck the wire ends under the bead and trim any excess.

You can also bend the ends of the wire up to hold the bead so that they look like prongs. If you chose to use the prong method for your wire wrapped ring, then be sure to file the prong tips with a cup burr or needle file so that the prongs are not sharp.

Step 7
Harden the wire of your wire wrapped ring so the ring will maintain its shape. Harden the wire by hitting the wire with a raw hide hammer or plastic mallet. You can also place the completed wire wrapped rings into a tumbler with stainless steel shot to burnish and harden the wire so the wire wrapped rings hold their shape.

Happy Beading!

Make a Cell Phone Charm

Cell phone charm by GeltDesigns.com

Most cell phones look the same until you decorate them with a cell phone charm! We used basic wire wrapping techniques to create a cell phone charm using basic tools available in most beading, jewelry supply and hardware stores.

Materials
Bead(s)
Cell phone finding
Head pin

Tools
Chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Wire cutters

Step 1
Assemble your tools and materials.

Select your beads and arrange your design. You can use any loose beads that fit on the head pin, including craft beads, lampwork beads, blown glass beads, dichroic beads, sterling silver beads, gold filled beads. You can also combine different types of beads as you sort through jewelry supplies to find your ideal pattern.

Step 2
Feed the beads onto the head pin in your desired pattern.

Make loop

Step 3
Use round nose pliers to create a loop at the top of the head pin just above the last bead. Wrap the tail end of the wire three times to secure the loop. Trim any excess wire with your wire cutters. File smooth, if needed.

Step 4

Open finding

Open the finding with your pliers.

Step 5
Attach the charm to the finding. Slip the loop of the drop you just created onto the cell phone finding. Close the loop of the cell phone finding with your pliers so

Attach charm & close finding

that it is secure.

Step 6
Your cell phone charm is now ready to be placed on the cell phone. Make a few and use them interchangeable.

Make a Pendant from Enameled Piping

We are still playing with pipes! Today we took one of the copper enameled beads we made using pipe and used the bead as the focal point in a pendant.

Before: Enameled pipe, scrap wire

Materials
Copper enameled bead
2 sterling silver beads
Sterling silver scrap wire-- 18 gauge & 20-gauge
Smokey quartz bead

Tools
Nylon jaw chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Flush  wire cutter
Barrett needle file

Step 1
Locate scrap sterling silver wire from the scrap bin. Use the nylon jaw pliers to straighten out the scrap wire.

Step 2
Feed a sterling silver bead on the the 18-gauge wire, followed by the copper enameled bead and another sterling silver bead. Wrap the end of the wire to secure the beads. Trim excess wire, if any, with a wire cutter. File the ends smooth using a barrette needle file.

Select bead for drop

Step 3
Sort through the bead collection to locate a center-drilled bead. Make a loop at the end of the 20-gauge wire to form a head pin. Feed the center-drilled smokey quartz bead on the prepared 20-gauge wire head pin. Create a loop above bead and attach the 20-gauge wire to the 18-gauge wire. Wrap the wire to secure.

Step 4

After: Enamel pendant by GeltDesigns.com

Slide the pendant onto the chain. We used a neck-ring we made from 14-gauge sterling silver wire, but any chain will do.

Related Project Tutorials
Turn a Pipe into Enamels Beads
Make Earrings from Copper Pipe and Wire
Make an Enamel Necklace from a Copper Pipe
Make a Beaded Bracelet with Copper Pipe & Wire
Make a Neck-Ring from Copper Pipe
Make a Bangle Bracelet from a Copper Pipe

Related Skills Tutorials
How to Make A Simple Head Pin
How to Make an Eye Pin
How to Make a Paddle Head Pin
How to Straighten Wire
Make Your Own Beaded Drop
Make Your Own Wire Wrapping Tool Kit

Further Reading  
"Making Designer Bead and Wire Jewelry: Techniques for Unique Designs and Handmade Findings"; Tammy Powley; 2005.
"The Complete Photo Guide to Jewelry Making: More than 700 Large Format Color Photos"; Tammy Powley; 2011.

Month 5. Jewelry from Found Objects.  $ spent: 0
Found materials: Copper pipe, scarp wire, orphan beads
New Jewelry a Day.  

Turn a Pipe into Enamels Beads

Before: Copper pipe

We love playing with copper pipes. For only a few dollars you can purchase a long length of copper pipe to make into all sorts of jewelry. We are lucky. We had quite a bit of copper pipe left over from a kitchen renovation. Apparently, we did not need a huge length of pipe to connect our fridge. So we have quite a bit of pipe to use for NJAD projects. Yay.

Today we decided to cut up pieces of pipe and use those pieces to make enamel beads. We had two choices when enameling the copper pipe beads. We could use our kiln or we could use our torch. Both methods produce different results. We opted to torch fire the enamel beads because we wanted a more organic feel.

We will show you how we use the copper enamel beads we made in another upcoming NJAD blog entry.

Materials
Copper pipe
Thompson's enamel for copper

Tools
Jewelry saw & blades
Half-round file
Wet/dry sandpaper
Torch
Soldering tripod or trivet

Mark copper pipe

Step 1
Mark the pipe with a marker or scribe. Use a jewelry saw to cut pieces of pipe.

Cut copper pipe with jewelry saw

Step 2
File and then sand the edges of the cut beads until smooth.

Step 3
Clean the copper beads with acetone and then rinse with water (to remove acetone residue). Enamel will not "stick" if the copper is not completely clean.

Step 4
Spray the copper bead with Thompson's Klyr-Fire so the enamel powder will better "stick" to the copper pipe.

Step 5
Place the enamel powder in a sifter and sift the enamel evenly over the copper pipe. Let the enamel dry on the pipe before firing. NOTE: You can hasten the drying by waiving the torch over the enameled pipe.

Step 6
Place the enamel covered pipe on a trivet or soldering tripod.

Step 7

After: Torch enameled beads by GeltDesigns.com

Heat the copper enamel covered pipe from beneath the tripod. Continue to hold the the torch under the enamel pipe. Watch the enamel fuse to the copper. The same phases of fusion occur in both kiln firing and torch firing. At first the enamel will look sugar-coated, then the enamel will begin to look like an orange peel, then the enamel will reach a smooth, fully fused state and, finally, the enamel will look over-fired. The phases of enamel fusion happen very quickly when torch firing so watch the enamel closely. Stop heating the enamel and remove the torch once the enamel is fused to the look you seek.

The flame of the torch can produce a smokey iridescent look. Sometimes the smokey look is desirable (as it looks a lot like raku firing on ceramics), other times it is not. Since we wanted an organic look, we allowed the enamel to fuse until it was slightly over-fired achieving a "raku" look.

Tip: You can fire enamel multiple times until you get the look you want. To get rid of the discoloration on one side of the enamel (or to change the surface of the enamel from smooth to orange peel), just turn the piece over and re-fire from the bottom. The front surface should clean up.

Step 8

Clean up the copper edges of the beads. Remove oxidation with files and sandpaper to prepare to use the beads in jewelry making.

Related Tutorials
Make Earrings from Copper Pipe and Wire
Make an Enamel Necklace from a Copper Pipe
Make a Beaded Bracelet with Copper Pipe & Wire
Make a Neck-Ring from Copper Pipe
Make a Bangle Bracelet from a Copper Pipe

Further Reading
"The Art of Enameling: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration by Linda Darty"; Linda Darty; 2009.
"The Art of Fine Enameling"; Karne L. Cohen; 2004.
"First Steps in Enameling"; Jinks McGrath; 2003.
"The Jeweler's Directory of Decorative Finishes: From Enameling and Engraving to Inlay and Granulation"; Jinks Mc Grath; 2005.

Month 5. Jewelry from Found Objects.  $ spent: 0
Found materials: Copper pipe
New Jewelry a Day.  

Make Earrings from Beer Bottle Caps

Before: Beer bottle caps

While we had our bottle cap collection out we decided to make earrings. Again, we decided to use the bottle caps "as is" without any type of embellishment... but we played around with a bunch of different designs using salvaged papers for decoupage and odd pieces and parts to combine with resin to fill the inside of the bottle cap. For today, we decided we wanted simple, but we sketched our more elaborate designs for another day.

Gather tools

Materials
Beer bottle caps
20-gauge round brass wire


Tools
Automatic center punch
Drill and size 41 drill (.096) bit
Half-round file
Chain nose pliers
Round nose pliers
Wire cutter
Needle files or wire rounder
Steel bench block
Rawhide mallet

Step 1
Select two matching bottle caps.

Mark bottle cap with center punch

Step 2
Mark the bottle cap with a marker where you plan to drill a hole. Use the automatic center punch to create an indentation where you marked the bottle cap. The indentation will prevent the drill bit from slipping when you drill the hole.

Drill bottle cap

Step 3
Use a drill and a size 41 drill bit to drill a hole in the bottle cap.

Step 4
Make a loop at the end of the 20-gauge wire. Slip the bottle cap onto the loop and then wrap the wire three times to secure the wire and prevent the bottle cap from slipping off the loop.

Step 5
Shape the 20-gauge wire into a earring finding above the wire wrapped loop.

After: Bottle cap earrings by GeltDesigns.com

Step 6
File the end of the ear wire smooth using a wire round or a cup bur and a flex shaft (or other rotary tool).

Step 7
Repeat to create matching earring.

Related Tutorials
Make a Bracelet from Beer Bottle Caps
Make Cuff Links from Beer Bottle Caps
Make Earrings from Plastic Bottle Caps
Make a Necklace from Plastic Bottle Caps
Make Chanukah Menorah Earrings from Plastic Bottle Caps

How to Select a Cup Burr 

Further Reading
 "Junk Jewelry: 25 Extraordinary Designs to Create from Ordinary Objects"; Jane Eldershaw; 2008.
"Semiprecious Salvage: Creating Found-Art Jewelry"; Stephanie Lee; 2008.
"Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects: Creative Projects, Simple Techniques (Lark Jewelry Books)"; Marthe Le Van; 2007.
"Jewelry and Accessories from Everyday Objects: 19 Unique Projects Inspired by Found Objects and Ready-Made Materials"; Tair Parnes; 2007.
Junk to Jewelry: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Found Objects in Jewelry You Can Actually Wear; Brenda Schweder; 2007.

 New & Noteworthy
"Jewellery from Recycled Materials (Jewellery Handbooks)"; Jaimie MacDonald; 2011.

Day 113. Month 5. Jewelry from Found Objects.  $ spent: 0
Found materials: beer bottle caps
New Jewelry a Day.