The Art of Using Wire to Enhance your Jewelry Creations

Using wire in your jewelry pieces can dramatically change the look and value of your piece- so much so, it can change it from another beautiful piece, to your new masterpiece!

This is my latest piece using wire to enhance the uniqueness and style of this one-of-a-kind beauty.

To frame this pendant with a 'starburst' frame, I used 2-1/2 feet of sterling silver wire, which was woven using two parallel dowels. I then used other strips of sterling silver wire to string the red garnet stones, peridot and black diamond swarovski crystals on and then weaved them into the wire-work frame. I chose to use four different straps of wire to do this. One for the top, one for the bottom and one for each side. This helped me to weave it into the design more easily without disturbing the original design. It also helped me to shape the additions and keep them to the outside of the starburst frame, completing as close to a symmetrical circle as possible.

This is an example of using wire to dramatically change the look of my piece. It wouldn't be the same without it. But using wire doesn't have to be so dramatic. It can be simply making a beautiful, long pair of french earring wires, (e.g; like the Smoky Quartz earrings we made in an earlier blog entry):

Look how making our own earring hooks added so much character and elegance to the pair of earrings mentioned earlier. Imagine them with the regular short, french hooks- they wouldn't have the same elegance, would they? I don't think so. They would still be cute, but just simply adding a longer style of hook, puts them in a whole new category.

If you have never made earring wires, don't let it intimidate you. They're much more easier than you would expect. Be sure to look up the blog entry where I gave step-by-step instructions and make your own! And if you do, please share them with me! I'd love to post them in a blog entry :)

Dangles are another easy way to add a lot of character to your pieces. To learn how to make dangles, all you have to learn is how to make a simple eye pin, with a basic loop wrap. Then simply string them on in the order of your design.

When most people think of wire-work, they think of the heavily wrapped pendant or a piece like my green garnet pendant. But as you can see from the other examples, everyone can use wire to enhance their jewelry and give it a whole new look.

On the pendant below, I used wire to simply wrap all four corners of the picasso pendant.

Just a little wire on all four corners add character to this artsy stone, without taking away from it.

The sterling silver wire earrings were easily made by just making a figure 8 and wrapping in the middle. So easy to make and I absolutely love them! Word charms seem to be really in style at this time. I've always loved word charms and have been using them for a long time. I'm a scrapper also- so words are a huge part of scrapbooking. I chose pewter charms to hang from these- one says, live and the other, laugh.

Live life and laugh a lot while doing so! A great message for everyone to follow :0)

Using wire is fun and exciting! It brings a whole new dimension to the world of jewelry making. The designs you can make using wire is endless.

I'm working on a pair of crochet earrings now using very thin sterling- 28 gauge. You crochet wire, just like you are crocheting yarn and it creates a beautiful web for chips and small nuggets.

Don't be afraid to mix different metals, as well! Try using copper, brass and gold filled wire.

There's endless articles of how-to's on the web. Punch it in your search bar and get started today! Buy art wire from your nearest craft store or department store to practice with before you start using the more expensive metals. I would suggest keeping art wire for trying new designs on first. Wire can get a bit expensive, so you want to know what you're doing, when you grab your sterling silver or gold-filled wire.

If this article has inspired you to dabble into the world of wire, please send me your creations! I'd love to post them :)

Remember, you can always click on my titles to get to my store! All first time buyers receive 20% off of their total order, before S&H.

Happy Creating!