anybody do wire wrapping or silver jewelry making?

i'd really like to try making jewelry out of silver or do wire wrapping. i see alot of jewelry people make and sell, using crystals and it's all intricately wrapped in silver coils and stuff. it looks like you do more than just wrapping, though. it looks like you have to maybe do soldering, too. i don't know anything about it though; like what kinds of materials to use or what kinds of tools i'd need or any techniques. if anyone has some experience, i'd love to get some tips for a beginner. thanks!

 

Heya.
My dads a jeweler and i would make silver rings with him when i was younger.
Yes you would probably need solder, especially if you wanted to attatch two pieces of silver together. Depending on the thickness ofthe silver you may need to use a blow torch to soften the metal to bend it, any torch you use on the silver will cause the silver to go dull so you will need to buff the silver too.

But i only know that from ring making, im not sue if its any different with thin wire.

 

if you're talking about what i think you are, I've got a bunch of friends that do it, no soldering required, but it takes alot of practice. All you need is wire, wire cutters and pair of pliers (I like the kind where they're completly round on both sides). I sugest getting some of that cheap plastic coated wire from Michael's and practcing with that, but looking at a piece you have or a picture, that's how I started and it's really a great way to go.

if you want more advice PM me and I can try to explain it better, but you sort of need to see it being done.

good luck!

 

Here is my phatty pendant that my husband got me for our 5 year anniversary. It is not soldered at all. All it is is wire and it is wrapped nicely. You can't really tell in the picture because of the flash but even the loop is intriquitely wrapped.

There are different gauges of wire and my pendant is a thinner gauge. Here is an article from about.com that explains about the different wires.
http://jewelrymaking.about.com/./cs/wire/a/083003.htm
From here you can find links to websites who sell the tools and wire.

Here is another how to:
http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/amber/go340/wrap.htm
This one explains how to get stones in your pendants and from there it is up to your imagination.

I love wire wrapped jewlrey!! Post some pics when you get started.

 

very cool. thank you guys for all your help. i guess i just need to play around and see what i can do.

 

plainjanepatchwork, that pendant is amazing! Is it tiger's eye and kyanite?

that's the stuff I was talkin bout btw, there's a brother who I met in venice beach, but who's prolly in nor cal by now that does that, most amazing work I've ever seen! If you ever run into a really sweet souled kind brother by the name of Wolf, check out his work, it's amazing.

 

If you go to your local library you could find books on how to wrap stones as well.

The Complete Metalsmith
Making Wire Jewelry

are good starts.

I want a rock tumbler so bad. If you want to learn how to tumble rocks and turn them into stones:

www.rocks4u.com
www.bergsrockshop.com
www.gemwrap.com
www.dadsrockshop.com
www.therockshed.com
www.mamasminreals.com

are really excellent for creative ideas. Good luck!

 

No it is actually 3 freshwater pearls, amber, and tanzanite. I know it is hard to see in the pic. My flash kind of messed it all up.

 

planejanepatchwork, that pendant is absolutely breathtaking. I want a piece like that!!!
My best friends father is a jewler and has been making phat pieces since the 60's,
she has some of the pieces from then when he was doing alot of peote and acid and the pieces are abslutely amazing, big, chunky, but simple pieces. I want to find something like that on ebay, but I don't know what keywords to use that will bring up those types of pieces. The only thing I have found is to look under vintage navajo jewelry, but even then, it's no t exactly what I'm looking for. Any ideas?
I found this BEAUTIFUL ring awhile back and wanted it SOOOOOOOOOOOO bad, I knew I HAD to have it, but it turned out the reserve on the piece was $220. I would have paid that, but I didn't have the money at the time.... this is the piece! I'm so in love with this ring!

 

there's this amazing artist in san diego valerie ann bailey who does a lot of silver wire work. my mom works right near the gallery her stuff's in. It's not my style but my mom loves her stuff and I can appreciatte it without it being on me. The contrast of the raw wire and completley refined faceted stones is quite remarkable.

 

well, i went out and bought some cheap wire and i've got a few crystal type things at home, so i'm just going to start playing around and see what i come up with. i have some friends that have really nice pieces, so i'm just going to try to incorporate the parts that i like from the jewelry i've seen. nothing too complicated. maybe i can try to get my hands on a camera and post a pic of my first experiment once i do it. i'm sure it will be quite pathetic looking! but it seems like it would be so much fun.

 

Your pieces will show whether you enjoy what you do or not.

Good luck! I look forward to seeing some of your designs in the future or on tour

 

Here are a few pics of my work. is this the kind of style you're talking about?

http://www.angry-lizard.com/wraps/

 

Brother, those wraps are AMAZING!!!!!!! Much respect, they're beautiful, truly beautiful

 

Looking at those rock tumblers it is pretty easy to make your own. All you need is a mini lathe (Can be made from mechano if you wish), Nut & Bolt (Make sure it is long enough) and an old paint tin. You may need some large washers to spread the load on the paint tin. All you do is drill a hole in the centre of the base of the paint tin. You can then fill it with the apropriate abrasives and the gem put the lid on and place it on the lathe. Make sure you use a low speed setting. No more than about 80rpm otherwise you may find that the lid pops off and the sand will go everywhere.

Matt

 

Ive been making high end peices for several years now and to turn out high grade peices it does take time and exp and also the correct tools and such to do it.

If all your trying to do is make some personal items thats great, but to make items other people want and will spend thier hard earned cash on is another.

With so many trying to do wire wrap it kills me, sorta like tying hemp, so many dam so called hemp artists out thier its spooky.

I myself have incorperated the wire and hemp side of things with lapidary work, and no not even most people cant even tumble rocks as thiers several different mediums as well as the hardness of the stones and gem which must be taken into account. Most of us tumble our scrapes and cut junk as some turn out as workable peices to sell.

Also in the rock and gem word, just the raw material can set you back alot as can a good torch and a correct set of wrap pliers, copper sucks and ss is the way to go if your going to do it but again you must make peices that people will want and pay for.

Wire wrap is about at the bottom of the income scale, unless what you have wrapped is what thier after.

Also keep in mind this, if you have 10 peices made, you only have 10 peices for folks to look at and try to appeal to thier tastes, if you have 200 you have a much better chance.

Id look on ebay to see what folks are making and selling thier just for kicks.

One last thing to keep in mind is ebay is a good selling medium if you have the good peices, as a rock and gem show uaually costs well over 200 to set up at and you need to sell many peices to even get that back......

Good luck!

 

peacekeeper,

I think it's an equation really. You are right about having a good selection. Sometimes it's hard to have a lot on ya when people keep buying them tho'

I think the main parts of the equation is quality and networking. I'm in the process of negotiating with 5 different shops and that will keep me selling very consistantly because I'll be selling in different cities (spread over 3 hours apart) and in different parts of those cities.

It's all about working hard to be good at what you do and being willing to pound the pavement to put yourself out there

paix,

thank you for the compliments. i'm always gald to know that someone likes my stuff

 

wow, those are beautiful! i really, really love the one second up from the bottom! so nice.

and the6peace8keeper, i understand what your saying about it being a serious art. i defenitely don't intend to make anything to sell to people; i know i'm not capable of it. i just wanna try playing around and maybe making something nice for myself. whenever i see beautiful pieces other people have made, i never have the money to buy anything!