Wire Wrapping An Undrilled Stone
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
#20 gauge and #24 gauge of dead soft jewelry wire. Your choice of color. (We used silver)
E6000 Adhesive Glue
Black Permanent Marker, Jewelry Wire Cutters, Round Nose Plyers, Nylon Jaw Jewelry Plyers and Needle Nose Plyers. Round Undrilled pendant stone.
Cut two pieces of the #20 gauge wire. Both pieces can be 10-12 inches long but both need to be the same length. Stack the two pieces of wire on top of one another, and wrap them around the outside edge of your Undrilled pendant stone.
Remove the stone from the wire but keep the wire flat on table. Next take your permanent marker and Mark the approximate center of the wire that will sit at the bottom of the pendant, and about 3/4s up on each side. You'll have marks like these.
Next. Keeping the wires "stacked", place a small drop of E6000 glue on each of the marks you made on the wire. You want the glue to be on the inside of the wire where it'll sit against the edge of the stone. The glue will keep the two wires more firmly together making our next steps easier to accomplish.
Now cut 3 pieces of the #24 gauge wire, all the same length, 3-4 inches long. Starting with the bottom of the frame, find your pen mark and using one of the 3 lengths of #24 gauge wire, begin wrapping it around the two pieces of #20 gauge wire.
Make sure each wrap lies tightly next to the previous wrap. You can pinch the wraps together gently with your needle nose piers to keep them tight and reduce any gaps. You want to make any where from 7-10 wraps.
Clip the #24 gauge wire and make sure both ends are folded over to the inside of the frame where the ends will sit up against the stone and are not exposed on the external side if the wire frame. Gently squeeze the wrap with your nylon jaw pliers. This will not only tighten the wrap, but will also use the glue as a bonding agent to help keep the ends of the wire in place.
Follow with doing the same wrap technique over your other two hash marks on the sides of the wire frame.
This is what your frame will look like when the 3 wraps are completed.
(Notice. I made a small error in where the side wraps are sitting on my frame. They actually should be placed a little lower, not so close to the top. Despite my error, I was still able to create my pendant.)
Return the pendant to sitting inside the wire frame, and while holding, twist inwards the wire on the backside of the pendant. Twist in on each side. See picture for reference.
You next want to do the same to the front wires but not pulling them too far, as you want the color/design of your stone to remain the center focal of the piece.
You next want to gather all the frame's wires at the top of the pendant. Take two of the wires and form a loop. Then take one of the other wires, and wrap it tightly around the base and the wire loops too. Wrap tightly 3-4 times.
You may also need to adjust the wires that are holding the pendant in place so that they're nice and tight. This keeps the pendant in place so it doesn't fall out of the frame.
You now have the bail for your pendant. Use the remaining lengths of your 4 wires to create a decorative accent for the pendant. If you want, you can even accent your creation with a bead as I did.
You now have a finished pendant ready to accent your favorite chain or cable.
Hello fellow wire wrapped
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Ooh, very cool! It looks great! 😃
Thank you!