Just Wire from Art Fire and Ring Tutorial

Just Wire is the place to go kids for copper on ArtFire.com.

I just got a bundle pack of 7, 8 oz spools of copper, ranging from 12 - 24 ga.
3 1/2 lbs of copper - for only 48.99!!!! Do know you know how stupid cheap that is!?!? These work out to $7 each - and twice the weight of what you would get from any online supplier. Why are you not shopping at Just Wire!??!!?

I had to play with some of my wire, and got a new camera so I thought I would show you a new ring. I made these rings this weekend at the market. As fast as I could make them I was selling them. It worked for me in two ways. Customers would see me working in my booth and come in to see what I was doing. I would show them the rings, and ask them what size they wore. While I was talking to them, I would make a ring in their size and have them try it on. Instant sell. They were amazed they could watch someone do that, and how easy it was.

Also, as you know, when you have a booth, you have other jewelry artists come thru and scope you out. They may be sizing you up as competition or they may be looking for new inspiration, or they my be new the craft and trying to see just how things are done. You know them when they are in your booth, they have a way about them that is not browsing, but studying. I always ask them, do you make jewelry? Some are put off by it and run thinking they have been busted. Others answer. When they do, I ask them what is their speciality? There is no reason to get upset at being 'shopped'. I take it as a compliment. I always give them my card and tell them, that the designs they are looking at are listed on my site, and they can use them as templates if they are needing inspiration. You would be surprised at the looks I get. It's a big world, we could use more jewelry :)

There was a girl fiddling with my wire wrapped rings. She was studying them hard and pointing out differnt things to her husband. I asked her if she made jewelry, she said she was a beginner and wanting to learn to wire wrap. I drug her over to my table and showed her just how easy it was to wire wrap a ring. She was thrilled and bought the ring. I also told her about ArtFire, ArtBeads, Rings-Things and gave her my card and told her if she had any questions gimme a shout.

What you give will come back to you.

Here is the ring that was the big seller this weekend - it literally took 5 minutes to make.
I am going to show you how easy it is to make these. Some of the pictures are blurry but you should be able to get the jest of the idea. James surprised me with a new camera and I am still working out the kinks.

Here is what you will need. 14 ga. wire, heavy nippers, round nose pliers, flat nosed pliers, anvil, hammer, ring mandrel


Cut about 25 inches of wire. Find the middle of the wire and place it a size larger than what you need on the mandrel guide. (if you dont' have a ring madral, you can use a sharpie, dowel, CD spool - anything that is cylindrical and fits your finger!)



Push the wire away from you forcing it around the mandrel, wrap it under the mandrel and back up facing you.


Somewhat blurry - sorry bout that. Take the left wire and push it to your right, and the right and push it to the left. Take the wire and wrap the right one down, and push the left one up to make a twist in the middle.


Remove the wrap from the mandrel and tap the wire tails with your hammer to flatten them and strengthen them. Dont' go crazy and make them too flat - they will be hard to bend. Dont' think you have to have a hammer and anvil to do this. If you have a house hold hammer, and any hard flat surface, like a patio, that will work. Tap it on your driveway, or the bricks on your porch. That will give the copper some awesome texture and character.


Put the ring back on the mandrel and take the right wire and push it around til it is laying flat again' the left wire. Put your thumb on the middle spiral to help guide it and continue to wrap both of the wires around the sprial.



Is blurry again - sorry - but you can see the big rosette looking spiral that is taking shape.



You can gauge how large you want your spiral to be. When you get close to the ends of the wire, make sure you leave enuff to anchor it to the ring. Bend the wire down and around the round nosed pliers to create a 'hook' on the ring base. Clip the wire and then use your flat nosed pliers to mash it around the ring base.



And here she is!!



As a variation on the ring, you can anchor the ring on each side. Just anchor one end and wrap the other wire around to the other side of the ring and anchor it on the other side.

Also you can use a smaller gauge wire, and ad a bead. It is a fun, artistic look.






This is the same base design. When you make your first twist, that is when you add a bead. Bring both the wires around to one side as you did with the spiral ring and wrap around and around. Leave enough wire to wrap down the sides of the ring.

Easy peasy pumpkin cheesy!!!

Happy wrapping!!!!