Tears of a Dragon – Wire Wrapped Pendant Tutorial

Description

In this lesson you’ll learn to make a coiled frame, with lace-like filigree accents, to surround a teardrop shaped gemstone druzy bead. These Druzy beads are perfect for this frame because the sides of the stones are flat instead of rounded like many other teardrop beads. This allows the frame to hold the inverted stone in place better without adding additional supports. If you don’t have any druzy teardrops, you can use any top drilled, teardrop shaped bead with straight sites instead. This is also a great design to use for handmade polymer clay teardrop beads as well.

To determine the amount of wire you will need, first measure around the stone. You will need to double that measurement, then add another 10” for the 20g wire. For the 28g wire, you will need approximately 12” of wire for each inch of 20g wire, plus another 2 feet.

Just to give you an idea of how much wire you will need, the teardrop I used for this tutorial is ¾”x1”, so I used 15” of 20g wire and 13’ of 28g wire.

Skill Level:
Intermediate

Materials:

•1 teardrop shaped druzy bead (other types of teardrop beads with flat sides may also work) The hole in the bead must be large enough to accommodate 2 passes of 28g wire
•20g Round dead soft wire
•28g Round dead soft wire
•2mm-3mm Accent beads (optional)

Tools:

•Chain nose pliers
•Round nose pliers
•Wire cutters
•Needle file
•Bail making pliers or 6mm mandrel
•Marker

File will be available as an instant download after payment has cleared.

Instant download links expire 72 hours after purchase is complete. During this time, downloads are limited to 5 attempts. If, for some reason, you are unable to download the file, please contact me using the email address provided in the confirmation email you were sent after making your purchase.

©Donna Spadafore, Wire Jewelry Tutorials by Gailavira Jewelry.

This tutorial is intended for use by one person only. Please do not share this tutorial with anyone else. Distribution of this tutorial is not allowed without express written consent from the author. If you wish to use the design in this lesson, or a derivative of the design in this lesson, to teach a class you must first contact the author for permission.

If you are an individual, independent jewelry artist you may use this lesson to make jewelry for sale. You may not use this lesson to mass produce items for a commercial operation. You may not have other people make pieces for you based on this design for you to sell.

Derivatives of this tutorial (instructions for a design that is derived from the design in this tutorial) are not allowed without written consent from the author.