And… yep, you guessed it. More swirls. 🙂
This is a design I’ve been playing with for several years. In the video I teach a very basic version of it, but at the end there are some photos of other rings I have made using this base design as a starting point to give you some more inspiration. Hope you enjoy it.
This has been one of my favorite ear cuff designs for a very long time, so I decided to do a video for it. In this lesson I’m showing only the basic design, but there are lots of ways to change it up a bit and make it your own. Just use your imagination and have fun with it. 🙂
Supplies:
5′ (1.5m) 28 gauge (.3mm) Dead Soft Round Wire
15″ (37.5cm) 20 gauge (.8mm) Round Wire
4.5″ (11.25cm) 24 gauge (.51mm) Round Wire
1 charm or small top drilled bead
Tools:
Wire Cutters
Round Nose Pliers
Large Bail Making Pliers
Needle Nose Pliers
Ruler
Paper and Pen or Pencil
If you’d prefer to watch this lesson on youtube, you can click through on the video, or just click here.
To see more of my videos, check out my youtube channel, Gailavira Jewelry. While you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe!
It’s finally ready. This is the longest video I’ve ever done, and I probably will never do one this long again (it’s almost 2 hours long).
Not the greatest video quality. My recording set up is still a work in progress.
I’m also trying to work on getting more comfortable speaking on videos. So if I sound a little flaky at times, that’s why. I’ve never been good at talking for more than a few seconds at a time. Hopefully you guys can ignore all that stuff for now. 🙂
The four heart necklaces shown at the end of this video are currently available at ShutUpAndCuffMe.com
Find handmade polymer clay heart cabochons, and other jewelry supplies at WireAndBeadSupplies.com
And don’t forget about the Fall Sale! All jewelry, supplies and tutorials are 10-20% off at all of my web-sites and Etsy shops.
Supplies:
51″ (1.30m) 20g (0.8mm) dead soft round wire
16.5′ (4.9m) 28g (0.3mm) dead soft round wire
1 Flat backed heart cabochon (the one used in this video is
approximately 35mm wide and 31mm long)
Tools:
Wire flush cutters
Round nose pliers
4mm or 6mm mandrel or bail making pliers
Needle tool or small awl (a thick sewing needle may work)
Nylon jaw flat nose pliers (optional)
As you can probably tell already, I use a lot of crystal points in my jewelry designs. Whether they are drilled or undrilled, they can present a lot of design challenges. That’s one of the things I like most about them. So, when I found a great deal on a lot of tiny undrilled crystal points, well, challenge accepted.
When I said they were tiny, I meant it. These are about 3mm thick and 15-18mm long. At first, trying to wrap these securely without covering up the stone seemed like it would be more trouble that it was worth. But then I had one of those moments where it just clicked. I’ve come up with a couple of ways to wrap them, but this one, with it’s graceful curve that sweeps up the side, is one of my favorites.
So, when facebook reminded me that it’s been 3 years since my last video (oops) so I decided to do a quick one and show you how I wrap these little itty bitty crystals.
I still haven’t quite found a video set up I’m completely happy with, so please bear with me while I experiment. As always, if you have any suggestions for improving my videos, I’d love to hear them 🙂 .
This one is a very quick and simple wrap for crystal points that are very small. The one I’m using in the video is about 3.5mm thick and 18mm long. For a crystal point this size, I used 16 gauge (1.2mm) wire.
For this project, you’ll also need a needle file or a piece of 320 or 400 grit sandpaper (for smoothing wire ends), flush cutters, needle nose pliers, round nose pliers, bail making pliers (in a pinch you can use the widest part of your round nose pliers), a hammer and a bench block.
You can wrap larger crystals in a similar style, however, the larger the crystal point, the thicker the wire you will need.
You can watch the video below, or if you prefer, you can watch it on Youtube.
