I made the above necklace for Halloween as I have always loved the combination of orange and black, the symbolism of the harvest and the respect for the dead play off each other well; a celebration of both life and life’s impermanence. Loki is a shape-shifting Norse god of mischief who is currently suffering endless torment in Hel, awaiting the coming of Ragnarok when he will lead the armies of the dead against the other gods. (Norse mythology is pretty interesting, like their Roman and Greek counterparts, Norse gods were far from perfect and had a multitude of personality flaws.)

This second piece features an asymmetrical chain closure with two star shaped charms, one red with a silver lightning bolt, one black leather with a dark silver star and silver wire. All the coiled wire beads were crafted by me (and they are lots of fun to make, especially with the bead accents, I still have a bunch I have not used for anything). The focal bead is a coiled wire bead accented with crystal Swarovsky’s.

Both of these pieces are listed in my etsy shop.  You can click on each picture to be taken to that listing.

Coming up next in this series, an interview with a talented wire artist as well as my final thoughts and tips on wirework and wirewrapping.

Happy crafting!

The posts below describe my experiments with wire as I seek to master this versatile medium, as well as some hopefully helpful tips I have picked up along the way. For guides featuring other media, click on over to our Tutorials page.

Part 1: Introduction & Pegboard/Wig jig
Part 2: Simple Wire Jewelry & an Easy tutorial
Part 3: Showcase!

These are pretty easy to make and don’t take much time. All you need is some wire and some creativity!

Materials
- leather cord
- wire
-clasp

I started by wrapping some black 24g wire around a piece of green leather that was the right length for a necklace. Then I finished it up by making a loop of leather and wrapping it tight then adding a silver hook to the other end.

You can leave as much space as you want between each coil of wire, whatever looks good to you. Or you can cross the wire over each other by wrapping it from one end and then the other, making sure to keep the spacing equal as I did on this treble clef pendant:

To complete my necklace, I made a couple of different pendants by wrapping the same leather in wire and molding it into shapes (as seen above and below). The wire around the leather makes it hold its shape quite well and it has a fun, chunky and colorful look! To make it even more customizable, I attached a clasp to the front of the necklace so that I can easily swap the pendants. (This is a great trick for any necklace you want to be able to customize on the spot.)

Here are a couple other pieces I made while playing around:

The first one is a braid of leather pieces, one of which has been wrapped in red wire. This necklace holds its shape really well and is actually a little bit stiff.  The second one was a bit harder as the leather keeps wanting to move closer to each other but once you get the hang of bending the wire in even sections around the leather, it goes pretty quickly.

As you can see, there are lots of possibilities when working with wire, and there are lots of things you can combine it with! Its easy to form the shapes once the leather is wrapped, just don’t forget to hammer it lightly under a towel once you have it the way you want it, this will keep it from being easily pulled out of shape.

I hope you enjoy playing with leather and wire as much as I did!

Happy crafting.

For me that ’somewhere’ was a pegboard. An essential tool for forming wire into shapes which can then be put together, the pegboard is relatively easy to use once you get the hang of it. The trick of it is that wire has a tendency to spring back and, therefore, closing a shape can be the hardest part.

In order to make this easier, I added an extra peg at the top of the design I wanted (as shown above). I used this extra peg as the anchor to begin my design and then removed it and twisted the two ends together:

This way I was able to lock the shape together without taking it off the board and ruining it. I then carefully rolled the twisted top down into a fancy loop for stringing!

After taking it off the pegboard, I put the form under a towel and hammered it lightly to harden the wire. This makes it hold its shape better and resist being pulled or twisted out. Make sure to smooth and flatten your pieces carefully before hammering them as any unevenness will be much harder to fix afterward.

Once I felt more comfortable, I was able to make a few pieces I am pretty happy with; at least they are good encouragement to keep at it!

These black wire and blue bead earrings remind me of a cloudy night sky, the wire seems to suggest a full moon, half covered by dark clouds.

I also used the pegboard to create a human form to wrap and make a small wire doll.

When she was finished, she just looked so goth and cute I had to make something appropriate to string her on.

I found some black leather strings lying around and thought they would look neat wrapped in red.  I love the final result, but I have always had a love for all things candy goth.

I am thoroughly enjoying this foray into new territory but I feel I must be more ambitious so over the next week I am going to sit down and wrap as many gems as possible until I feel somewhat competent. And then I will share some of my experiments with you in part 2!

Wirework is lots of fun and very rewarding – there are so many things you can create once you get comfortable. I recommend everyone buy some cheap wire and try it out for yourself if you haven’t yet – the possibilities are endless and fantastic!