Wire Wrapping Tutorial: Beginner: How to Make Beaded and Crystal Wire Hair Spirals

This one is really fun and very easy to do. They are completely decorative so don't expect them to actually hold any hair. These add decoration to the hair, a little sparkle, a little pearl, a little crystal... great for party hair or wedding hair or just fun to make with the girls. You wear them by 'twisting' them into a lock of hair. This is an amazing look to decorate an 'up'-do for a wedding or night out. These are small, so you wear several of them, strategically placed for desired hair blinging. Great to sparkle up braids also.  Enjoy!

It's a basic, very wide spiral, using a thick gauge wire and adding some fun beads. Click the images to enlarge.






You Need:
1. Round nose pliers
2. Flat nose
3. File
4. Cutters
5. 4 inch long, round, 18 gauge, soft wire. (hard is fine too)
***You'll need one wire per each of these you want to make.
6. 1 foot of 26g, sterling, round, soft wire.
7. 1 foot of 28g, sterling, round, soft wire.
8. A bunch of small, fave beads, 3 to 5mm.



1. After you cut your wires, be sure to file the ends to get the rough edges off.

2. Then using your round nose plier, create a loop at one end.






Preview: You can create the spiral first and then attach the beads, or you can leave the wire straight and create the spiral as you go. Take a look at the images ahead and get an idea of what will work best for your design.

In this project, I am coiling around the gold, so this for me, is easier to do before I spiral the gold.







4. After creating the first loop, anchor a 6mm Swarovski crystal (or your fave bead) to it using the 26g silver wire.

For something that's going to be in hair, something that catches the light and gives a little sparkle is nice. Wrapping the gold fill wire with silver adds to this also.

5. To anchor the bead: Make a bend in your 26g sterling wire, one inch from the end, bringing the short end together with the long end. Thread the entire wire through the center of the bead. The loop made by the wires coming together will form a 'kink' at the end of the bead and keep it from passing through. Anchor it to the gold loop by wrapping with the short end of the silver wire.

6. Using the long end of the wire, coil around the gold in a consistent and even wrap. Stay close and tight to the gold and coil until you are about 2 inches from the other end. Make sure to tap the end of the silver wrap with a flat nose so that it's not sticking out. Taking a minute to tuck the ends in, makes always for a nicer project.



7. Using the 28g sterling wire now, anchor it to gold loop under your bead. Make a couple of tight wraps and then add a 1mm silver bead. Make a couple of tight wraps, moving 'forward' and add another bead. Work like this until you add as many as you like. In this case, I added 11 of the 1mm sterling beads.




8. Thread a 4mm crystal bead and begin to move in the opposite direction, back toward the spiral center. Add another 4mm crystal, wrapping around the main wire to anchor each time.

9. Add a couple of pearls or some other silver beads or some seed beads... have fun with it.








10. I added two small freshwater pears and then finished it up by anchoring the end of the wrap wire under the main center bead. Neat and clean.

11. Take your round nose and create a loop at the unfinished end of the wire. Gently 'pull' and create a spiral by moving around the center cluster. Adjust with your hands until you get a neat spiral.

12. Push the bead cluster forward just slightly from the end. The next image shows the finished project.

That's it... Twist into a lock of hair and be beautiful. :) Make many of these in fun ways using many types of wire and beads. I used gold and silver but you can use craft wires and copper for more casual hair wear.

Enjoy! Thanks for visiting here.