Charoite Sterling Silver Wire Wrapped Earrings


I love this detailed wire wrapping but wow does it take time. I'm using 26 gauge square wire here for the wrap rather than round wire and I'm finding that I enjoy using the square wire more. I think I have more control over the bands and they lay flatter... personal pref on that, but for those new to wire, you'll discover that round wire is great for some applications and square wire for others. There are various gauges and colors and metal types to choose from and you will soon come to find your preferences of wire for the various projects you make. I like to use 18g round wire as frame wire. I normally hammer the wire frame to add strength and I like to use 26g as the banding wire and like I said earlier, the wire used here is square. The silver accent beads are 1mm sterling silver as are the earring hooks.

Tiny wires, many hours... These are deceptive in their simplicity for they took a very long time. I found that when wrapping the frames, it was easier for me to make a few wraps, then take my flat nose pliers and do just a quick 'tap' to make sure they stayed flat and tight.

The center stones are Russian Charoite and the color is natural. Can you believe??? I love this rock and have made many wonderful pieces using it.

Click the image to enlarge and get a close look. The tops of the frames are wrapped in a 'cap' style because I felt it gave a nice look and also provides a place to tuck in the back wires neatly.
When building your jewelry, I always like to advise that you give some visualization to how you might 'finish' ends or where you are going to tuck the ends of wire. If you are working from a tutorial, then this becomes less important and you can make note of how the tutorial finishes the ends. But when making pieces of our own design, I sometimes forget to give thought to this because my eyes are so full the bead candy that I didn't normally give much thought to the finish. Over time, I've learned that it's just as important as the focal point. I've been training myself to think of the findings as part of the whole design and it's become much more now then to just 'add a hook'. I've found that I enjoy creating new ways to close up my pieces and I really like challenging myself to find 'neat' ways to tuck away the wire. It adds a stamp of quality to your project and your piece of wire jewelry, when you or your customer can wear it, without feeling the 'scratch' of a loose end!

10 comments:

ChezChani said...

Those are absolutely worth the time and effort. Life with cats can be exasperating but life without cats is not a life worth living if you ask me. Signed a person perched on the barest edge of the seat so as not to disurb the cat behind her.

A Beaded Affair said...

I can so empathize with your cat problem. Have two boys here that drive me to distraction. Joey is the worst and looks a lot like your cat. Nothing is sacred to him. My other cat is "the good cat" and only encourages Joey to be bad. hehe. Jamie told me about your work and your blog. I love your wrapping. Keep it up, you do nice work. Interesting to me you found the square easier to wrap. I have to try that again. Last time I did, I had to give up and go back to round. Just couldn't get it to lay flat and straight. Might have been the wire though.
See ya around!
Lois
http://www.abeadedaffair.com

Glass0Beads said...

Wow and Holy Moley!!
You have a lovely blog, and a wonderful imagination: your designs are .... words fail me.
Have you joined us at Etsy and the eSMArts guild?
A note of caution re: Cat. A contributor at the about forum lost a cat when it swallowed some beads. She, of course, was devistated. You maybe should have a sit down heart to heart with your wee beastie and tell her (Him?) of the dangers of getting too interested in all things beady.
Ever since I learned about that event I get really nervous when I see cats putting themselves in grave danger.
Wee beasties ~ whether a dog, cat, bird, fish ,...~ are too important to our wellbeing to lose.
Please get signed up with Etsy and eSMArts. You won't regret it, I am sure.
Helene ~~ Glass 0 Beads (#0, not a letter O)

IzzyGumbo said...

Omg! :) hey you guys! Waves and hugs. Yes, beasties, damn things and I do scold them always removing them promptly from the table... but Thanks for the heads up Helene! That's even more reason for me to beat them off! lol.
Jamie is a dear and I appreciate that you came over to take a peak Lois and Chani - thank you all three. I'm very interested in your group Helene -thank you - I want to read up a bit and I have some chores before I'm ready, but I'll be there. xo Have a great night ladies.

Betty BeadBug said...

I love these, especially the blue ones.

Designed for Time said...

"All" your work is awesome - thanks for visiting the other day

Millie.GotRocks said...

Really nice work!

handmade silver jewelry said...

Brilliantly beautiful !!!
I really love your collection and work.
i'm pretty impressed with your collection.
I'm wishing I could make my own personal touched of these stuffs too.

IzzyGumbo said...

Millie, thank you!
handmade silver jewelry, thank you too! such lovely comments, I appreciate you very much.

Drop ship said...

this is awesome post .. i saved it