Learning to Wire Weaving - A Basic 2 to 1 Loop

One of the first things I learned when weaving wire is... make your frame bends first if you are using a larger wire.  After the wires are weaved, they can become very difficult to bend, especially if they require a twist or sharp curve around your focal bead.  Maybe others know a better way of doing this, but for me, this seems to be the first step in a project.

In this photo, I've spiraled around a focal glass bead with 16 gauge wire and I'm using a 26g wire for the looping or 'weave'.

1.  I've anchored the thin wire at the beginning of the frame by doing a simple looping wrap over both frame wires.

2.  Where the frame wires begin to separate, loop twice around the 'outside' frame wire, then come over both frame wires, down the inside frame along the side that faces the bead.

3.  Come back up through the middle and loop once around the 'inside' frame wire, then under both frame wires, returning to the outside of the frame.

The looping is always going in the same direction and this motion is repeated all around the focal bead.

I do two loops around the outside wire and one loop around the inside wire because these wires are spiraled around the bead and this seems to create a nice uniform pattern, keeping the loops even with each other as I move around the frame wires.

It's an easy first weave to practice.  As I wrote in the previous post, it's very important to work with a comfortable length of wire for the weaving.  I use three feet at a time.  Work slowly and carefully, managing the thin wire so that it does not kink or bulk while looping around the frame wires.  Make sure the loops are snug and laying flat along the frame.

After you do three or four 'rows' of loops, you might use your thumb and finger to push the loops close together to keep them uniform and neat.

You can click each of these images to enlarge them and take a better look.  Have fun!  I'll be back with another post soon.