Wire Name Writing Tutorial Links

Letter Jewelry
Part 2 of 2

I had fun creating my very first name pendant. It's clearly far from perfect. I will need to practice some more to get the letters even and level. Part of the problem was due to the soft copper wire I used. Letter writing is best done with half-hard or even full hard wire because the letters once formed are more likely to stay in place. I used 22G but 20 G is also common. If you are trying out with copper, start with the 20G as it is stiffer. Whether you use round or square wire seems to be a matter of personal preference.

I also quickly learned to keep the letter size such that I could still form the loops with the round nose pliers. You can see I didn't quite hide the second wire behind the first with the stem of the P and the curve of the A but that would be the general aim in situations like that.

I got started with letter writing with the help of the wonderful tutorials written by Maggie Stanton who apparently did it initially for the people at the Jewelry Making Forum of About.com. The name pendant she made on the left shows how it really should be done! Maggie only wrote the tutorials for nine names but you can probably figure other letters out like I had to do with P and perhaps put in your own variations. (UPDATE : link no longer works I have added some new video tutorials I found and will continue to add more as I find them).

Watch this artisan at work making a name and a decorative heart under the name! He makes it look simple.



This is a clear video tutorial on how to make a capital letter A.



The letter L is formed in this video tutorial uploaded by WireCreationArt.



Also check out this Bead and Button forum discussion for tips and comments. This article Learn to make wire name free is also useful but lacks pictures.

Wig Jig.com's tutorial suggests the use of their jig. They only show a couple of letters which aren't joined but you will get the general idea.

If you don't like wire work or if you are convinced your wire writing skills rivals doctors' handwriting, then check out the following Etsy artisans.

Enames2u does a beautiful job. The heart with a Swarovski crystal is a nice touch.


WireYourWorld's shop features this clever Baby's First Word MAMA wire name pendant in 14 GF wire.

Kathy Canuel does her name writing in square wire and again, she has a refreshing take on how the name is made into a pendant.



There is also another enterprising wire artisan, Dave Maskin of wirenames.com who works with 14G aluminium wire. He creates 3-D wire names which can stand up. His is an entertainment business where he makes them at parties and functions. He is so fast, he can create 40-50 names an hour! A good example of practice makes perfect. He also sells names via his website.

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