Interested in making one of a kind wire wrapped pendant necklaces? Then you have to watch these two tutorials by Liz Kreate over on Youtube.  The final result is a gorgeous design featuring a wire wrapped cabochon complete with a wire and pearl chain.  The tutorials are best for intermediate to advanced wire workers as Liz demonstrates quite quickly. She uses 18G wire for the frame and 24G for the wire wrapping.



The first tutorial shows you how she makes a custom wire frame using a handmade wire jig. Although you can make this frame using your chain nose or bail forming pliers, the jig means you can make several identical frames.  Notice that her loops are quite large and the frame itself is wide. So she demonstrated how to make a jig with large drop in nails - these cannot be nailed on as they have to be removable. You do need to be comfortable using drills for this.  Great tip on how to use tape to mark the depth of the drill bit.




Once the wire frame is created, then the wire wrapping fun begins! In her next tutorial,  Liz makes wire wrapping cabochons very easy but really, it takes lots of practice to do it as quickly as she does.  I particularly liked her tip for using stickly Blue Tack to temporarily secure the cabochon besides painter's tape.

You don't have to make exactly the same frames as she used.  Nor the same beads.  The tutorial shows you in general how to go about customizing your own.  Note the tip on how she secures pearl discs onto the wire loop bases so they sit flat.



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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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