How to Make a Wire Wrapped Gemstone Bracelet Link

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	The Beadsmith Jewelry Fine Round Nose Micro Pliers SKU: XTL-5514 $8.49
	Xuron Jeweler's Super Fine Pliers Chain Nose Flat Nose SKU: XTL-5450 $25.99
	Eurotool Nylon Jaw Pliers Chain Nose- For Scratch-Free Wire Work SKU: XTL-0074 $14.49
	Sharp Flush Cutter Pliers - For Cutting Beading Wire (1 Piece) SKU: XTL-5600 $23.99
	Beadalon Large Beading Mats - Prevent Bead Rolling 13 X 18 Inch (Set of 2) SKU: XTL-9935 $6.75
	Sterling Silver Open Jump Rings 8mm 18 Gauge Heavy (10 pcs) SKU: FJR-03089 $14.99
	Sterling Silver Open Jump Rings 5mm 18 Gauge (10 pcs) SKU: FJR-03054 $6.25

Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
Hi this is Megan with Beadaholique.com and today I want to show you how to make a wire wrapped gemstone bracelet link so this is what the link looks like this is what the bracelet looks like you can see it's just these links the jump rings and a clasp there I'm going to show you how to do the the hook and bar clasp in another video For this one I'm going to show you how to make the link, the basic component of the bracelet so what you going to need is a bead. I'm using a lentil shaped bead. You don't have to use a gemstone. You could use anyone lentil shape bead but it should be like a pillow bead it's like a round mostly flat disk that's the shape that I'm going to use for this. You could probably use an oval I don't see why you couldn't and then i'm using craft wire in two different sizes. I have an eighteen gauge and I have a twenty-four gauge the tools that I'm going to use are nice sharp flush cutters a pair of nylon pliers round nose pliers and then and also have a pair of regular chain nose pliers you want to be careful that you don't ding up your wire and mark it up with these You want to use the nylon whenever possible but every once and a while so you need to get a better grip. I have these also The first thing that I'm gonna do is I will need to start with four lengths of the eighteen gauge wire to make a frame of my link and I want each one to be about four inches long. So I'm gonna start with one piece so that I can straighten it as one piece I'm just gonna cut one piece that's anywhere between sixteen inches and a couple of feet. I always use a lot of extra wire when I'm going wire wrapping and just because I'd rather be safe than sorry this is kind of a lot. I'm going to go ahead and cut this in half into two pieces when you're gonna work with wire you cut your piece a little longer then you need and use round nose pliers to just put a loop on the ends hold on to that loop take your nylon jaw pliers and straighten your wire out it can be a real headache to work with wire as it is if you're not used to it but working with wire that's not straightened out is twice as hard and do the second piece then you're gonna cut off the loop and be careful when you cut thicker wire pieces can fly You want to wear protection and just hold onto things and be careful now I'm going to cut these two pieces in half to give me the four pieces that I want to work with next I'm going to cut a piece of twenty-four gauge wire and I want two pieces that are about four or five inches long then I'm going to take my four pieces of the eighteen gauge wire and you're going to pair them. You need two pair so I'm just trying to make sure that they're straight as possible so that they line up nicely then you're going to take once set of two wires hold it together near the middle, take your twenty-four gauge wire and very firmly wrap your twenty-four gauge wire around eighteen gauge wire wrap it around about six or seven times you want your wraps to be very snug completely close together, all the way against each other so there are no spaces. Get it around there a good amount of times. So I would say probably six or seven bring your access to the back use your flush cutters to cut those wires use the flat side, of course, against your piece so that those pieces aren't sharp then you will use your nylon jaw pliers push those ends down give a goos squeeze to flatten it then you can also squeeze it together and then it will move a little. Move it to the middle and then you just going to repeat that with the second pair Then you take your two little bundles here and what you have is you have the wire that's gonna go around the edge of the bead and the wire that's going to go up across the face the bead is what each pair is so first make sure that your smaller wire wrap is right in the middle take the top wire and just gently with your fingers here in the middle bend these in and you wanna make sure that your clean edge of your wire wrap sits on the outside so that your edges are in the inside so this wires here have to go-around and go up and do some wrapping around so probably wanna make them about five inches on those because I think I might have more here than five or six even you want to have some extra I don't think that's quite four inches then you're gonna take your fingers and just bend this wire in give yourself a nice curve as you can see this whole thing is not exact. Every piece is not exactly the same that's what I kinda gives it a handcrafted kind of a look you don't have to be super worried about every single piece looking identical Just make them all close enough and pretty and bend all these in then it needs to have a little bit of space this way to go on top of the bead hold the joint and just kind of bend it up a little and then you're gonna need to shape the bottom wire to go around the edge of the bead and this is a little tricky to hold onto but hold it the best you can since it's totally round it doesn't matter where the holes are. If you're using an oval you'll need to make sure your holes stay parallel to the wire hold that onto the side and just gently bend around on both sides then make sure it fits in there right You want you're wire wraps to sit against edge. You don't want to it to sit flat like this check it out, see how it's looking the other side again since it's symmetrical I can do it the same way if you're doing something that's not you might want to flip it over and make sure that you go under your top wire when you bend it you don't want it to start off tangled up they will move out of your way if you need to move them and if they've moved off centered go ahead and move it back to the middle move it a little bit okay Now we're going to attach our frame to our bead. Cut yourself a nice piece of the twenty four gauge wire. Start with about a foot. Again it is extra but I don't wanna run out want to start over put that wire right through the hole in the bead then you're gonna take one of your framed pieces go ahead and move that top part out of your way for right now hold your frame piece on so that the wire wrapping is directly in the center of the side and you're going to wrap this wire around and pull it nice and tight back and up and then you want to make sure that you pull the slack down so that this doesn't have extra space here to keep it nice and snug pull it down and then you're gonna wrap around the bottom one as well and pull that tight and I will move back and forth this way at this point that's fine you just want to make sure that it's tight this way and you're going to take the other side we're gonna put it behind the first and you want to bring the top legs up so they don't get the way and you're gonna put these ones in between the two prongs here should be like and the two ontop should be above on top of the other ones so this one is to the back again it can be kinda tricky, try to keep the bent legs out of the way and try to keep the wire wrap bundle right in the center on the side there now you're gonna take your wire make sure you're holding it right up against the other one there so that there's not a gap this way your going to wrap that around that just like we did before right around like that so now that's gonna hold it on but not still, so be careful that it doesn't move around a lot. It can be quite a challenge if you're new to wire wrapping to hold everything still now you're going to turn your piece try to hold this stuff still and you're going to adjust the bend on your top frame pieces so that they meet right in the middle next to where your wires coming out of the bead you don't want them to cross over you want to just meet flush now hold these wire wraps where you want them to sit make sure that this is where you want that to be at the end here then you're gonna take the wire that's been wrapped around these pieces pull it really snug you don't want that to cross over so if it does go ahead and just give it a tweak very snugly wrap around about six or seven times you're just going to flip it and do the same thing on this side so adjust the bend you don't want them to separate the ends because it won't stay snug right around the end there a good six or seven times trim off the extra use your nylon jaw pliers to push that down make sure it's nice and tight Make sure it's all in there Now you're going to trim the ends of your wire this one is already about where you want it you want these pieces here to be about an inch from where they cross you want these end pieces here to be also about an inch don't let them be too short, maybe just over you can always trim down later but you can't get any back we're going to take a pair of round nose pliers and for the base here it's gonna go below these pieces here, so you gonna do these pieces first go to the bottom of your round nose pliers and pinch there so that it's gonna give you a large loop and just rotate rotate and make one large loop and then you can flatten it with with your round pliers or you can use your nylon jaw pliers repeat that for all four of those you're going to gently separate the end wires here's so that you can get your pliers in now gonna start at the tip and your going to work the other way, so these ones went out towards the end of the link, these one are going to roll in towards the link start at the very tip you're not gonna make at circle, you're gonna make a spiral, so don't close it all the way, just keep moving the tip of your pliers down and bending it around so you're just gonna move your pliers down before your circles closed and that will make a spiral This should go on top of the ones from underneath now we can adjust the ones on the bottom they should stick out a little bit but not like the whole link is sticking out from behind there you should just kind of have them peek out it's okay to start rolling it a second time have it overlap here that's fine it should just peek out and then the other thing the last thing I wanted to do I want this setting to kind of curve down a little bit so that it sits nice and flat against your wrist when your wearing it as a bracelet it should be slightly curved, so all I'm going to do is put my fingers at the back of the bead and my thumbs on the front here and just gently push that's all I'm going to do it will also help the setting sit around the bead and instead of on top and that's how you make this Wire Wrapped Bracelet Link