Queen of Clubs Wire & Beads Earrings Jewelry Making Project -- Page 5

Step 18:  To complete the loop at this position, you will first need to reposition the wire in the jaws of your pliers.  See the picture at right.  This is accomplished by relaxing your grip with your pliers, moving the wire until you get it into position as shown, then tightening the grip with your pliers.  You want to make certain that all of the wire in the loop is touching your pliers.  This is accomplished by sliding the wire in or out on your round nose pliers.  In essence, we are gripping the wire at the same point in your round nose pliers as you did in step 17 so that the loop in the wire will be a circle.  If you grip the wire at a different point in the jaws of your round nose pliers, the loop won't be round. 

Step19:  Now we are ready to complete the loop.  Push the wire the rest of the way around to complete the loop at the top of the wire component.  When completed the wire should appear as shown at left. 

Step 20:  Release the wire from your pliers and view the loop at the top of the wire component.  If the loop isn't centered above the bead and clubs wire component, this is the time to manually center the loop.  Should you need to adjust the loop you do this by inserting your round nose pliers all the way into the loop and then rotating your pliers left or right until the loop is centered. 

Step 21:  At this point, we could grasp the loop with our bent chain nose pliers and wrap the wire around the stem of the clubs wire component, or we can cut the excess wire.  For this beginner's project we will cut the excess wire.  Using your flush cutter, with the flat side of the cutter toward the finished piece, cut the wire at the point where it overlaps.  After the cut, the wire component will appear as shown at left.  Notice that the loop at the top is slightly opened. 

Step 22:  Using your bent chain nose pliers grasp the open side of the loop at top.  See the picture at right for the orientation of your pliers.  While holding 1/2 of the loop as shown push the rest of the wire component up while twisting your pliers down, until the loop at the top of the wire component is closed.  If you have difficulty getting the loop closed, you can use bent closing pliers to squeeze closed a small gap in a loop.  Please select here and scroll to the bottom of the page to view bent closing pliers in action.