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The steps involved in making a wire component on one of our WigJig jewelry making tools are relatively consistent regardless of the piece you are making. They are simply 1. cut a piece of wire the appropriate length, 2. make a loop in one end of this wire, 3. straighten the wire. 4. wrap the wire around the pattern of pegs on your jig, 5. remove the wire from your jig and cut the excess wire then close the final loop, and 6. finish the piece and set the design by hardening/flattening the piece. The technique that we will discuss in this page is step 6, finishing the piece. After you remove a wire component made on one of our WigJig tools and cut the excess wire, you will find that the piece is not quite ready for prime time. The piece will be slightly three dimensional. The next step is to flatten the piece. This step is necessary because it is very difficult to push the wire all the way down while you are wrapping it around the pegs on your jig. In fact, with your fingers alone, it is almost impossible to make a piece that will come off your jig and be perfectly flat. What is required is a tool to help you flatten the wire component. The tool that we recommend is nylon jaw pliers.
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After
removing a wire component from one of our WigJig tools and cutting the
excess wire, we always flatten the wire component by squeezing it in the
jaws of our nylon jaw pliers. The leverage provided by the jaws of the
pliers allows you to flatten the wire, where your fingers alone could not.
Unfortunately, for us this is as automatic as breathing out after you
breathe in. For this reason, sometimes in our instructions
we
fail to mention this requirement. Please know that for almost every
wire component, this step is necessary even if we don't mention it in our
instructions. The process is very simple, place the wire component in
the jaws of your nylon jaw pliers and squeeze firmly with the wire held in
several different orientations in the jaws of your pliers. You will
notice that the piece will become flatter and stiffer.