Making a Spiral Head Pin Jewelry Wire Finding --
A Beginner's Jewelry Making Technique -- Page 1

What do you do if you have a handmade glass bead with a larger than normal hole?  This tends to happen frequently with glass beads made by hand on a cane.  What do you do with a large semi-precious stone like the one shown at right?  The answer to both questions may be you make a spiral head pin like the one shown at right. 

What makes the spiral shown at right special?  The answer is that an ordinary spiral will unravel or pull apart if grabbed.  A normal spiral fails the baby test -- if a baby were to grab the spiral would it pull apart.  The spiral shown at right is made so that it will pass the baby test.  It won't pull apart if grabbed by a baby, or if snagged in a sweater. 

The way we make this spiral, using our WigJig Spiral Maker, allows us to wrap the center wire in the spiral around the outer wire and by doing this we make a permanent spiral that won't pull apart. 

The semi-precious stone shown here is a variety of the mineral jasper and was provided by Mike Sherman of Soft Flex Company.  You can purchase similar stones from Soft Flex at:

http://www.softflexcompany.com
 

Skills Required:

• Ability to cut wire with with a flush cutter.
• Ability to straighten wire with nylon jaw pliers.
• Ability to use bent chain nose pliers to bend wire.
• Ability to use our WigJig Spiral Maker to make wire components.