WigJig Jewelry Making Newsletter for 09/12/2005

This is an advanced beginners jewelry making project.  The key skills necessary to make these earrings are the ability to make a bead dangle with a head pin and beads and the ability to make a wrapped bead link to connect wire components. 

The earrings shown at right were made with Swarovski crystal beads.  For a more striking effect, you can replace some of the crystal beads with crystal AB beads and the earrings will reflect light better especially in low light situations. 

To view our instructions for how to make this jewelry item please select here or either picture above.

Jewelry Technique:
The steps involved in making a wire component on one of our WigJig 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 this week 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. 

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.

With some pieces a little more finishing will be required.  After removing the wire from your nylon jaw pliers you may need to "hand finish" your piece.  This means that you view the piece and manipulate it by hand so that it is positioned properly.  Sometimes you may need to use your pliers to help you with hand finishing.  The pliers can help you to grip a loop of wire and manipulate it, where your fingers alone would not be strong enough.  The proper way to perform hand finishing with your pliers is to insert your round nose into the loop as far as they will go, then grip lightly with the pliers, pushing or pulling the loop into position.  Step Jaw Pliers may also be used and will generally result in fewer marks on your wire.  You are done with the hand finishing when the piece appears the way you want it to.
 

We are continuing to improve our newsletter, so please feel free to provide feedback at custsrv@wigjig.com. 

Announcements:
Online Books.  If you are looking for new and interesting jewelry projects -- try one of our Online Books.  Our most detailed instructions are for sale online.  Please select here to view our selection of online books.  These books are delivered over the Internet and there are no shipping costs on an order with just online books. 

Shipping Policy.  We ship all retail orders over $60 for free within the US.  For International orders we ship via UPS international service and charge $34.95 (our average cost) for this expedited shipping service.  Please select here to view our entire shipping policy.

WigJig University.  We provide Over 2,000 web pages of free information, tips, techniques and free jewelry making designs in WigJig University.  We encourage everyone to view this information as a source for new ideas, projects, or a way to learn new techniques.  We now have a page in WigJig University that shows our designs by sorted by the WigJig tool used to make them.  Please select here to view that information. 

International Vendors.  We do have vendors who sell our WigJig products outside the US.  We encourage customers to contact these vendors in their home country.  Please select here to view our list of overseas vendors.  We are also happy to sell our WigJig tools to stores.  Please send us an e-mail if you are interested in selling our WigJig tools. 

Classes.  We have a listing of various jewelry-making classes using our WigJig tools that are offered by bead stores throughout the country.  If you are interested in classes, please select here.  If you know someone who has classes in using our WigJig tools, please ask them to send us an e-mail at custsrv@wigjig.com so that we can include them in these pages. 

FREE SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS OVER $60.00 SHIPPED to USA - Customer Care - WigJig, PO Box 5124, Gaithersburg, MD 20882; (800) 579-WIRE (phone), (240) 597-2262 (fax), custsrv@wigjig.com (email).  Privacy Policy.  All content on this web site including jewelry and wire designs are copyrighted by WigJig.  WigJig is a registered trademark.  Last modified: January 11, 2008