Beads & Jewelry Making Supplies by WigJig Newsletter for 10/18/2005

With every newsletter we provide a new jewelry design from WigJig University to spur the creative juices.  The new design for this newsletter is the design for the Caged Beads Necklace shown at right.  In this necklace we make five wire components called "cages" out of twenty six inches of 18 gauge soft wire using our WigJig Spiral Maker and one of our jigs.  The cages house a 6mm bead which helps to strengthen the cage and adds color and interest to the design.   

This necklace uses one of our new 16" strands of 6mm black onyx beads, size 8 gold topaz S/L seed beads, and 6mm Mother of Pearl beads along with a clasp made on our WigJig tools.  The clasp can be made with our WigJig Olympus, Olympus Lite, Delphi or Centaur and requires one 3/16" Super Peg and one 1/4" Super Peg and six inches of 18 or 20 gauge wire.  You can view a close up of this clasp at left. 

The necklace is strung on 22-24 inches of size .019 or .024 Soft Flex and finished with four 2x2mm crimp beads. 

This necklace shown was make with both onyx and Mother of Pearl beads.  It could have been made with Swarovski crystal pearl beads in the colors of black and white and would look almost identical.  Using the gold topaz S/L seed beads works well with the gold-filled wire.  Other color combinations would also work well.  The beads inside the cages are Swarovski 6mm Garnet AB Bicone Beads.  The cages are a good way to use beads that don't suit your color pallet.  (As we would have said it when I was in the Navy, you can hide your ugly beads inside a wire cage.)

To make an earring to match this necklace, we would suggest making a cage for each earring.  We would string the cage, and the bead inside the cage on a common head pin with 4mm black and white beads and seed beads.  This head pin could be attached directly to an ear wire as a single dangle earring. 

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

Jewelry Technique:
This weeks jewelry making technique is the first of a series of new pages on how to make common wire components.  In these new pages we discuss how we make loops, we show some common errors and how to avoid them, and we discuss some tools to use that help us to make consistent loops.  We also discuss an alternate technique for making loops with heavy gauge or very stiff wire.  For many people these new pages may be rather elementary.  For some people, they may find that they have been violating proper looping techniques and they did not know it. 

These new web pages are the first installment in a series of web pages that will also cover our WigJig techniques for making open loops, wrapped loops and figure 8 connectors in addition to making the "P" and eye loops described here.  Our approach to these jewelry making techniques is slightly different than the conventional approach documented elsewhere.  We have developed our modified techniques because we believe that it helps us to be more consistent in the wire components that we make.  We have also developed some new tools that help us with these techniques.  Our goal is simple.  We want to make wire components that look so professional that people ask -- what machine did you use to make that?  If our hand made jewelry looks like it was made by a machine, we will feel successful. 

To view our instructions on how to make "P" and eye loops, please select here or any of the pictures above.
 

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