WigJig Newsletter 060904 on Jewelry Making, Jewelry Supplies, Beads and Wire dated 9/04/2006

Boomer the Beads & Jewelry Making Supplies by WigJig Spokesdog WigJig News -- AKA Boomer Sez:

New Spokesdog: Writing newsletters in the third person isn't always fun. Writing newsletters in the first person (I did this) seems to us to be immodest. Just to have a little fun and a change of pace, we will try writing from the perspective of Boomer, the designated Spokesdog for the Beads & Jewelry Making Supplies by WigJig Web site. The added benefit for us is we like looking at his picture. Boomer job for our company is to be the roving security patrol at our offices. If this doesn't work for you, please provide us feedback. In response to the first feedback -- yes, you are correct -- sometimes we do get silly. That's what makes life fun!

Shows: Boomer Sez the next show that WigJig will participate in will be the Lapidary Journal Bead Fest in the Greater Reading Expo Center, in Reading, PA from Friday, October 6th through Sunday, October 8th. The Greater Reading Expo Center is located at 2525 North 12th Street; Reading, PA 19605. You can find directions to the Expo Center here. A map showing the Expo Center can be found here. Gary Helwig, inventory of the WigJig Jewelry Making Project from Marion Brumback family of tools, will be demonstrating our WigJig tools in the Soft Flex Booth. Don't look for a sign that says WigJig. Instead look for the Soft Flex Booth and we will be there. Boomer hopes that we will see you there!

Guest Contributor: Boomer Sez thank you to Marion Brumback who provided us this picture of earrings and a bracelet she made using our WigJig Olympus or Olympus Lite. Marion lives in Fairfax, VA. and used this pattern from our Wire Design Basics online book. The bracelet shown uses a magnetic clasp and has a guard chain to prevent the magnets from seeking a new owner. (We hate it when that happens.)

Christmas Gift Planning: Boomer sez plan ahead for the Christmas Gift season. We have added many new items to our store this year and we don't have enough of a purchasing history that we can accurately forecast the demand. It is quite likely that we will run out of popular items for making gifts. Please be warned, December may not be the best time to begin planning your Christmas jewelry making projects.

Boomer Humor: Boomer was out marking his territory last week and decided to stop by the neighborhood bar. He went inside and asked the bartender if he had any dog biscuits. The bartender said "No, we're a bar and we have beer and wine, but no dog biscuits", so Boomer left. The next day Boomer stops by again and says to the bartender "Do you have any dog biscuits?". The bartender was a little put off by this so he says "No, we don't have any dog biscuits. I told you that yesterday. If you ask me that again, I'm going to nail your tail to the bar." On the third day, Boomer returns to the bar and asks the bartender "Do you have any nails?" The bartender replied that he didn't have any nails and Boomer responded "Then do you have any dog biscuits?" ;-)

Free Jewelry Design:

3 Strand Onys and Pearl Beads Necklace Jewelry Making Project

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 3 strand Onyx & Pearl Beads Choker shown at right and below. This jewelry making project is very similar to the 3 Strand Bracelet from our last newsletter, but longer. Because we are making this to a choker length and people have different sizes of necks, we added a chain to the end of the necklace to allow the length of the choker to be adjustable.

There are three wire components in this necklace that are made on our WigJig Jewelry Making tools -- a three hole spacer bar finding, a 2-1 connector, and a chain of wrapped links. The spacer bar and 2-1 connector were made using 18 gauge 1/2 hard wire, the chain was made using 20 gauge 1/2 hard wire. For this necklace we used 6mm black onyx beads separated by size 6 seed beads with one 6mm white pearl bead in the center of each group of beads. The groups of beads are separated from one another and the strands of the necklace are held in place by 3 hole spacer bars findings.

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

Past Techniques:
We maintain a techniques web page that provides links to the discussion of techniques in our prior newsletters. You can visit this web page here. Follow the links on that page to the discussion of the technique in that newsletter.

Jewelry Technique:
This weeks jewelry making technique is a discussion of how to use our WigJig jewelry making tools in the best possible manner. You could call it "Jigsmanship". Many people purchase our WigJig tools and aren't immediately successful for the simple reason that although it is very easy to use our tools, it isn't quite as easy to use them in the proper manner. Intuitively, people want to make a wire component by deciding where the pegs go, placing all the pegs in the jig, and pulling the wire around the pegs. This approach is not the best way to use your jig. We have detailed instructions on the recommended approach to using our WigJig tools in our "Beginners Instructions" starting at page 35. The most important things to remember are:

Start with just two pegs regardless of how many pegs are in your pattern. Add pegs as you go.
Push the wire with the index finger of your dominant hand while holding and moving the jig with your non-dominant hand. Use just one finger, your index finger, to push the wire as shown above-right. With your non-dominant hand (Not shown in the above picture) grasp the corners of your jig and twist/turn the jig to cause the wire to bend.
Continuing pushing the wire until when you remove all pressure on the wire, the wire will remain adjacent to the hole for the next peg in your pattern. This will require you to push the wire frequently beyond the next hole, then release your grip on the wire to test to see if the wire stays where you want it. You may have to push the wire several times to get it to stay where it needs to be.
Use all of your peg. Notice in the photo above-right that the wire is in the middle of the peg and not flat against the jig. This makes it easier to control the wire.
Push the wire with your finger as close to the peg you are bending the wire against as possible. This helps to make your wire components to be as consistent as possible.

When done properly, you will find that this approach is very easy and won't require much force at all. If you find that it is hard for you to push the wire, you probably aren't doing it correctly.

Please select the picture above-right or this text here to visit our detailed instructions for using a jewelry making jig.

Nostalgia Corner:
This weeks featured design in our Nostalgia Corner is the design for our Classic Pearl Beads necklace shown at right. This project is similar to our Onyx & Pearl Beads Choker project discussed above, but only has one strand of pearl beads and is much easier to make. We recommend using Swarovski Crystal Pearl Beads for both necklaces both because of their high quality and for the simple reason that they can not be easily distinguished from real pearls.

Pearls make an excellent gift idea and now, you can consider making them as one, two or three strand bracelets or necklaces.

Please select here, or select the picture at left to view our instructions for making the Classic Pearl Beads Necklace.

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 waive the shipping charge on orders over $60 shipped within the US (as long as these orders remain over $60). For International orders we ship via FED EX or 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 2,200 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 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.

SHIPPING WAIVED 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: 9/03/2006

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View Prior Newsletters

2003 2004 2005

1/16/2006 02/12/2006 02/26/2006 03/13/2006 03/26/2006 04/09/2006 04/30/2006

05/14/2006 06/29/2006 07/16/2006 08/06/2006 08/21/2006 09/04/2006

Beads & Jewelry Supplies by WigJig Jewelry Making Newsletter

6mm Round Cloisonne Glass Beads Package of 6 beads	8mm Round Sterling Silver Snap Fit Pendant Setting Package of 1 Finding for Setting One 8mm Gemstone
8mm Swarovski Round Tanzanite Beads Package of 6 Beads	Sterling Silver Ear Wire Jewelry Making Finding Package of 10 (Five Pairs)
Plastic Hemostat Clamp Jewelry Making Tool Set of 5	24 Gauge Natural Silver Silver-plated Wire with Anti-Tarnish Enamel Coating 30' Spool

Beads & Jewelry Making Supplies by WigJig Newsletter 9/04/2006