Beads, Jewelry Wire, Tools & Jewelry Making Supplies by WigJig Newsletter 10/14/2008

Free Jewelry Design:

You will require a WigJig Cyclops or Centaur in order to make these earrings and will need a WigJig Spacer Press tool to help push the wire down on each peg.  The Spacer Press is a hollow plastic tube that fits over the pegs in our jigs and will allow you to push the wire down when it is wrapped around a peg in a tight space.  The Spacer Press is required for this pattern because this is one of the very few patterns where we don't start with just 2 pegs and add pegs as we go.  Because of the complexity of this pattern, we start with all 10 pegs in your jig and for this reason we have to push the wire down in a place where there isn't room for our fingers. 

Adding complexity to making these earrings is the fact that we flip the design over to it's mirror image position after wrapping the wire around each peg.  To do this, we have to remove the wire from the jig, flip it over, and then place it back on the jig.  The reason that we do this extra step is because the finished piece will be two layers of wire if we flip it over after each loop is made.  If we didn't do this extra step, the wire would start at a low elevation and grow in height with each loop in the wire. 

This design is much easier to make with 1/2 hard wire like the Artistic Wire Non-Tarnish Brass.  The earrings shown above were made with 18 gauge wire, but these earrings could also have been made with 20 gauge wire.  4mm and 6mm round beads were used along with size 8 seed beads. 

We hope you like this design.  Because of the complexity of this design, we have 20 pictures that show the steps in making these earrings. 

To view our free instructions for how to make Suzanne's Jewelry Wire & Beads Earrings select here, or select the picture above.

Jewelry Technique:
This week's jewelry making technique is our new instructions for how to make a wrapped bead cap out of jewelry wire as shown at right.  This technique uses 22 gauge wire to make a wrapped bead link and also uses extra wire to make a decorative spiral wrap on either end of the bead.  Anyone who is successful in making a wrapped bead link, will find that this technique is rather easy.  Please select the picture above or select here to view our free instructions for making a wrapped bead cap.   

Nostalgia Corner:
This week's featured design in our Nostalgia Corner is the design for making our Simple Jewelry Wire Ring shown left and right.  This is a relatively easy design to make, but does require a ring mandrel and nylon hammer in order to shape the wire.  We used our WigJig Delphi to make the rings shown here, but almost any of our WigJig tools could be used.  This is our favorite ring design.  It will require a little experimentation to get the length perfect for each wearer.  This is done by moving the pegs in your jig to get a longer or shorter circumference of wire. 

Please select here, or select any picture above to view our free instructions for making our Simple Jewelry Wire Ring.

Warning! Joke Follows.  
This is only a joke.  We tell jokes because we are in favor of smiling, laughing and being happy.  This does not mean that we are opposed to anyone or anything. 

If you have ever in your entire life been offended by any joke  -- please skip the below paragraphs.  It is not our intention to offend anyone!  We don't write these jokes, we only re-tell jokes that we have heard on the public radio, television or over the Internet. 

Boomer Humor: 

Boomer has a secret investment strategy that is guaranteed to leave you with $1 million in the stock market and he is willing to share the secret with our WigJig Newsletter readers.  The secret is this -- start with $2 million in the market! 

Here are a few investment facts:

• If you had purchased $1,000 shares of Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have $49.00 today. 

• If you had purchased $1,000 shares of AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today.

• If you had purchased $1,000 shares of Lehman Brothers one year ago, you would have $0.00 today.

• But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for the recycling refund, you would have received $214.00.

One can conclude from the above that almost all investments are going bad right now, so you might as well just drink beer and recycle.  This investment strategy is called the 401 Keg. 

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 Global Priority Mail and charge $5 over the US Mail charge for this shipping service.  Please select here to view our entire shipping policy.

WigJig University.  We provide over 2,700 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. 

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

SHIPPING WAIVED ON 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: 10/14/2008