Bending Wire

Instructions for bending jewelry wire suing common jewelry making tools:

When bending wire for jewelry making, one needs to consider the finished piece. Quite frequently, you will just need to bend the jewelry wire to make an angle in the wire. This is one of the steps in making many jewelry wire components -- making a sharp, crisp bend in the wire. Making a crisp bend in jewelry wire is accomplished by grasping the wire firmly in the jaws of chain nose or bent chain nose pliers. Hold the jewelry wire so that it is essentially perpendicular to the jaws of the pliers. Then push the jewelry wire against the jaws of the pliers. Push by pressing the jewelry wire as close to the jaws as possible. The jewelry tool called "chain nose pliers" have smooth, flat jaws so that they can hold the jewelry wire while spreading the gripping force across the flat face of the pliers and thereby leaving minimal marks on the wire. The needle nose pliers used by electricians are not an acceptable substitute for jeweler's chain nose pliers because they contain grooves which leave marks on jewelry wire. In general, the better chain nose pliers have thin tapered tips (about 1 mm at the tip). This feature becomes important when making the bend in the jewelry wire necessary to complete the wrapped bead link to connect wire components.

Jewelry Making Supplies Required:

• Any size of jewelry making wire

Jewelry Making Tools Required:

• Chain Nose of Bent Chain Nose Pliers

Jewelry Making Skills Required:

• Ability to use chain nose pliers jewelry making tool to bend jewelry wire described below.

Instructions for bending jewelry wire using the above jewelry tools:

This technique is a very basic jewelry making skill. Please view our pictures below of how to perform this technique shown below. We also have detailed pictures in our jewelry making online book "Wire Design Basics". Finally, please view our instructional video on cutting, straightening and bending jewelry wire using the chain nose pliers jewelry tool by selecting here.

Summary of Instructions for bending jewelry wire suing the chain nose pliers jewelry tool:

When making jewelry wire components, you will frequently find that you need to make a 90 degree bend in a segment of jewelry wire. To perform this jewelry making task, we want to do it in a manner that won't mark the jewelry wire and we want to do it so that we will get a crisp 90 degree angle. The jewelry tool we use to do this is called chain nose pliers or bent chain nose pliers and has a flat smooth face on the jaws of the pliers. This flat smooth face spreads the gripping force so that the pliers will not leave marks on your jewelry wire. Please note that the needle nose pliers used by electricians will not work for making jewelry. Using these simple jewelry making instructions you should find that you are able to bend jewelry wire, leaving a crisp bend and without marking your jewelry wire.