Making Wire Jewelry … My A.R.T. online workshop

Two Sizes of Wire - Lesson three

Lesson three combines different wire gauges to create different textures. “The necklace was designed especially for a plain round neckline.” I choose 14 gauge Gold Parawire and 18 gauge non-tarnish Silver Parawire to complete the project. Again the 14 gauge wire proved to be somewhat a challenge, I found that my wire coming off my spool was very wavy, and I was very concerned that I would never be able to form the design correctly. But once I filed and rounded the ends, and made the first loops, the design formed beautifully with no wavy wire. I did change the size of the mandrel after making a few silver coils, and if I had more time, I would even make them smaller. Maybe next time…

The Leaf – Lesson three

This leaf lesson is considered a simple design with the intent to teach you that the process of bending wire, while promoting your growth in bending wire for future lessons. The leaf dangle was not difficult to accomplish, and would make a lovely necklace or bracelet. In a future design I hope to incorporate beads to add some interest to the overall design concept.

In this lesson we were given the option of making a necklace or a pair of earrings.

I choose the leaf earrings as my project. Wish I hadn’t…. making a matching pair of earrings proved challenging, though I finally completed a matching pair.

The earrings are very practical and comfortable to wear. They are designed as a two sided earring, were the back is as pretty as the front. Especially nice for women with short hair or women who love wearing their hair up and off the back of their necks. I was slightly disappointed when I found that my ear lobes were too small to carry off the leaf design successfully. I liked the two sided design concept and will try creating another pair of two sided earrings in a future project, just not in a leaf design.

Moving on to lesson four…