Wire can form the basic shape of jewelry and be used to string beads, or it can be used as a decorative wrap around the outside of crystals, rocks, beads or almost anything you can think of. Although wire for stringing beads often comes in a nondescript color, decorative wire is usually made of gold, copper, silver or sometimes bronze. When selecting wire to use as a foundation for your work, make sure it's thin enough to poke through the holes in the beads you've selected.
Instructions
Necklaces and Bracelets
1. Cut a length of wire to the desired length for a necklace.
2. Run the wire through your fingers, gently bending it into shape a bit at a time to avoid creasing or crinkling it.
3. Poke the end of the wire through the holes in beads, stringing them onto the wire just as you'd string them on a piece of thread.
4. Use your chain-nose or flat-nose pliers to crimp the ends of a clasp onto each end of the wire. Which set of pliers you use will depend on how wide the clasp is.
5. Follow the same procedure, using a shorter piece of wire, if you'd like to wire a bracelet.
Earrings
6. Start with a head pin--this is a short, straight length of wire with a stopper at the bottom to keep beads from falling off.
7. Poke the head pin through the holes in your beads, effectively skewering them in place. Leave at least 1 inch of wire at the top of the pin without any beads on it.
8. Use your chain-nosed pliers to bend that extra wire into a tiny loop, as small and as close to the beads as you can manage.
9. Poke a premade earring wire through the tiny loop. Use your chain-nosed pliers to twist the loop tighter until it's as close as possible to the tops of the beads but not so tight that they can't dangle freely.
10. Snip off any extra wire left from the head pin using your wire cutters.
11. Repeat the same process for the other earring.
Wire Wrapping
12. Grasp the object to be wrapped in the fingers of one hand, holding the wire against it with your thumb.
13. Smooth the wire around the object to be wrapped using your fingers or, if the wire is especially stiff, use flat-nosed pliers to grasp and manipulate the wire without crimping it. You may want to wrap the wire many times or just a few; it's up to you.
14. Tuck the ends of the wire in what will be the back side of the wrapped piece, or use chain-nosed pliers to twist them into a tiny loop for hanging the item. If you don't craft a loop out of wire, you'll need to either glue a loop to it or drill a tiny hole through which to pierce a head pin and craft a loop out of the head pin with your chain-nosed pliers.
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