Chain Style
by Jane Dickerson

There’s nothing like adding chain to your design, or even designing an entire piece around chain, to make the design work up quickly. Chain is an excellent material for both beginners and those with advanced skills, because the complexity of your projects is only limited by experience and imagination.

The techniques and materials section is minimal but sufficient.  Largely this is because the projects are all so accessible.  There are 50 designs to inspire you, many created by designers whose names you will know.  This gives a wide variety of styles, and I’m sure you’ll find some that catch your eye no matter how experienced you are.

Using chain is also a wonderful way to stretch your beading budget.  A few special beads connected together with chain will make a fabulous necklace that won’t break the bank!

Image: InterweaveStore.com

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I made this multi-strand necklace for my friend Sherry. She wanted something that celebrated the fourth day of Creation, and she wanted me to make it for her! I was thrilled and flattered. Sherry is just about the perfect person to work for on a commission such as this: She knows the general style, weight, colors, and images that she wants, but she never crosses the line into micro-managing.

Her necklace became a three-strand affair, but still ended up relatively lightweight. I used a bead embroidered centerpiece, chosing a lovely fused glass bead made by my friend Jeanne Kent (New Terra Artifacts). The piece also features several beads that I bought when we visited Venice and Murrano last year…I hoard these, so you can guess that Sherry is very special to me!

Instructions for construction

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Back in the beginning of September, Mike and I went away for a long weekend with our friends Beth and Dan.  Both couples were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversaries, so we thought it might be a hoot to take a joint vacation.  The only thing was, Beth and Dan’s daughter was getting married the very next weekend!  So to assuage our guilt over not being around to help that weekend, we found a pretty rock on the beach (in Maine), and I wire wrapped it for Beth to wear to the wedding!

See, we were working on the details after all!

I used a variation on this wonderful technique called the Hippy Twist.  I didn’t twist quite as often as the tutorial shows, and I put more kinks and bends in my wires.  Beth was happy with it and that’s all that matters

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I love Sharilyn Miller’s work. Primarily known as a wire jewelry artist, Sharilyn also works in many other media. She was the original editor of Belle Armoire magazine, which I adore. This new book contains a great techniques section, followed by page after page of Sharilyn’s one-of-a-kind designs. The best feature of this book is the photography. There are a gazillion photos, one for each major step in the process of creating your own wire and metal pieces.

Several other designers have contributed projects to this book. I love many of them, a few I’m not so crazy about, but that’s the way it usually is with a project book like this. A few of the projects didn’t even use copper, which sort of surprised me, but you could certainly make your piece with copper wire instead of steel. Simple metalwork and cold joins are the basis for the projects, so even a determined beginner could do most of these, although over all I think it’s geared more towards folks with some wire experience.

Check out The Bookshop for lots more links to books about jewelry-making in addition to this unique volume!

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Here are the pieces that Paul felt were the best things he made this summer, and an explanation of why the second piece is so special.  Remember as you read this, Paul works on his jewelry business part time.

Tigress

The design uses 12, 6 and 4 mm tiger-eye rounds, with pewter bead caps,
silver-plated findings and 7 strand silver nylon-coated beading wire. The
bead caps were the component I worked around to make it, not the beads.

Rhys

As soon as I learned the technique to make these in February, I bought supplies to make 5. They sold within two days, to people who were coming to our apartment for my husband’s music lessons. While waiting for his lesson to start, one student watched me create the base harness for a sodalite heart. When his lesson was over, he bought the finished version, completed only two minutes prior! I bought more supplies and made them in batches of ten. The first 30 sold within two weeks.

Unfortunately, for that reviewer [at a fair that turned Paul down for a booth], he couldn’t be convinced that anyone would buy them although they continue to sell and are examined with great interest anytime they are on display.

The finished designs are 1 inch wide and less than 2 inches tall. The design wire is soft, square 22 gauge, and the wrapping wire is 1/2 hard, 1/2 round 20 gauge. The bail is built into the wire on the back and while discreet, can accommodate almost any chain or hanging material whose clasp will fit through. They are usually sold without a chain, as people want to provide their own. I think these work best with a fine chain, no thicker than the wire. The supply source creates hearts in sodalite, rhyolite, rose quartz, rhodonite (shown above), amethyst, crazy lace agate, chinese jade and tiger-eye

Many people are anticipating the next round, which will be done in gold wire.

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Ooh!  I am a beginner and would love to learn more about wire-working and earrings are perfect chances to practice!

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I knew that it had the softest drape of any wire, but that it was also the strongest…how can that be?  A few weeks ago, Sara (aka SoftFlexGirl) explained it on her blog.  She talked about tensile strength, and how SoftFlex can actually be knotted without losing strength.

My one exception to using SoftFlex in the past was when I wanted color.  Looks like that problem is now solved:

I’m really happy to see that color has now been added to the line. My future designs will be happy too!

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Denise Peck is the editor of Step by Step Wire Jewelry magazine, and she has written 101 Wire Earrings, Step-by-Step Projects and Techniques.  The first part of the books covers the basics of wire, the tools, and all the techniques you’ll need to make all of the projects in the book.  This section is excellent, with clear photos and well-written instructions.

The main part of the book is devoted to the projects.  Each of the 101 earring designs has a photo, a list of all tools and materials you’ll need, plus step by step instructions.  There are no process photos, which might make it a bit of a challenge for beginners, but most of the earrings are simple enough to figure out from the main photo.

This is not a book for really experienced wireworkers.  There is not enough of a challenge for you unless you need to brush up on your basic skills.  However, the variety of earrings included pretty much assures that everyone will find something they like!  As we often say here, no book can be all things to all people.  The projects are mostly inexpensive and require minimal tools, and that can be a real plus.

Free Stuff Alert***Free Stuff Alert!!

I’ve got a copy of 101 Wire Earrings to give away! Just leave me a comment below and you’ll be automatically entered into the drawing. In a week, I’ll randomly pick a lucky winner.

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Yesterday I showed you the necklace that I made using the copper findings and beads that I received from Auntie’s Beads.

You’ll need copper colored wire, some stone rounds and chips (I used turquoise and coral), and lots of cool copper stuff!

Step by step instructions

Materials:
Copper colored wire (20 gauge)
Turquoise and coral rounds, 4mm and 6mm
Turquoise and coral chips
Copper colored or red beading wire
Copper chain, hook, crimps, jump rings, and head pins
Copper round bead, floral patterned, 7mm
Copper 2mm rounds, daisy spacers, bead caps, and hammered round links

Tools:
Round nose pliers
Chain nose pliers
Wire cutters
File
Measuring tape

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Materials:
40 inches 14 gauge sterling silver wire
24 inches 18 gauge sterling silver wire
5 inches 20 gauge sterling silver wire
Sterling silver headpins
8/0, 11/0 seed beads
4mm tube beads
Assorted glass, stone, sterling silver, pearl accent beads, 4-10mm
Nymo O

Tools:
Ball peen hammer
Beading needles
Wire cutters
Chain and round nosed pliers
Measuring tape

Step by step instructions

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