Wire-wrap Jig
For those of us who don't have alot of extra money, we have to be resourceful. This is how you can build a jig from ordinary stuff laying around the house or use what is part of the house. You need a piece of wood, and some homemade pins out of 1/16th brass or the rounded toothpicks or some old copper wire, I also found a couple of common pins, so I thought I would use them too.
Tools to make this, I used a little hand twist drill and two drill bits, a 1/16th inch diameter drill bit and a 1/32 that you see in the photos above. I used a pattern, Sketch out your pattern or idea on a piece of paper and attach it to the wood, I drew a scribble on the wood itself. Drill your holes where your bends are and make sure you are inside the line of where you are bending around when you drill your holes.
Another way to start is to raid the kid's toybox, they've got the goods that you need, Pegs from the battleship game, the light pegs from the lightbrite. Heck even little diners have those golf peg games, those will work and the possibilities are endless...So get your holes drilled and you can do a square grid pattern with the holes being about a quarter inch apart as many as you want, There are circle patterns that can be drilled, I only did the one pattern for now.
I placed the brass pin in the first hole and the common pin in my next hole and then placed the sterling silver in between the two (middle photo above) and I bend around the common pin until I pass my next hole, Insert another brass pin and bend the wire around and follow your path.(photo above,right) Now you are at the part that is simple, adjust the bends using your smooth jaw pliers, This step is important for two reasons, 1) The wire will need to hold the weight of the stone and tweaking these bends slightly will give a greater support. 2) This adds strength to the wire for the overall build.
There is a link down at the bottom of the page where I showed the next portion of this pendant being finished with some more photos. This is how easy it gets and this is what can be created,You can trace any pattern and wrap it, just drill the holes where the line turns and you can wrap like a pro. So what does it cost you? Go hit your neighbor up for the stuff and get started today! Why did this come about? It was a project that I've been meaning to do and after reading Iceopals post for the jewelry competition at Opalauctions.com , I new I had to get it out.Did anyone wonder about the sketch to the right of the JIG???(Top middle photo) That's a sneak peek at February's pendant design for the new members that sign up in the month of February. A new member will be selected to recieve that drawn pendant design, A beautiful piece of boulder opal donated by OpalPlus and Personally wrapped by Yankee42 of Michigan Opal Works.
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