WireHead goes back to her roots! Filigree Earrings in Step by Step Wire

WireHead goes back to her roots! Yup, that's right! The summer issue of Step by Step Wire will include Filigree Earrings an easy wire earring project I was working on a few months ago.
(Pssst! Put some lotion on those cuticles!)

WireHead makes up for yesterday....

To make up for yesterday's dismal performance, I've got a treat - Diane Karg Baron tutorials! I feel as though I've admired Diane's wire work since I was a short piece of wire. Some of the tutorials are free and some are very easy. I love the Stud earrings tutorial the best and I've taken a picture from her tutorial section to show you (so the photo credit belongs to her) - Diane's work shows that wire wrapping doesn't have to be overly "frilly." The studs are modern and clean. Cool.

So cool.

WireHead Gets Color

Want some color in the wire you're using? I love Artistic Wire . It comes in lovely colors and above are two examples (photos taken from the Artistic Wire website) of the silver plated copper wire. I love the peacock blue and used it in The Red Art Flower Necklace. The light blue was a nice pop of color around the painted fused glass pendant.


Artistic Wire comes in a large range of gauges for any project you can imagine and reasonably priced too. Even better, there are jewelry design ideas on the website.

You'll need to order Artistic Wire through a distributor. I order from The Soft Flex Company

WireHead Practices Herringbone

Craft ADD or Multi-task Crafting allows me to bounce around in my jewelry work. One day, I'm at the torch, another day, will find me surrounded by spools of wire with pliers and cutters in hand. I'm enamored of weaving with glass and wire. I've wanted to download a few of Eni Oken's tutorials to try. I especially like the Herringbone Weave and it's free! For practice like this, I use an unsaleable bead (in this case, it's the color and stringer on it) with cheap craft wire. Once I get the technique down, I'll try it with good beads and wire. Here's a second try at it.



Not perfect but worth another practice or two then I can move on and use good beads and wire - or better yet, I'll move on to another tutorial!

Have you tried any new techniques lately?

Whazzup with WireHead

WireHead is working today on necklaces but will be back next week with some more insideWire info for you! Meanwhile, I'm over at Studio Saturday wondering who among us is Organic or Organized. Stop over, you could win a free Bling Link!

I like it BIG! Wire, that is

WireHeads have a favorite gauge of wire to work with. In the U.S., the higher the number or gauge, the thinner the wire. A pair of earring wires are typically made of 20 gauge wire. When I was first learning, all of the pieces I made were from 20 gauge wire. All of these are 20 gauge sterling wire:


The work of Eni Oken uses smaller gauage wire but because of the wrapping of wire on wire, you wouldn't want to start with larger gauge wire or it would be very bulky (although you might want that look for particular pieces or a style).

Now, I like it BIG! Errr, I mean, I prefer heavier gauge wire, 14, 16, 18. I think the heft makes a different statement and it's doesn't look out of place with lampwork beads. I make 18 gauge headpins and clasps such as this Spiral necklace:


I used 16, 18 and 24 gauge in this Collaboration Part Deux: Universal Truth to make the woven part of the pendant, the headpin and the bail.

The larger gauge wire balances the larger beads well.

You can buy craft wire at your local craft store but I suggest the hardware store if you're just wanting to play around with it. You can buy rolls of copper wire at a reasonable cost. Save all the wire that you don't make into jewelry, you can recycle it.

One last note, when buying wire, I purchase dead soft because I work harden it (I'll talk about that later) - but basically the bending and hammering will make the wire stiffer. If you're planning on making earwires, buy the half hard because you won't be bending the wire enough to work harden it.

It's fun to go to the hardware store - there's lots of things there you can incorporate into jewelry - rubber "O" rings, small fasteners and you can pick up a good pair of needle nose pliers too!

Wire Wrap Video....Wire Spiral

Vacation and Wire-Head

This is gonna feel abrupt as far as posting goes but I'm singing this song this morning. I'm off for a few days but have posted a wire jewelry video tomorrow for the Wire-Head fans. But in the meantime, tease your big hair and sing along with Belinda!

Tease that BIG HAIR and start jumping up and down!

WireHead Talks Tools

WireHead's gonna talk tools today and I'll start with where to buy the tools.

Rio Grande
Rio Grande
Rio Grande

What? You say.

I know alot of other companies have jewelry making tools but the best selection I've ever seen is through the Rio Grande catalog. Rio Grande is lousy online but is an excellent catalog. On the East Coast, you have a wait a little longer to get the tools but it's worth it - they even have a refurbishing service where you can send the tools back and they'll sharpen your cutters. Cool.

As much as possible, I order from Metalliferous in NYC. It's closer so I don't have to wait as long and their catalog is online. You can download it and they have a massive amount of STUFF!

If we're talking online, Otto Frei has a good selection although I've never actually ordered from them.

So get a catalog and browse through it. What company makes your favorite tools?

WireHead Reads

Even an experienced WireHead can pick up new techniques and tips in beginner books. There are some good tips and techniques in the wire books I'm reading lately - a new twist on headpins, clasps and knot rings. I'm bending wire as you read. If want to read about the book a bit more, it's up on BeadLit. I'm going back to bending some wire - do some creating today!

Meet my photographer and new banner

I'm not staying on the computer very long today, I'm having a flare up of the repetitive stress injury, so it' a quicky post today. I've got a new banner designed by my budding photographer teen. (That's him above.) He prefers to take portraits and not do graphic arts but he feels obligated to keep my photos, banners, website fresh and not go stale. Thank you! He does most of my bead/jewelry photography although I'm still teaching him how to "style" the beads. He's a fast learner and I expect he'll be styling the beads soon.

Wire Head will be back - I'm doing lots of wire lately!

WireHead Makes Jewelry

Made this anklet after my first wire wrapping class in 1997. Done in 20 gauge copper and Czech pressed glass beads, druks. See? I'm loving greens and teals! Nicely done if I do say so myself, good wraps on the beads and look at those loops!

Wire got me into melting glass because one addiction leads to another. Books are another obsession and I started buying jewelry related books the moment I touched a piece of wire. I'm BeadLit-ing on my first book but here's what it looks like - I'm always taking the road not taken so it's a bit off the beaten path - found object jewelry before it was called that.


I didn't intend to keep these but somehow I did. I got tooo busy raising my son so they were saved only because I neglected to give them away. It makes me wonder - Have you kept the firsts of your work?