Making The Bail For our Wire Wrapped Pendant

Making Wire Wrapped Bails

Following on from my previous post where I showed you how to create the setting for the stone I will now outline a very simple way to make a bail.

Cut around 12" of half round wire. I find that wrapping the wire around my flat nose pliers makes a perfect fit to start wrapping for the bail. Holding the flat side down leave around 2" of wire sticking out to the left.

Using my thumb I will push the wire down and my finger to bend it around.

This can then be hung on the square wires above the setting.

It can now be wrapped around 4 times just like when we did the wraps for the setting. I am leaving my red guide wires on for now as they stop the square wires splaying out and bending before I want them to.

Taking my flat nose pliers I give the wrap a squeeze to tighten and smarten them up. I still want them to be able to move.

I now want to fix the setting in place and put it under tension to give it strength. A little above the top of the stone I will squeeze the wires together with flat nose pliers.

This will allow me to move the wrap I just did down as far as possible to lock everything together.

Having moved the wrap down I can remove the last of the red guide wires. Separate the front 2 wires and bend them forward a little.

Placing my thumb beneath them I bend them down tight on the wrap until they are sticking out in front. This locks the wrap in place stopping it moving back up.

There will now be 3 wires on each side that must be bent down. On the left side I place my thumb against the wrap again and bend the wires down until they are straight out. Repeat for the right side.

This is how it should look with all the wires bent down.

I like to use my bail making pliers to form the bail as it makes the job simple and uniform each time but any object can be used. Before I invested in bail making pliers I used a pen to create my bails.

Gripping the front 2 wires close to the 2 side wires I use my thumb to bend the wires up and back a little. I find this works much better than trying to use the pliers to make the bend.

Removing my pliers you can see that I have formed a shepherds hook.

Putting my pliers back in I can continue the bend until it is flat against the back of the stone and I can hold it tight with my thumb.

Using the longer of the 2 half round wires I want to wrap it completely around the bail covering the original 4 wires and leaving both wires sticking out at the back.

This is how it looks once I have wrapped it.

Taking my flat nose pliers I will give the wrap a squeeze just to tighten and straighten it.

Crossing over the two half round wires I twist them together for about 10mm.

I can cut off the excess leaving just under 10mm.

Gripping the little 'tail' that I left with my flat nose pliers I twist and straighten them. You have to be a little careful not to over tighten them or they will break off.

Making sure that they are equal, I part the 2 bail wires to give them greater visual interest as well as keeping them in place. If you find one is a little bigger than the other they can be aligned with a gentle tweak of your round nose pliers.

I'm going to tuck away the little 'tail' but before I can do that I need to part the 2 wires that are hanging down the back of the stone.

To tuck away the tail I take my round nose pliers and grip the end of the tail bending down and inwards.

Once I have made the tail into a hook I can easily push down on it which should place it neatly between the legs and up into the bail. It will hardly show from the front and it is a neat way of finishing it off.

I may need to apply a little pressure to the hook with the back of mu pliers to get it to go in far enough out of the way.

The same is true if it feels a little rough. Some gentle pressure with the back of the pliers will flatten it out and make it smooth.

If you are at all worried about it you can apply a small amount of glue once the legs have been pushed back in.

I use my flat nose pliers to bend the two wires in just below the tail to keep it in place.

I know that many jewellery makers give little thought to the back of the stone but I like to pretty it up a bit anyway. Cutting the legs to the size I want I can use my round nose pliers to give them a curl. This not only makes them more attractive but hides any rough edges from the cut. If you are not curling the wires back you may need to use a file or a cup burr to remove any sharp edges.

I will normally press the legs into the back of the stone so that they lie against it well and not stick out.

This is the stage I will do my initial polishing of the wires and stone with my silver cloth. Once I start bending the spare wires down it will be harder to get into all the little spaces with my polishing cloths or my dremel with a polishing wheel.

I will give it a full polishing once it is completed to make sure I remove any fingerprints etc.

That's the end of making the bail. In the next post I will begin bending down the wires into interesting shapes. This is the most fun part for me as I never know what I am going to do until I do it. This keeps my creations unique and different each time.

Creating The Setting For Our Wire Wrapped Pendant Part 2

Wire Wrapped Pendant Setting

I'm sorry that it is taking me so long to put all these things together for you but Blogger is only letting me add so many pictures and then it stops working. Any way . . . to carry on from  the last post.

Once I have moved the 2 side wraps into position I will fix them by giving them both a good squeeze with my flat nose pliers. Turning it over I give them another squeeze. That should keep them in place for me.

Offering the wrap up to the stone shows that it is roughly the right shape. The middle wraps are in the right place and I can tweak it if the central wrap has gone off centre.

I will start to form the setting from the back. I like to do the back first as it allows me to sit the stone in it for fitting. Gripping the bottom of the square wires with my flat nose pliers and holding the middle wrap I turn it inwards. I hold the middle because it helps me form a gentle arc with the bend.

As it is the back it isn't so important as when we form the front but it should be looking something like this.

I will now do the same to the other side exactly as the first turning the wire inwards. With every bend there is the chance that it will deform the frame so you have to keep offering it up to the stone and checking. It only takes seconds but it could mean a lot to your wrap.

Having formed the bottom I will move the upper 2 wraps into position near the top of the stone. Once I'm happy with where they are I will fix them in position as earlier with a squeeze either side with the flat nose pliers.

Just as I formed the bottom turns I will do the same with the top using my flat nose pliers. I will still grip the middle wrap between my thumb and finger to create a gentle curve.

And this is how it looks.

Moving to the other side I do the same bending inwards. If you are just starting out it's probably better to bend in less than you think you need as you can always tweak it a bit further.

Because I am using a cabochon it will be flat (ish) on the back and curved on the front. By placing my flat nose pliers into the bend I can ease the wires up allowing for the curvature of the stone. I need to for this for each bend.

The stone should now sit nicely in the setting so that it can be checked for alignment. Holding the top wires together like this I can see that the bottom isn't a tight fit. This can often be sorted by opening the setting and closing it again on the stone. If the gap is still too much a few gentle taps with a plastic headed hammer will fit it tight to the stone.

Sorry the image is a bit blurry but it does make it look like I'm hitting it with the hammer!

After a few taps the stone will be fitting much better. The sides aren't quite so important as they will be pulled in tight when closing the setting but if necessary I will turn it onto it's side for a few taps as well.

Removing the stone I need to form the front of the setting in the same way as the back. I probably won't bend them in quite so much as the back of the setting as that will seat the stone and I only need to hold it down. In bending the wires up to allow for the curvature of the stone I will need to pull them up further than the back. You have to be carfeul using tools this way as it is easy to leave marks on the wires if you use force. Gently lifting them will give you a better finish.

We are creating a cage to hold our stone in place and this is what it looks like once all the wires have been bent for the curvature of the stone.

Inserting the stone back in the setting it may need a little adjustment with the plastic hammer to get it to fit tightly. This is the last chance to make any adjustments to the setting or the placement of the stone as the next step will fix it all in place before making the bail. Taking a minute just to check it all over will save any mistakes later.

In the next post we will start work on the bail and adding some flourishes to make the wrap interesting and (hopefully) beautiful.

Creating The Setting For Our Wire Wrapped Pendant Part 1

Wire Wrapped Pendant Setting

This is the stage we were at in the last post. We have our cabochon and our wire bundle ready to go.

We have 6 guide wires in red and the 5 wraps in gold. Now we have to bend it to the shape of the stone.

I'm very lucky to have found this Oval Mandrel in a bead shop. It has become one of my favourite tools as it quickly and easily lets me shape my bundles. I have round and ring mandrels for round shapes but any household objects that are around the same size work just as well.

Placing the centre point of the bundle against the mandrel I bend the wires down and around to form the shape. I usually pick a size bigger than the stone and do any tweaking by hand.

In this pic I have made the mistake of placing the outside of the bundle against the mandrel instead of the inside. Once I had discovered my mistake the wires are soft enough to allow me to offer it up against the mandrel and bend it around the right way.

I could just have easily used a household object such as this to create the rough shape. A quick check through toiletries and bottles will reveal many suitable shapes and sizes that can be used.

This is a headache roll on that happens to be exactly 25mm and I use it so often that I have marked where I put my wraps for this size.

Whilst creating the setting we need to constantly offer up our bundle to the stone to check it. At this stage it's a good rough fit for the stone and that's all we need it to be for now as we will correct it as we go along.

This is what our bundle looks like away from the stone. The middle is slightly off centre so grabbing both sides I can give it a few tugs until it is in the right place again. Losing the centre wrap to one side or another is going to happen every time an adjustment is made so this is something you will need to keep an eye on.

The guide wires have done their job on the bottom of the wrap holding the wires together while they were bent and can now be undone and removed.

For now the remaining 4 guide wires in red need to stay in place at the top of the oval and towards the end of the wires. They still have a job to do keeping our four square wires in place.

The centre wrap is going astray again so it needs correcting.

I want the 2 side wraps in the middle on this wrap so by hand I move them to where I want them. I have to admit to not measuring much and doing things by eye alone but I like my pieces to look hand made and not produced in bulk so a little bit off is fine. If you are more comfortable measuring carefully please do. This is just my way of working.


(By this point I have noticed my mistake and the cut half round wires are back on the inside where they belong)