For everyone in the UK – Happy Mother’s Day! Today I’m bringing you my latest wire project, which I’ve decided to gift to my Mum! It’s a wire wrapped key-ring, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you!
Click below for a quick look at my video “Mother’s Day Gifts (Short Version)” on my YouTube channel, which gives you an idea of how I made both the Mother’s Day keyring, and the Mommy & Me bracelets!
Intro
Mum has been staying with us recently to recover from a recent operation. So she’s been witnessing first hand my newfound obsession with making jewellery. After making last week’s Mother & Daughter bracelet set, I was wondering what I could make for my Mum to tie in with the theme. Mother’s Day was rapidly approaching and my Mum doesn’t wear jewellery. Just in case you were wondering why I didn’t make another bracelet!
Searching for an Idea
As I’m still on a learning journey with my copy of “Wire Jewelry Masterclass” by Abby Hook, I figured I’d find something suitable from the book.
Eventually I decided upon the “Orbital Woven Round pendant”. It was perfect for my Mum, as I thought I could turn it into a keyring, rather than a necklace. I’ve suddenly realised that quite a lot of my family and friends are probably going to be receiving jewellery as a gift sometime this year! (Sorry in advance, guys!)
This project uses wire weaving to make a frame to fit around a round-bead stone. I’ve never done wire weaving before! Let’s just say, it takes a lot of practice! This was a fun project and quite different to the wire wrap chain links that I have been making in the previous few projects.
I’ve done weaving with wool and thread before, and I’m quite experienced with needlecraft, in general. However, weaving with wire is a whole different ball game – the concept is similar, but I found the metal wire very difficult to manage! All I’m going to say is “kinks”! Overall, bearing in mind that I’ve never done this before, the total project took me between 2-3 hours, including the key ring chain.
Making the Components
Woven Frame for the Bead
The design uses two 18-gauge wires for the frame, and a long piece of 28-gauge wire, woven between the two thicker wires. The pattern is pretty straightforward – wrap a loop over one wire, make a figure of 8, and then another loop over the other wire. And that’s where the straightforwardness ended…
Wow, I was so tangled up! I tried all sorts of methods – trying to hook the weaving wire over the frame wire… trying to treat the weaving wire like a needle and thread… every method I tried, I ended up with kinks in the wire, and this dreaded feeling that the wire was getting work hardened and likely to snap at any second. Luckily, I managed to avoid the snapping scenario!
Since I made this frame, I’ve been on a few forums and asked lots of questions about how to manage the wire. Most people suggested that I use a kumihimo bobbin to hold the wire and manage the wire tension. I’ve since tried with a cotton reel and some masking tape, and it seems to do the trick!
Fitting the Frame Around the Bead
The next step was to bend the frame around the bead. I used a turquoise bead with a hole drilled through the middle. I don’t know why, but that was really satisfying! Look how round it is!
Weaving the Bail
Next step was to make the pendant bail. It used the same weaving pattern as for the frame. As you can see from the picture, practice does help a lot! Already, my second set of weaving was neater than the first!
Then two loops were made with the two bail wires to finish off the bail.
Threading & Securing the Bead
The next step was to thread on the turquoise bead and secure it into the frame. I was so panicked for this part! By now, I’ve been using the same piece of 28-gauge copper wire for quite a long time, and let’s face it, I’d pretty much mangled it! So, trying to a) thread it on the bead and pull the bead on taut, b) try to thread the wire end through the frame and c) wind it round a few times to secure… I held my breath through most of that! But ended up with this… not too bad for a first attempt!
Finishing Touches
The two long wires (sticking out horizontally in the picture above) were used to make some pretty spirals to jazz up the bead. I’ve noticed that wire work uses a lot of spirals… they seem to be handy to use up wire that’s leftover, make things look pretty and also to secure stones in place. I’m slightly improving my spirals, but they’re not perfect yet!
After that, it was short work to bend and shape the bail, then secure it to the frame (I say short… does 20 odd minutes count as short?!)
And that’s the pendant done!
I then added two heart-chain links (the same ones I made for the Mother & Daughter bracelets and following the YouTube video by CSL Designs: Heart Link Wirework Chain). I found an old keyring that I didn’t want anymore, and took off the keyring holder and attached that to the end of my chain. The next day, I decided the keyring was too short, so I added an extra chain link!
And Here’s the Final Piece!
I chose the colour scheme and style to fit with the Mother & Daughter bracelets. I thought it would be nice if my daughter, my Mum and I all had a matching set. So here they are, all together!
Hopefully, you’ll agree they look quite sweet! And fingers crossed, my Mum’s going to like her present when I give it to her later on today!
If you’d like to see the full making process, please click below! I’m adding new videos all the time – I’d love to hear your thoughts! Please do share your comments with me! And if you’d like to keep up-to-date with my latest makes and projects, don’t forget to subscribe!
You have comeback with a bang! The keychain looks really good. I think your Mum will love it. You are getting faster to, I would never be able to do the wire weaving. I’m just gonna stick to my Silver, Torch and Solder. lol. When I first commented on you post I was struggling with the torch and soldering. I can gladly say I’ve got it down to where I don’t make to many mistakes. I’m glad I started out with Silver Filled and Silver plate, also some copper. I say that because I wasted and ruined a lot of Metals, like cutting wrong, melting and about every other way a person could mess the metal up. lol. But, I’m confident enough now that I’m using strictly Sterling Silver and I’m on my 5th -6th project now. . The hardest part is designing a ring with Solitaire Gemstone, not brave enough to try a multiple Gemstone Ring yet. I’ve done 2 and almost have a third done that will have a faceted opaque low grade Ruby in it. That’s my favorite Gemstone. I’ve also done braceletS and Necklaces. So you were right when you told me to stick with it and the soldering would come around with practice. Thank you for the encouragement. I’ve moved to a propane torch now and really love it.
I think you are doing a very generous and helpful thing by posting your work, how you do it, materials used. You probably helping a lot of Rookies. I would like to do that but seems like I can’t find the time to post it all. Maybe someday. I really am interested in wire wrap jewelry to but again, doing and learning with the torch, seems like I can’t find the time to get started. But I do like your work and the explained process and all.. maybe I’ll find the time eventually to start a wire wrap project.
Keep up the good work, I will put some photos up one of these days. God I’ve got a ton of photos of my work, tools and my Gemstone collection. Getting ready to order a 100 carat mixed parcel. I added a 4+ carat Kyanite recently. Blue of course. Pretty rare and hard to find that large of one. Well gotta go for now but I’ll be here to check out your new projects.
GemMan’ology Man.
Hi!
Thank you for your comment! It’s nice to know that you’re enjoying my posts!
I’m glad you’ve stuck with the soldering, and look forward to seeing your work (is it best to check out your Twitter account?). I’m pleased to report that I picked up my soldering torch for the first time in 8 years, earlier this week. After a slight mishap with not remembering how the lock mechanism work (and getting my husband to sort it out for me!), I have managed to solder a ring. Not particularly well, but luckily, it’s like riding a bike. It’s slowly coming back to me! Like you, I’m working in copper before I move back to silver… I’m pretty sure this ring is wrecked, but I’m persevering with it, so I can remember the full process! Will share when I’ve finished.
Best Wishes!
[…] I wrote a blog post on how I went about it, and where I struggled on my blog post “A Mothers’ Day Project“, so do check it out if you want a few hints and tips. You should end up with something like […]
[…] together two pieces of 15cm 1mm (18g) wire – very similar to the weaving that I did for the orbital pendant, but only to about 4.5cm (this probably needs adjusting for the size of the ring!). I then shaped […]
[…] PS – I also added a keyring to this set for my Mum, so it later became a “3 generations Grandma, Mummy & Daughter” set! Check it out here! […]