Practice Makes Perfect – The Joy of Creating a Beautiful Ring to a Friend’s Spec

I have a lot of friends who love crafts – all kinds of crafts, from knitting and needlework through to pottery and wood burning. They’re a talented bunch, and we love nothing better than to share our latest creations with each other. At the moment, we’re all just waiting for social distancing restrictions to ease up, so that we can get together for a “crafternoon”! Anyway, it was one of my craft friends who showed me a beautiful ring recently, and wondered if I’d be able to make something similar. I was curious, too, so I gave it a go. It took me quite a few attempts, but as the old saying goes “practice makes perfect”!

First Attempt

I made my first attempt at this ring back in February, and as usual, I was attempting to run before I could walk. At this point, I’d only been learning wire wrapping for about a month. This was the outcome:

The ring is made from two pieces of 1mm (18-gauge) copper wire, secured together with approx. 12 wraps of 0.5mm (24-gauge) copper wire at the bottom of the band. I then secured two diagonally opposite wires with another piece of 0.5mm (24g) wire and threaded a 4mm aqua-dyed jade bead in between them. After the basic structure was completed, I attempted (“attempted” is the operative word!) to make some nice open spirals to finish off the 4 wire ends. As you can see, my spirals needed some work.

I have to say, I didn’t love this ring. I struggled with the sizing and I don’t like that the wraps at the bottom of the band move around.

So I took a break from it, and carried on with lots more practice. If you’ve been following along with my blog, you’ll have seen my journey over the past couple of months. But I finally decided to give it another try about 3 weeks ago, with much better results!

Tools

• Flat-Nose Pliers
• Chain-Nose Pliers
• Round-Nose Pliers
• Nylon-Jaw Pliers
• Flush Cutters
• Ring Mandrel (or something circular for sizing your ring)

Materials

• 2x 20cm of 1mm (18-gauge) copper wire
• 170cm of 0.3mm (28-gauge) copper wire (you may need more / less depending on the size of your ring)
• 1x 6mm bead (I’ve used White Agate)

Step-By-Step

Ring Shank

1. Cut two lengths of 1mm (18g) copper wire – I’ve cut 20cm wire, and aiming to make a Size O ring. You’ll need longer wires so you’ve got some left for the spirals, and cut more if you want bigger spirals!
2. Join the 0.3mm (28g) copper wire to one of the 20cm wires, leaving a tail of 2.5cm to hold on to – if you’re worried about getting tangled up, then you can cut a shorter piece of wire (I’ve found that between 76 – 100cm is quite a good length to work with). Place the 2nd wire parallel to the first, with approximately a 3-5mm gap between them – it depends on how thick a band you want! Weave the ring band – instructions can be found here. To make a Size O ring, my weaving measured 5.5cm.
3. Secure the end of the weaving wire by wrapping 3 times over one of the 20cm frame wires. Cut the 2.5cm tail end and tuck in the ends. Do not trim the end of the wire that you’ve been weaving with! You need this to secure the bead at the top.
4. Bend the ring shank around a ring mandrel, at the correct size. Make sure that the 2 central wires are crossed over.

5. Bend 3 of the wires slightly upwards, as these will sit towards the finger tip. The remaining wire should be at the bottom, and will eventually sit towards the wrist. It should look something like this! I’ve numbered my wires to make it a bit easier to explain what I did!

Securing the Bead

6. With your leftover weaving wire, secure it around the centre top wire (no. 2 in the diagram). Thread on your bead, then secure the other end to the bottom wire (no. 4).

7. Wrap the wire 3 times around the base of the bead to make a little nest – I’ve learnt that this helps the bead to be a bit more secure. Then wrap the wire 3 times around the centre top wire (no. 2). Cut the weaving wire, and tuck in the ends, so that it doesn’t scratch the wearer.

Making the Decorative Ring Spirals

8. Trim all 4 structure wires to 5cm (or longer if you’re looking for a bigger spiral).

9. Starting with wire no. 2 and your round-nose pliers, bend an open spiral (my video might help you with how to do that!). You want a fairly open spiral, so don’t wind the wire too tightly – it might be easier to use some flat-nose or chain-nose pliers to roll the spiral.

10. Repeat with wires 1 & 3, making them slightly smaller than wire 2. You may need to trim the wires further to adjust the spiral size (for me, it’s all judgement by eye! Just take care not too trim too much off, as you can’t put it back again afterwards!)

11. Bend the bottom wire (no.4) into an open spiral, and making sure it faces the opposite direction to the central spiral. I found that I needed to make this spiral smaller than the top central spiral, as it needs to be able to sit comfortably on the finger. There was a lot of trial and error for this ring!)

12. Place the ring on your finger or ring mandrel, and then gently re-position the spirals until they feel comfortable against your finger.

Conclusion

That was pretty much it! I much preferred this ring over my first attempt – the spirals were tidier, and the woven band is a lot more comfortable to wear. Hopefully you’ll agree that practice really does make perfect! Here’s the final ring:

I’m starting to enjoy making this style of ring – there’s a lot that you could do with the 4 frame wires to make them look interesting. After making this ring, I’m buzzing with ideas to experiment with – like adding more than 2 wires in the frame, and weaving them together. Then seeing what I can do with the end wires to make the ring look interesting. I expect you’ll see a few more rings in this style over the coming months! As always, I’d love to hear what you think of the design – leave me a comment!