Introduction to Wire Weaving Tutorial - Beaducation.com

Hi, I'm Lisa Newman-Kelley here at Beachocation.com, and today I'm going to teach you some wire weaving. So I've chosen four different weaves to show you that I think are a great introduction to this technique. We're just going to make little sample pieces, and I do talk about a finished project, but these are great ones to kind of get you used to how to weave up fine gauge wire. So I'm excited you're here, let's go weave some wire. The tools and materials you need for this class are very basic. We have got a chain nose, my very loved round nose. I've had these for a million years. Aren't they nasty? I love them. And a very pointy flush cutter. These are the Tronic 7223s, my favorite. And then, of course, you need some wire. So whenever you're weaving, you need a very fine wire to weave over a very thick warp wire. In this case, in class, we've used 26 gauge and 16 gauge. I'm going to be weaving with a very dark wire so that the camera can pick up the contrast. But probably what you've got in your house, what's best for you to practice with, is just copper. This piece here that I show in Design Ideas, I used 26 gauge sterling and wove it around 16 gauge sterling. I also really love to use fine silver wire for the weaving wire, not for the warp wire, because it's really, really soft, so it weaves up very easily. If you are going to work towards this finished project here, you'll also need a clasp. Before I teach you each weave, I'm going to show it to you sort of magnified, big, like this. I've got just a piece of string and two chopsticks. I'm just holding the string under my left hand to anchor it. And this first one is just a basic figure 8 weave. And it's going to come from behind the top warp wire, so this top warp wire, bottom warp wire. Behind, between the two, around the bottom, between the two. So you can see how nice it is that this is open and not closed out here, because I can weave between, around the top, between the two, under the bottom, between the two. So I'm showing you this with thread so you can learn the flow of the weave. And once we get into wire, you'll learn how to make the wire behave. With the string, I can just pull really hard and it will stay and set in its place, but wire is a little different. So around, between, up and around, between, around, okay. So I'll go get my wire and now I'll show you how to do it in wire. For each weave that I'm going to teach you today, we're going to practice on a little piece of copper wire. So these warp wires here are 16 gauge copper wire and they're about 2 inches. You can use a copper or any soft weaving wire. I've got black artistic wire because then it's good to see on camera the contrast. Most likely you only have copper wire at home and that's totally fine, so you can practice with that. So I like to just hold them in my hand, the two warp wires, while I weave. But if you find that difficult, you can use a ring clamp with the leather jaws here and just clamp right down on your wires, setting them as far apart as you need to for your weave. Ours is going to be pretty close together. And then you put the wedge in nice and tight and you have something nice to hold onto while you weave. I'm just going to hang onto them in my hand, but I just wanted to show you that option. Okay, so we are now going to do the basic figure eight. So again, I'm just going to hold the wire under my thumb. I'm holding the two warp wires and the weaving wire. And this is going to fling around this tail, so that's why you've got your safety glasses on and I actually like to weave standing up so the tail isn't flying all over my table. So just ignore that if you see it flinging through. I'm going to start by taking the wire, they're a little too close together, I'm trying to hold them apart, there we go. I'm going to take the wire and go up and over the top and then between the two. Just like on the chopsticks, under the bottom, between the two. I'm going to weave for a little bit and then I'm going to show you the tricks that I'm doing to get the wire to behave. But let's first learn the flow. On the bottom, between the two, top. Now as you're weaving, you can stop and scoot them together. If you find any are wonky or weird out of place, use your fingernail to adjust them. Don't use a tool to do that because you can really nick up the wire. Let's continue. Alright, so what I do, well let me show you, let me get it down here, what not to do. So you might be tempted, because it was so easy in the string, to just pull the wire around, go between the two warp wires like this and see how loose it is. And then just tug, tug, tug until it tightens down. That most likely is not going to work, especially the thicker the wire. You're going to get a kink or it's going to leave it with a lot of slack there and then it will really stand out once the weave is a little more developed. So I instead bring the wire all the way around to where I want it to be. And then I shift between the two wires. So all the way around there and then go between the two. By doing this, you're sort of placing it where it really wants to be and then you're shifting to the next position. So place it, it's happy where it's already been bent, and watch as you are coming along. Does that make sense? I'll do a little bit more and then we're just going to put this piece aside, leave the tail on it so you can come back to it later and practice some more, but at this point, let's move on to the other weaves. And here's what the basic figure eight weave looks like in sterling with it oxidized and polished. This next weave is very similar to the first one, but where we went up and around once on each wire and through and down and around and through, we're going to go up and around twice. So we're going to do a double coil on the top. Once around, once around again, and then through between the two. Once around, once around again, and then between the two. See how that's working up? So it just gives a little more space between the weaves, and then there's a double coil which looks pretty cool. You can also do this one like three or four times around each warp wire and then come up between the two. That looks really cool too. So let's get that guy down there. Looks a little weird in the thread because they're kind of laying wherever they feel like it. But let's get moving in the wire and you can see how that's going to work up. So let's give this weave a try in the wire. So I'm going to come up and around two times, and then between. Around the bottom wire two times, and then between. Around the top wire. So I'm going all the way around, around twice, and then I shift the position around the bottom once and twice, and now switch. Now you can leave it spread out like this if you want, but you can definitely squeeze it in as well. I like it to look like there's two, two, two, two, not so smooshed together that you can't tell the double. And that will really show even more if you do three on top or four. So let's do it again. Around and around two times, between the two. You'll notice as I'm weaving I'm kind of pulling with my finger. You can see that little line forming there. That's how I get good tension to get the wire to really take the shape of the warp wire. All right, let's take a look at this up close. And here is a section of the double coil on top and double coil on the bottom in sterling that's been oxidized and polished. Now I'm going to show you my very favoritest wrap, and its name is Lisa's Favorite Wrap. I don't know what it's called. It's Lisa's Favorite. Okay, so in this one you're going to do a full coil around, and then instead of where the last one we came between, we're going to go up and over both warp wires in the back together. And you'll see it better when it comes to the front. And then do a coil in the front, and then up and over both warp wires. You see that? Then do a coil and around both back there. Coil around the bottom wire. Go up and over both of them. It's not really translating to be super cool in the yarn or the thread here, but when you see it in the wire, I think you're going to like it. So there, the front and the back will look the same. The wire, you can scrunch it all together, and it looks almost like it's braided. So let's give that a try now. Go over the top, one coil around, and we're going to go behind and over both warp wires. Now when you do that move, don't pull really tight, because if I do, it'll squeeze the two warp wires together, and it'll make them cross. So think more in terms of like placing it where it needs to be. I'm going to do a coil on the bottom, and now up and over the two. See how they're wanting to come together? I kind of boss them around and make them stay apart. Up and over here, back behind. Let me stay in frame here. This guy needs to develop up a little bit to really see its coolness. This one also is a weave that you need to not be having a conversation with someone while you're doing it, or watching American Idol, because you can get confused. So this weave, another thing about it is it can look really lame. Sorry, that looks lame. Until you squish it together, and let me bring it up a little higher so you can see how nice it looks now. And the back should look the same. So let's continue on. Here we go, back in focus. So let's continue on here. Back and over both wires, between the two. We're forming a coil on the bottom, over both. I have a sample I'm going to show you in a little bit that's made out of oxidized sterling, and it really shows the intricacy of this weave. So let's continue on here. Back and over both wires, between the two. We're forming a coil on the bottom, over both. I have a sample I'm going to show you in a little bit that's made out of oxidized sterling, and it really shows the intricacy of this weave. Here is that favorite weave of mine in the sterling, oxidized and polished. You can really see it come together here. This is the fourth and final weave that I'm going to show you today, but there's tons of different options. And remember, the more warp wires you add, the more options you have as well. It's very exciting. But this one's pretty fun. This one, we're going to go all the way around both warp wires a couple of times, and you can choose. I'm going to choose like six or seven. And with this, you can't be pulling really tight, because they'll cross over, so think more of laying and placing the wire, because it will lay in place as it bends. And then I'm going to go on just one of the wires, the warp wires. We'll start with the top one and coil around maybe three or four times, depending on how much space you want. And then you're going to repeat this again here. I'm going to run out of strings, so I'm only going to do four here. And then go around the bottom one. Hang on. The string is being wonky. And it builds up in a really cool, let's see if I can get them all together, little pattern of, there we go, like a solid stripe up here, and then a solid stripe down there, and a solid one up here. And once we get going in the wire, you will see that. I'm actually going to start by doing the coil on the top wire and then going over both of them, because I need to make sure that there's something running between the two wires. Otherwise, if I go over both of them, they will just pinch together really tight. So up and around, place it where I want, reshift it to get it in position. And now maybe I'll lightly, but not too lightly, go around three, four, five. I'll do five. It's up to you, though. And then now I'm going to shift and coil around the bottom. Two, three, maybe I'll go four. Whatever you decide on your wide coils there and your small ones, you just need to remember that number so that you can repeat it. And now you shift and coil on the other wire. Go here and then shift down here. Let's take a look. See how when you pinch it in, it forms this kind of cool pattern? You will see the pattern more and more on all these weaves as you do the full two inches. And here's a sample of that weave done in the sterling. It's hard to see in that sample piece that I just did for you, because the contrast is so contrasty, but you can see with the sterling oxidized and polished and all squinched together, it forms up really nicely. If you want to work towards a finished piece, so you're going to do a big long weave, you're going to have to learn how to end a wire and add a wire if you run out. So let's take this example of the Lisa's Favorite Weave little sampler that we worked on here. Let's pretend that this wire is just about run out. We need to trim it. So you have a choice on when to trim it. You definitely don't want to trim it when it's doing a wide weave and then just stopping, because if you clip it, that wide weave can pull out, and that's like a weave that might go up and over both the warp wires. You want to trim it sometime when it's in its nice tight coil, because it kind of acts like a little knot. So in this case, I would back this out to about here and trim it really tight in between those two warp wires so the tail sat in there. That's where I like my tails to sit, is between the two warp wires, because then they're nice and safe and they won't catch on anything. The reason I undid it and I'm going to cut it at one coil instead of at the end of the second coil is because then I can come in with my new wire and build the second coil on this bottom here and then continue, and it won't disrupt the flow. If you had two and you wanted to start on the bottom, you add another coil, then you'd have three coils right here and you'd see a little disruption and there'd be a little more space in your finished weave, and it will show. So let's take this here. I'm going to come to the back and come in with the very tip of my good pointy flush cutter and cut just that wire right down in there so it sits right down there. So now to add a new wire, I'm just going to put it in and pretend like I'm continuing on with this weave. I'll leave a little tail there and deal with that later. But this weave ended with one of the two coils on this top warp wire, so I'm going to continue with that second one. Then it comes around the back and goes around once, around a second time, up to the top, over the two, around once, around a second time, over both of them in the back, and continue on from there. So you just continue with that, and then eventually, when you're feeling like it, you will deal with this tail here by trimming it so it also sits right in between in the back there. So that's why you need a very, very pointy, pointy cutter, where you can come right in and get way down in there and snip. If by chance you ever cut it too long, you can trim it again, or come in with your chain nose and kind of burnish it. But our goal in keeping them between the two warp wires is so the tails are hidden, and so they won't catch on anything. In a perfect world, you've got them both on the back. At some point with your piece, you'll decide whether there's a front and a back. And if you can see the tip, like you can see it right there, you want to keep that on the back side. So here are the four weaves that we learned. You've got your little tasting menu here of the four. I want you to continue on practicing with these guys until you get it. And then I wanted to show you just what I did with the four weaves. I can't stand to teach you all these techniques and not come out with a finished product. I made this bracelet, and it just has all the different weaves in like one to two inch sections. I just put a big ready-made clasp on it, which is definitely the centerpiece of this, the highlight of this bracelet. But you can use any clasp. I've got a little swivel clasp, or we've got a clasp on making your own hook-and-eye clasps. And that would be great on there, too. I would just oxidize this guy. And what I did for this bracelet here, though, is I used 16 gauge, two warp wires, just like we've been doing in our practicing here. And then I turned two loops here just to connect into the clasp. So to figure out how to do this bracelet, you would have to figure out how long you want the finished piece to be. This is about seven inches. And then cut your warp wires appropriately, keeping in mind whatever size your clasp is, and that the two loops at the end are going to take about a half inch of wire to yield these loops. Do the measurements from there, and that's how long you cut. For the weaving wire, I usually start with about three feet. It's hard to weave more than that. And then just add and cut away the wire as needed. Here's another design idea. I just wanted to show you a couple different things you can do with these weaves. These are earrings, obviously. And I have bent the wire over. I started with wire like this, two of those guys. It's 18 gauge, and built the weaves just right here, and then built a big long coil and spiraled up the ends and just sort of started bending them until I liked the way one looked and then replicated it on the other. The deal with weaving is always you're trying to figure out what to do with the ends of your warp wires. So in the case of the bracelet I just showed you, we just turned two loops. In the case of these guys, I just built a couple spirals at the bottom. Alright, so we're all done learning those techniques. And remember, we can take it many directions from here. But make sure you practice those. They're great basic techniques to get used to weaving wire, how to hold your hands, how to get it tight, not too tight, and how to get all the weaves to lay in nicely together. So go practice, and I hope to see you again in another class.