Wire Art Tips and Tools

Hey there, Heather Boyd Wire here. Today, I'm going to do something a little different. I'm going to show you some tips and tricks and some of my tools that I use to make my wire jewelry. So I'll start with some of my basic tools. So these are cutters, just basic wire cutters. I like the pointy ones like that. These are round nose pliers and these ones I bought about almost 30 years ago at Pascal Hardware Store in Westmount, which is no longer there. But they're like a little round nose pliers. Those are to do the little circles. And then I have some larger round nose pliers that I bought in Toronto with a slightly larger, maybe two to three millimeter round end. And then, of course, the flat pliers that I use all the time to make right angles and squish the little ends in and stuff. And I also have different round forms. I like the round form of the highlighter. It's got a nice size. Next size down would be a Crayola marker. I can use this end or that end to make circles. And, of course, Sharpies, a regular Sharpie and the fine Sharpie. And really handy for making bigger items is I have a whole bunch of pill bottles like this. I just stick them one inside the other like a little babushka doll. So I have all my little round forms that I need when I make my bicycles and things like that. And then my two favorite wires, I use a lot of the artistic wire, which is a copper wire that you can get in different colors. This is 20 gauge. So 20 gauge is kind of my standard size that I use. And then I also can use some aluminum wire, which I use a lot as well. And this one is anodized, so it's colored. And then the silver wire that I use a lot. And the reason I like aluminum is because you can bend it on a right angle and it makes a nice sharp bend. Whereas with the copper wire, it's more soft. So you can get a nice kind of soft effect with the copper wire. So I'll show you a little bit how I use the tools. So just to cut with the cutters like that. And to use the little round pliers, I would just take the end and you just kind of, with the flick of the wrist, you can just make circles like that. To make a spiral with the bigger round pliers, you start by making your circle. And then you just continue down like that. And if you want it bigger, you can even add a circular form at the bottom to make a bigger one. And then here, you're just going to press it in. And just by hand, if the wire is soft enough, it's easy enough to do by hand. You're just going to form it like that. Into a spiral, flatten it out. And this is really cute for like antennas on a butterfly and things like that. And the markers you can also use to make a ring form. And I have several videos for how to make wire rings. But basically, you can just do a very simple one like that. And then maybe compare it to your finger to make sure the loop is the right size. Push it around. And then you can add a bead and twist the wires around and make a very simple ring. I also have this wooden ring form that's great for making rings, because you can do them different sizes. So those are my basic tools that I use for making wire jewelry and ornaments. And if you want to check out my full wire art course, I have it available for sale on my website. I'll put the link for that below. And if you have any comments or questions, I'll also put those in the link below. Be sure to subscribe to my channel for lots more DIY videos. And I'll see you the next time. Thanks for watching!