How to make wire wrap gemstone bracelet - the easy way!

Hi guys, morning, welcome back to my channel. Samantha here for another video, another tutorial. I hope everyone is fine, life's treating you very well. Beautiful day here in northwest England so making use of the weather. I hope that you're all right and today I thought that we would expand upon these gorgeous little cotter pin earrings that we made in an earlier tutorial. If you remember making these guys, I'll pop a link in the link bit so that you can have a look where we have a frame and an eight millimeter bead wrapped inside. So I thought we'd expand on that actually today and you can make a bracelet version of this, like this red, I think this is dyed red jade. I don't use really expensive beads for my jewelry, for a lot of it anyway because I don't think you need to. I think you can get some really really gorgeous beads for a really affordable price. Okay so here you can see we've got the same little frame and the same little beaded link that we had with the earrings but these guys are all joined together to make this beautiful bracelet. You can make these in all sorts of different colors. Here we've got some, I think that's dyed jade again. Here we've got some watermelon quartz which is beautiful. Today we're going to be making this one which is made with blue sponge quartz which I think, oops, I think all the blues and the turquoises etc look really really really pretty with copper. As you can see these ones here I have put a gentle patina on them with some liver of sulfur but for this one I'm just going to leave it raw because I think that looks really really really pretty. Okay so let's go ahead and make this guy today and we'll go through a list of the materials that we need. Okay so to start with obviously you're going to need some wire. So one millimeter bare copper wire, again as usual I'm using dead soft because it's easy to work with. Okay you're also going to need some 0.4 millimeter copper wire, again bare copper. I will put in the description what the gauge size is for you guys that use gauge rather than millimeter measurements. Okay as usual you're going to need chain nose pliers, flush cutters or if you like me the nail clippers because they get in really really tightly. I like to use those and for this tutorial I would suggest that you use a six step bail making plier and the main reason for this is that we need really consistent hoops and consistent loops. Now you guys that are more proficient and more expert even, I mean I'm no expert, but you guys that can use the round nose pliers for things like this go ahead and do that. I'm not that brilliant with the round nose because I am a bit of a perfectionist so I like to have really really consistent shapes. So for these particular ones I'm using the largest and the smallest on the bail making pliers. Okay you're going to need some beads, so like I say these are eight millimeter that we're going to be using today. The eight millimeter are perfect because they fit inside the frame perfectly and allow enough space to wrap. Okay so you're going to need some eight millimeter beads. I'm keeping them in a bowl today because in my last video they went everywhere. So that's your beads, you're also going to need your basic bench block and your basic chasing jeweller's hammer just to give the wire shapes a little bit of flattening, a little bit of texture and what else? Oh just a basic ruler just so you can measure out your first length. Okay which we'll go through in a second. Okay so gather all your materials together and we'll make a start and I'll show you how to make this beautiful bracelet. Okay see you in a few. Okay so we're back hopefully now you've got all your materials together and so let me just talk you through how to make this bracelet. So each one of these little links takes around about six centimeters of wire. You can make it slightly more but I think six centimeters is fine for making this particular size. So the first thing you need to do obviously is to cut some wire and you take it to six centimeters. Come in with your cutters, your snippers. Okay so six centimeter lengths. Now if you do what I do, I cut quite a few lengths to start with and I do each step of the process like a conveyor belt which I prefer to do because I think it helps to make things more consistent. I'm a bit of a neat freak so that's the way I do it. You don't have to do it that way obviously you can do it each one individually. So cut as many as you need. For reference I prefer a longer bracelet. Okay so I prefer mine to sit here on my wrist. Obviously you need to make it as long as you want. So for reference including the two spare hoops on the ends and the clasp that's around about a seven and three quarter okay which takes one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen components. Okay so obviously if you want to make it shorter you can take off one of the bead components or two of them just to make whatever size that you want. Each of the components actually measures around about a centimeter and a half which is about three quarters of an inch. Okay so you decide how many of these components you need. For me like I say I need 13 of them. Okay so let's move these out of the way and I can just show you how to make the first one. So you've got your six centimeters of wire okay this is when you have to come in with your bail making plier. Okay so we're going to be using the largest step here which I believe is a centimeter. Okay I could be wrong correct me if I am and you want to be holding the wire around about halfway. Okay then we need to bend quite tightly and neatly okay around so we get this. Then we bend around the mandrel okay so that we have this shape and this is the shape that we're looking for. Okay then we take the chain nose pliers and we want these two arms okay on here they want to be parallel along sort of this angle. So take the very tip of the plier and where the wires meet in the middle bend it upwards to a 90 degree angle like so flip it and do the same with the other one like so. Okay so this is the kind of thing that we're looking for. So again with wire quite forgiving if you find it slightly offset you can reset it. So this is pretty much what a cotter pin looks like okay this is why it's called a cotter pin link I believe. So that's what we're looking for. So you can do that with all of your pieces of wire and make your 13 or your 12 or your 11 or however many it is that you're going to be making. And then the next stage is to get your bench block and give each one of these hoops a little bit of a hammer. So again excuse the noise for a second flip it. Don't have to give it a huge amount of hammering just very gently and it just gives it some stability and also flattens it just ever so slightly okay so if you want to do that with all of your little links until you have as many as you need okay and then we'll come back when we've got all these guys done. Again if you want to do this one by one then that's absolutely fine but for now we'll come back when you've got all your little cotter pin links done okay see you in a few. Hi again guys so okay so hopefully you've got all your little links made so they should all look like this. The next thing we need to do is to take one of our links and just trim this guy here to one centimetre in length. Now I know it's one centimetre for the smallest mandrel on the bail making pliers okay so this section here just measure it to be a centimetre or so okay so let's take our ruler so at the end there can you see just literally where the circle starts is where we measure from. Take your cutters make a little bit of a mark okay and where the mark is just simply snip. Mind your eyes with the little ends there just safety first as they say. Okay so do that with each one of your new little cotter pins and then we'll go for the next stage. Now as you can see each oops each one of the bracelets has a spare without a bead on the end now that's so that you can put your clasp into okay so the first unit that we make is a spare one without a bead okay so take your chain nose pliers and place them just where the circle the hoop meets the sticks I call them okay so can you see that you want to gently push down the pad of your thumb and make an angle like so okay can you see that then you come in with the first step of your pliers now you want to be doing this motion away from you okay so you hold your unit your little component like so okay now making sure these the end of these wires just barely feel it in between the mandrels and the rolling motion of this wrist or whichever wrist you're using obviously guys you're left-handed just reverse what I'm doing holding the circular hoop apart here nice and firmly you roll release and roll and then release and roll okay so this is what you're left with okay you see that there is it camera's playing silly beggars today so okay so that's your first unit made okay so the next stage is to make this first link here okay so you take your next cotter pin unit again snip around about a centimeter down okay like so now you want to attach each one of these onto here okay so the gently open your pin and pop it through your little hoops here so it's linked okay that's what we have so the next thing to do is to attach your bead inside this second link okay so take your 0.4 copper wire now you are going to get a slight touch of wastage with this particular piece mainly because you can't work off the spool so you do need to cut lengths now I can get away with about nine or ten centimeters but as this is a beginner tutorial I would say to go for more like 14 13 or 14 centimeters you are going to get a little bit of wastage but when you get to the end of your wrap it's a lot easier on the hands and a lot easier to do if you have a slight touch more wire okay so cut your wire so you've got about this let's have a look see how much that measures yeah about 15 14 15 centimeters something like that and just don't cry over the wastage like I do okay so you need to be attaching this wire onto this unit here so the best way to do this is to pop it up so you've got about an inch three quarters of an inch okay you will get used to this guy just wobbling around a little bit just tuck it out of the way whilst you're doing this particular part here and you want to bend this small piece of wire up through the center and pull it taut okay and do the same again pop it up if you can't quite grasp it just take your pliers just pull it through and then pull it taut and underneath okay keep squishing with your fingernails to keep everything nice and neat and taut okay so you want six of these wraps you can get away with four or however many you want it does look beautiful wrapped all the way actually uh up until here here but for me I like the way that the six wraps look so for this tutorial let's do six okay so we've got three on we want three more so holding firmly here take your wire and then you can slip it through the gap you know these guys here make that's four that's five and then that's six okay then just remove this little spiky section here let's take off the excess off you go that's it then you come in with your chain nose and literally just make sure that that spiky little guy there is burnished squished against your frame okay and have a bit of a squeeze make sure everything is nice and neat as it is okay and there you are so that's your that's your first one attached okay okay so then the next thing we do is to attach your bead so get your eight millimeter bead not so good let's try this one it's better okay so there's your bead attached you need to lay it across the hoop like so this is when we attach the second side so we want these guys to be going in the right direction it is a design issue if you want to make them offset or however however you want to do this is entirely up to you I think it looks neater to have all the links going in the same direction as you can see here and all the wraps going in the same direction should I say okay so entirely up to you so for the purpose of this tutorial let's let's do them all in the same direction so we want to be coming this way so your first wrap is down the next wrap is up okay so you just reverse again don't worry about this guy here it does get a bit in the way but you get used to that so run your fingers along your wire to give it a little bit of a bend you want to pop it to the left you see pop it to the left and pull keeping that bead in place give it a tug okay not so hard that you split that you know that you snap your wire but hard enough that it snugs into place like so okay you keep your bead and this part of your frame in your thumb and your forefinger here just to make sure that everything's nice and tight and in place so you want to make five more of these wraps because obviously we want to replicate the other side so that was six wraps so up through the space to the to the right should I say not the left and give it a tug and then over the top squeeze with your fingernails if you need to or indeed with you with your chain nose pliers get everything nice and neat and tight so that's two again it's three if you get to a point like this just take your pliers and give it a tug okay so that's how many that's three that's four five and six okay everything nice and neat and taut and secure okay so that is your first bead attached how wonderful is that give yourself a pat on the back and a round of applause because I do every single time makes me feel good okay snip this guy off like I said actually you could probably do with less than 15 centimeters to be fair if you measure out 12 you should be left with about so much you don't want too much waste obviously because that's just a waste so give these guys here a straighten tuck the spare not the spare the spiky end away give it a bit of a flat smush just to flatten things off neaten things up okay and look that's your first one done how cool is that so now we want we've already measured this to a centimeter when we first started if you remember so we don't have to measure this out now all we need to do is bend it round like the first one so make sure that you always go in the same direction so this first one here we bent underneath to the back side we want to be doing the same thing all the way along so it looks nice and neat and consistent okay so because we're bending our hoop towards the back side we want to initially bring these forward to the front side a little bit so turn it over okay and again like with the first one you hold the unit so that the chain nose pliers are just where the hoop starts and the sticks here meet okay i hope that makes sense hope i'm explaining it okay using your thumb and your two fingers here you need to make sure that this is nice and secure because you don't want to be bending these little 0.4 millimeter wire bits out of the way now okay so this is not crucial but it's something that you need to just be aware of so hold this guy here and bend gently okay doesn't have to be 45 degrees just kind of about that kind of angle okay so again holding nice and securely and firmly the bead and the rest of the frame in your fingers you take the smallest you might find that one guy is a little bit sticking out that's absolutely fine just bring that in okay straighten things up that's fine that happens to everybody so again holding the wires in between your pliers your mandrels of your pliers okay like so so you can barely even feel it hold securely and with a rolling wrist motion and the pad of your thumb with control bend and twist and bend okay and that's what you're left with so that's your first bead link attached to your base link which is where your clasp goes into okay so we'll quickly do another one just to go through it again for you so take your cotter pin trim what i call the sticks to around about a centimeter okay take your braid the beginnings of your bracelet and split this cotter pin slightly pop it through so that it's attached okay and get your 0.4 millimeter wire cut off your length and then start to attach so up through the center from behind and just anchor this wire onto the frame so that's two between the center that's two okay push things up so that it's nice and secure and three through the pin that's four keep things all squished up it'll ruin your fingernails guys five and six okay so this is what you have get rid of this excess take your chain nose and just squish things down straight things up okay this is where we attach the next bead take your next eight millimeter bead pop it on sit it in the center okay holding nice and firmly and tightly up through the space to the right of the bead give it a good tug if you need to come in gently with your pliers you can do okay so that's one to the right that's two give it a tug if you need and a smush if you need okay that's two and three straightening and squishing as you go that's four five and six okay turn it over to the back side remove the excess and squish everything together nice and neatly make sure everything is nice and tight and squished okay get the sides a bit of a flatten so that's the next one attached if you find that your sticks here parallel pins split a little bit just give them a bit of a squish and manipulate with your pliers nice and gently till they're back together again see that okay so turn it over to the back side because we want to be bending the sticks forward okay so where the circle meets hold nice and securely the bead and the frame and gently push forward so that you have this angle okay come in with the smallest mandrel on the bail making pliers again holding everything securely and in place and firmly roll your wrist open and close the pliers until everything meets nice and neatly if you have to bend things slightly that's again also fine okay let's just make that a little neater because i'm a perfectionist there we go okay so that's the second unit on your bracelet so you just need to basically just keep going through that same process until you have as many as you need and like i said for me i have 13 so i have 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 and then a second spare which we'll do now okay so do as many as you want as many as you need um you can actually make necklaces out of these guys if you really wanted to um with sort of a sort of i don't know 9 or 11 and then the rest cotter pins going all the way around the neck without the beads in absolutely that we could do that as another tutorial one day but go ahead and make as many of these as you need and we'll come back and we'll do the last um the last unit here and the clasp okay so have fun with that and we'll meet back when you've got this done okay see you in a few minutes hi guys okay so we're back so hopefully by now you have you're now in possession of this beautiful bracelet okay so the last thing we need to do is attach the final hoop onto the end okay so come in with your cutters and trim again to about a centimeter okay attach the final one through okay and then the same process again turn it to over to the back side make sure that all of your links are all running in the same direction you see how neat that looks come in with your chain nose and bend to an angle like so okay then come in with your bell making pliers and again as we've done before okay you bend so we've got our final loop okay so this is what we have so now it time it comes time to be attaching our um hook clasp onto the end um so it looks like this okay so for continuity and for neatness i've made this hoop to be the same size as the um the cotter pin link okay so let's go ahead and do that so you need to come in with your one millimeter wire again okay and i've measured i think these um are about five centimeters in length so you want about five centimeters to make this clasp okay so there's five centimeters of your one millimeter wire okay see we have this so to make the simple little hook we need to be bending the end of the wire like so okay so you take your chain nose very very very at the end of the wire manipulate and bend the wire over so you get this so then you come in and give that a bit of a squeeze okay like so so you've got this at the end okay so again bring your bail making pliers and we're using the largest you want to pop this p shapes so that the p the end the loop if you will is facing you okay you want to be bending the wire away from this little loop okay so they go in opposite directions so pop it in your plier like so i hope i'm getting all this in frame for you and bend the wire around until it kind of almost meets okay that's the first part of your hook because i've cut this side here um with an angle you just literally just want to flush cut take the tiniest little piece off just so you've got a nice straight edge okay so the next thing we want to do is to make this loop here that will attach to this guy here okay so for this one i've used the second step on the bail making plier just mainly because it it fits in nicely and i think it looks a little bit more aesthetically pleasing than a smaller one okay but that's up to you again it's all up to you how you do this this is just a guide okay so again whenever we're making loops just make sure that you can't feel the wire holding this nice and securely and taut and to roll around okay now i've adapted these a little bit because i thought these were a little bit too long okay so five centimeters is what you need so you've got this here the next thing you want to do is to come in and give it a little bit of a bash only a little bit you don't want to like smush it really badly and so just bear with the noise again pay particular attention to the arc of the hook this is the part in in your piece where you need the most solidity okay so as you can see here on this arc here this half circle if you will i've paid more attention to the hammering give everything else a light tap just to get the um the wire work hardened okay this is what we're left with right so the next thing we need to do is just literally simply attach it to here so don't open it outwards because you'll distort your hoop open it like i say like an opening gate so like so okay can you see that so the next thing you need to do is literally just pop that on there and close it up okay and that my friends is literally that and how beautiful does that look so let me just pop it on and show you so that's it that's your bracelet done and how beautiful does that look and that's how your clasp looks when it's on the wrist beautiful and i just think that making that clasp in that particular fashion fits in with all the rest of the sizes of hoops and makes it look really neat you can obviously use whatever clasp you like um one of the double hook clasps would look fine but there you go so that's your cotter pin bracelet um and i really hope you enjoy making this um like i say i've got i've got loads of these um i made a beautiful one in amethyst that a lady in canada bought not long ago and she um bought it for a wedding so how beautiful is that lovely okay so have fun make as many as you like you can put a patina on them etc etc um all sorts of different beautiful beads i all know that we've got in our stash because we've all got giant statues haven't we yes let's not tell our partners okay have fun let me know in the comments how you found it and if there's anything else you'd like to see from me or indeed if there's anything else that i need to improve upon don't forget i'm quite a new channel okay so if you've got any tips or hints for me i'm more than happy to take them on board and we'll go through this jewelry making journey together okay i'll see you in the next video and i hope you have a lovely week bye