Wire filigree link bracelet

hi guys this is Nadia from B crafts and in this video I want to show you how to create a filigree link bracelet with fasted gemstones you haven't already hit the Subscribe button because I upload new stuff on a regular basis I quite often make kits and PDF tutorials for the videos I put up on here and I'll pop a link in the description below um I also have all sorts of gemston square and half on wire some beads and all sorts of other goodies on my website so take again that over and see if there's anything you fancy last but not least come and join us in our uh wire wrappers and metal Smith group on Facebook I'll also pop a link below right let's get started all right so we're going to start by cutting several lengths of these how many you need just depends on the size of your wrist so you can just um work out as you're working line them up and see how many you need to go around your wrist but remember that you obviously need space to create your um your finding to close it so don't make it too long all right so we're going to start and and these lengths are roughly 31 C 31 mm like that um I will pop the conversion in inches at the top here so that everybody knows how much to cut and we're going to start by twisting the end we want to create really small Loops so that we can link these together and I'm I'm starting by twisting the end like that it always I find it helpful to squeeze the end a little bit and over rotate not too much in this case because we don't want to thin out the wire too much just round it off at the end like that and then we also want to round it off here a little bit to create like a hook because that will prevent straight edges and then we're going to come in at the tip and swirl it in a little bit more like that we want to make the loop as small as possible but still big enough so that we can attach our findings to it squeeze it down a bit like that obviously with thicker wire it's a little bit more difficult to do and I come back and straighten this back out Mo create like a 90° angle like that so we got a nice small Loop close this off a little bit more like that and then we're going to be doing the same on the other side so just kind of [Music] roll a little bit like that and squeeze a little bit too much we don't we want to try avoid thinning out the ends too much otherwise the loop is not strong enough squeeze it down roll it in a little bit and then bring it back out squeeze these together then close off the loop like that and you can adjust the size of the loop like that bring it down a little bit and obviously you want to make sure that both sides are nice and straight like that so that what we've got at the moment the next step is to hammer these so we're going to put these on a steel block see if I can zoom in a little bit more here there we go bring this down a little bit I guess a little bright because of the the way the light shines on these so I've got these there and all we want to do is Hammer the inside so with d facing Hammer try and see if I can do this from the other side so you can see so you really just want to hammer the inside trying to avoid the loops it's a little bit tricky and you don't need much the reason I'm doing this if you use Square wire it's you don't actually need to do this because you have the surface for the area for the wires that we're going to attach to it to to wind around so that they don't curl up what happens is when you attach round wire round round wire it's just going to swivel around so what we want to do is really create a flat surface area so that it can't actually swivel around that's what you get and now I'm going to zoom out again there you go and then we're going to attach our weaving wire to that and create the actual design itself all right so next going to attach this wire here we don't need wire on this side on the upper so we're going to do is wrap this length around the post like that and we're going to keep the other side is going to stay bare or shorter rather cuz we don't really need wire on that end so I'm going to do it is straighten it out that it's a bit small so it can be a little bit fiddly at this stage it's quite quite a small kind of design and squish it down technical turn that like that so now we've got a long wire on this side and a shorter one on that and squish it down you see that the square wire that we've created by hammering stops this from swiveling well in theory it should but I think I missed a little bit of the top there just try and avoid the loops because I don't want to make the loops already bigger than they already are so next we're going to do the same with the second wire you kind of find a midpoint for that one and then attach like that so you have long sides on each side for that one and then come in squish it down and shift it up so it's going to be a little bit um unstable at this minute because that it's not really properly attached like that so that what we've got try and bring these shifties up as much as I can so at the moment this is what we've got we can see this so we're going to do with this wire we want to also fold it across and have it sitting like that so we've got in essence three wraps at the top like that and as close to the top as you possibly can like that so next what we're going to do is we're going to take this and we're going to create a tiny swirl so that's the bottom wire we're going to create a tiny swirl try and keep the wire flat we're going to go [Music] around like that very sort of a smooth smoth kind of rotation you want to create nice flowing curves like that bring it up a little bit and then just make it a little bit smaller you don't want it too big because you're going to bring out another wire make it a little bit smaller like that that's what we got at the moment next we're going to take the next wire in line and we're going to follow the shape so try and keep it flat so we don't want the square wire to twist so I'm going to go around and follow try and keep it zoomed in follow that initial shape nicely so that it creates a nice flow like that nice little shape don't worry about this one yet will attach it later so right so now it looks like that got both wires curled over the front and then we want to create a little detail here so open this up again and we want to kind of swirl this wire round and then bring this up and around over the front to create this flowing kind of swirl over the top like that and then do the same with the other wire so come around but this wire going to move this so it doesn't zoom in on that so this wire is going to go on the inside so very gently do the same thing like that and then bring it around so that creates nice little swirls here and then we're going to attach both of these like that so in essence it's creating the swirl and it comes around the base and wraps around the base and that's what we've got at the moment you see that next we want to create a seat for the stone so we're going to take the inner wire of these and we're going to come in and create like a round sort of setting so this is going to be for 4 mm Stone you could probably add a five but I think for those sort of small components it's a little bit uh too small you can do that if you're going to create a bigger design with big thicker wires you could probably go for five but big cuz it's so small um it wouldn't secure the stone properly right so then we kind of squeeze this in like that and then you can dou check so bring in my Stones here and I've got four Mills here my beautiful garnets Garnet's some of my favorites I just love the color especially the Moz Bean one which nice deep rich red so place this in the basket um and you want the swell to be just big enough so that the stone sits on its edges without sticking out too much because otherwise it's going to make a nice a thick buky setting and then once the stone is kind of seated you kind of roll the wire just take your time with that gently you swirl in a spiral and you gently place the wire over the Stone's edges like that and that will seed the stone so obviously take your time with that takes a little bit of practice so once you have done that we come around and we wrap the end around the loop at the bottom like that and we squidge it down not a very highly technical term Zoom it in and then we'll just trim that off so you want to try and trim off all wire bits on the top because obviously you don't want this is going to be the bottom and you don't want anything to um to scratch your skin or anything like that so try if you're going to cut any wires to cut them off at the top so that's what we've got at the moment so just take a moment and see if you're happy with the Symmetry and at this stage you can you know adjust and shape wires if you want to to just change the way they look a little bit um and we're going to do the finishing bits and Bobs in a second so that's what we've got at the moment and that's what it looks like from the back all right so next we're going to work away the top way I just want to attach it a little bit more so we going to go around the top one more so just that gives a little bit more of an anchor so it doesn't keep flopping around like that and then we're going to use that as a little bit of detail so with this sort of thing I quite like to keep these wires as flat as I can so I keep twisting them until they're nice and flat again like that and then I'm going to shape it around bring it over the top so these where you're going to bring it in kind of depends on where you have a gap because obviously quite an organic design so kind of find a space where you think it'll look nice when it doesn't look so good so obviously doing the twisting will work harden a little bit so these wires can be a bit more stubborn when it comes to doing stuff like that so then you kind of go really slowly take your time with that and kind of find a place so I want a little bit more open it's just a matter of creating nice looking flow I don't really like that too much if you have a look at the other ones would have done here this one has got nice flow on the side here that comes in I think this one has got a bit of a different shape so each piece that you make is going to be a little bit different so just kind of you know adjust it as long as they have the sort similar shape um yeah I don't like this too much there's not enough open space so now you have to be careful because obviously these wires do become work hard and then they're real pain to work with sort of come around I still like it very much oh that one broke off so then once you're happy with the shape just come around and wrap it around the bottom like that just going to come in here and go in as much as I can even the Nick sometimes is enough cuz the wire becomes weak and then you can just cut it off and then it kind of helps to have a fine nose pair of pliers like that and you can just tuck it in you don't even need to wrap the this one particular as long as it doesn't get pulled out when you're wearing it or pull on any clothing or whatever as I said these are quite small components so it's a bit fiddly to work with them um so each of those will look a little bit different from one another so that's what they kind of look like once you've put them together um as long as they are you know kind of symmetrical that's okay it's very it's impossible to get these to be perfectly the same and then once you Happ with that kind of give it a little bit of a curvature so that it follows the shape of the rest if that makes sense and then next step is we're just going to attach these together right so next it's time to create some jump rings so we can join all of these together um and for that I've used some 1 mm 18 gauge and I've already joined this here so that's what it's going to look like but to create these jump Rings you can make your own or you can buy these pre-made um but I usually make my own just because it's you know more efficient so I'm going to do normally is you can use a pair of bail making pliers which work really well for that sort of thing these have got different to go with the second smallest and all I'm going to do is I'm going to grab the end and then I'm twisting and I'll try and feed the wire under the loop like that because that means you can create a coil that's as long as you want so you can just keep going and you twist and the coil grows upwards um if you had gone gone the other way it would be limited by you would start at the top and then obviously end where the mandrel ends so this way works much better like that so the other way would have just you would have run out of Mandel to to grow the jump Rings um and generally I just create a good length of these my mandal are a little bit bent out of shape so they don't like to come off so sometimes I have to um twist them I actually should fix them so that they work properly so you just keep doing that so that is what it looks like and the next to cut these you want a nice flush ending so if you're using your Flush Cutters you'll notice that one side has got sort of a res Ed side and then the other is a flush end um Ultra Flush Cutters have got super flush cut as the name suggests so when you're coming in here and you're cutting the wire end you make sure that the flat end is the side where you want to I'm just going to see if I can zoom in here so that you can actually see so you can see here that the flat end is nice and flat if I had come in and cut it this way like this way like that you can actually see the recess now and that is the recess side of the cutter so if you're flipping it and wherever the flush side is touching the wire if you cut it like that now keeps going up the focus it's nice and flush so that's why now when you're cutting the next coil you need to flip your Cutters and point it to where the other end of the jump ring is so you come in here make sure that I keep this in zoom and you cut your jump ring like that and you can see how nice and flush this is now so that's why and then you just keep cutting and each time you you do a new cut you can see here now where I've cut the jump ring there's like a edge so we going to just get rid of that then you have your um your jump Rings ready so and then all we're going to do is obviously join these together so we've got our bits and Bobs and to open a jump ring I'm sure most of you know this already but there's people that knew that probably won't never open a jump ring sideways cuz what happens like this it kind of gets bent out of shape like that so that isn't great because now when you want to close it again it doesn't look great there's no round anymore so when you open up a jump ring it's always best to go sideways like that and then attach whatever you need to attach and then just close it like that again and that's that right okay so that's one thing so next we're going to create a clasp if you're going to make everything from scratch but obviously you can also just buy um your ready made clasps but um you can make your own and to do that just cut a i it's about a 10 cm length of wire which is about 3.9 in I remember that now I've used it for so many years and I can never remember and to create a class what I'm going to do is come in again with our Bell making PL is if you don't have these you can just use round making uh roundness pliers and then use the different sort of depth of it to create that so you're going to create a very small loop on one end obviously the smaller you know the the clasps you want to make the smaller you want you know the smaller wire gauges and the smaller the loops you want to so actually for something like this I'm going to use my run no pliers because we're going to make a small small small clasp so I'm going to just close this a little bit more just to open so I'm just trying to make this clasp bit more you can see how there's like a square piece of wire in the loops that often happens when you start off the loop so I'm going to cut that off and then I'm going to twist this in make it nice and small should be even smaller than that the next step is to create so we're here now and the next step is to come back and we're going to fold this tiny class back on itself so now it looks like a shepherd's hook see if I can zoom in a bit more yeah okay that's better so now we've got this kind a shepherd's hook like appearance and now we just need to double back so we're going to come back and we go to the biggest end of our run with suppliers right at the base and we are closing this in on itself like an S hook clasp and that's what it looks like and then to finish off just trim it a little bit at the end and then to make it easier to slide the hook into place we're just going to bend this up like that so now when you want to wear your bracelet you kind of slip it in like that and then the other end obviously attaches to a jump ring oops sorry out of focus you touch a jumping here um and then that's a brace ready to wear right so that's that so next we're going to oxidize um and polish this is a little bit different to something that has got gemstones inside is I'm going to show you how to do that okay so normally when I have something with liver sulf I just dunk the whole thing in a solution hot water and then my liver sulfa gel I prefer the gel for that because it's longer lasting than the liquid but it's much less hassle than the solid which you need to um dissolve first so I really like that because it lasts long enough and it's really quite inexpensive you can get it on eBay um or Amazon or sort of any sort of craft chop that specializes in in wire work um and as I said normally for you know normal pendants where the stone isn't too delicate I obviously make the solution not boiling hot cuz that'll crack your stone make it sort of hottish like a warm cup of coffee that's not too hot to drink and then I add my solution to the water generally just like a drop there's a little bit much water in here so I'll add a few more drops um the really lasts a long time so and it'll probably go off before you run out of it unless you've got loads to do so obviously with something like that I always find that when I use gemstones like that if I dunk the whole thing the wire behind the gemstone um goes black and it kind of takes away from the color so I prefer to come in with a paintbrush and just paint the wire where I want wanted to darken there's a little bit more work but I just find it kind of avoids um obviously should be wearing gloves as well um and obviously in the well ventilated area cuz that stuff first of all it really smells um but it's not the healthiest of fumes to inhale as well so make sure that you have a window open or you do it outside and paint that stuff on wherever you want the wire to darken like that you can just dunk it in so if you did I'm going to do one just to show you what happens so put it in and you need to leave it for about 30 seconds now remember obviously to remove any stones that you don't want damaged by by the liver s or even water there's certain gemstones that don't do very well with water Al together you can see how this one has already darkened nicely see if I can keep this zoomed in so that's what it looks like um with painting obviously it's a bit more pain staking it takes a lot longer and you need to reheat the water periodically because it obviously cools down like that and you just keep going and I try and avoid the back of the stone so that the wire doesn't get too dark underneath it so I'm just painting this on here like that and just as I said trying to avoid the Stone from the back cuz you can see here if the wire darkens you can't see the color after Stone very nicely so do the same here so just keep going and you just might have to reheat this a couple of times it's always best as you can see here to dunk it because that has the most effect because it doesn't really otherwise come across I might still do this even because it doesn't seem to be doing very well with this one and then once it's darken to your liking you can just polish it um and Blacken it well polish it back to shine and then keep the recesses right so I'm going to finish this off and then I'm going to polish it and then I'll show you what it looks like so at the moment this is what the um the darkened one looks like okay so now I have oxidized it and Polished it and you can see this is another reason why it pays to wear gloves because that stuff sticks on your fingers and it makes them black and it's really difficult to get it off so wear gloves don't do it like me cuz I should have but I didn't so now I have to scrub my fingers to get rid of it and that's what it looks like at the moment and you can see I've polished out all of the top surfaces makes them nice and shiny um and then the recesses stay black which um I really like and actually the St B uh quite visible even though I dunked a whole lot and I was just I just couldn't be bothered to paint everything painstakingly by itself so I just dun the whole thing and end up polishing but it's worthwhile doing if you maybe have a bigger stone that can't be submerged or something like that so it works quite well and that is the bracelet so now you can just check out the clasps make this nice and long so it can't slide off and um this is what it looks like thank you so much for watching I really hope you enjoyed this if you haven't already hit the Subscribe button because I upload new stuff on a regular basis if you feel like joining our artist community on Facebook I will pop a link to the group below we're a Fun Bunch so feel free to come and join us I also have social media if you want to follow some short stories that I put up occasionally and I've got Facebook Tik Tok Instagram Pinterest and obviously YouTube and also a link is below and last but not not least to visit my shop if you're interested in getting some kits for these tutorials gemstones beads wire um and all sorts of other things so as before there is a link to all of that in the description below and that's it for me hope to see you next time bye