The Most Elegant (and Easiest!) Wire Link You'll Ever Make

Let's make something beautiful today. Well it's great to be back here with you for Wonky Wire Wednesday. I so missed you last week but as many of you know I celebrated a birthday and my husband as well so I took a week off and we kind of did some traveling and some hiking and just some fun. So when I'm ready for some jewelry fun with you we're gonna make a really simple link for bracelets and for um really even works for a necklace. Not every link is great for a necklace but this really works for a necklace as well. I also made a little pair of earrings using the same link and some jump rings. I love simple. I love how simple things can be so beautiful. It doesn't need to be complicated or take forever to make and it's still gorgeous. Great for beginners. Great for whoever's got a little time and they want to make a gift or something for Mother's Day weddings that are coming up. Really beautiful. Simple. Easy. And you can do this today. Let's go over what we are going to need. Real simple stuff. I got two different kinds of chain nose, pliers, a tweezer, and a flat nose. You really need the flat nose. This is actually the workhorse of this project. For some loops and things that make up this design I'm using bail pliers. Mine start with two millimeters. And of course you need cutters. You need a ruler. You may if you want to. I will show you if you want to do some hammering at a certain point. I'll tell you how to use that. And the whole piece uses 16 gauge. Now of course if you go to make earrings you need 20 gauge. You might need some 22 to 26 gauge. There's something I haven't even tried yet but I'm going to do it with you today. So stay tuned and find out what that is. The first step of making this link is getting your 16 gauge out. If you're using copper make sure you're wiping it down really well. Pulling out a length and each one of these links takes five centimeters of 16 gauge. So I've got my cutters. I'm going to make sure both ends are flush cut when I make these measurements. I'm going to cut one length of this five centimeters. I'm going to put my ruler away and then I'm just going to use that to cut my lengths of wire. So a gauge to see well how many of these pieces do I need. Just to give you an idea this wrist this bracelet that I made fits my little bird bones. It is about six and a half or so inches long and I used one two three four five six seven eight nine ten of these links. Not including some jump rings. That's all it is. Jump rings using a nine millimeter bail on the bail pliers. So that to give you an idea how many of these five centimeters I mean five yes five centimeters do I need to cut. I'm just going to show you how I just take a piece and I use to measure and cut all the following pieces. That's all I do. So I'll cut a couple here to get started. I've already got several of these links already prepared so I can just show you how they go together. That'll get me started. So I've got a few pieces of this five centimeters to demonstrate and I've got my ruler out. Keep that out as you are running through this like an assembly line. Go ahead and cut all the pieces that you're going to need. If it's 10, if it's 12, 14, whatever. Cut all your pieces and this next step you're going to only do this next step to run through all your pieces as an assembly line. It makes it so easy and fast. So really all I do, I don't get too fussy about this, I just take my piece I hold it over the ruler and I eyeball the center which is going to be two and a half centimeters with my flat nose pliers. And once I've got it nice and secure I'm just going to take one end and I'm just going to press it right over the pliers just like that. And then I'm going to just take the other side and I'm just going to press it right over and lay it down right next to the other side. And that is all you're going to do for this step. I'm just going to set that down, hold it right over the five centimeters, find the middle, move this down just a little bit if you don't have enough room at the end of your pliers. Press one side over and then press the other arm over. Set that aside and just work through the rest. So now I've got four little elements that I'm working with now. Still not getting rid of the ruler. Keep that out but pick up your cutters. And again I'm just kind of eyeballing this. I gave you the five centimeters to give you a little bit to bend, a little bit to push. If the wire is too short, it's too stubby and you just you can't get it to bend. It just makes it more difficult. So I gave you a little bit extra. If you want to try using less you can do that maybe four centimeters, four and a half centimeters because we are going to trim these arms just a little bit. This little center portion that we created bending the wires over the pliers, I'm just going to kind of eyeball that. I'm going to place that in the middle of any other centimeter on your ruler and then from the center of that centimeter I'm just going to go out and find the center of the next centimeter measurement and there I'm going to trim. Flip that over and do the same thing for the other side. Find the center of one centimeter, go out and trim at the center of the next centimeter and you're going to do that for all the next stage of the assembly line. And you don't have to be super strict with like it's got to be absolutely in the center. It has to be absolutely one centimeter out. You might fare better if you just give yourself one more millimeter from the center just to make sure you have enough room to to make this loop that is the next stage of this assembly line. Okay now we're done with this ruler. We can set that aside. Now we're going to move on to our bail pliers. You're going to grab all those pieces that you just made look like this and we're going to run through this stage which is using the two millimeter bail or this a very small portion on your round pliers. I do like bail pliers because it has more of this box joint is a little more um it's a little more strength to it especially when using the 16 gauge and trying to get right on the end of the 16 gauge and this seems to grip it just a little bit better. So I'm just going to be right on the end and more than just turning my hand I'm really going to turn this little piece of copper around the bail. This hand will move some but a lot of the action is happening by just pressing the piece around. In this next little part I'm going to get this loop centered within this little center core area. Let me get I'm going to get another one out so you can see a little close-up of what I am talking about. If you notice here is the center element that we just created and we're going to make two loops on either side but we got to make sure that it's centered in this crossed over area. So that's what I'm doing just right there is eyeballing this again and I'm just making sure that that loop is centered within this area and now I'm going to just do the same thing on the other side gripping the end of that wire mostly turning the piece of copper or whatever wire you're using letting that do the work. If you get to a point especially if you've done several of these links it's you can't just go like that with your finger it kind of starts to hurt your fingernail or it hurts your finger you can take those same flat nose pliers hold that first loop. The first turn your hand in the pliers and then get those loops centered and that is looking absolutely perfect. You may find that one is over a little bit it's not quite centered you can take either chain nose pliers that you like and squeeze in those side areas to see if you can if that helps line these up say if they're they're just wonky a little bit if they are angled and not sitting nice and flat just slip in your pliers and get those loops nice and flat when looking at the side. You got one little piece and all you would do is do that same motion those same loops on the Much easier if you just press the metal around the bail instead of trying to crank your hand move your pliers over to the other side and make that loop. It can be done with just your fingers but right when it gets to this point it's a little there's like nothing to grab on to you can do it by sticking your finger in there your fingernail is what I'm saying um if you don't feel like picking up pliers it can be done but if you want to protect especially after you've done many just use some type of chain nose pliers to hold that first loop and you are good to go. One other little thing you want to make sure is where these two pieces of wire kind of lay next to each other make sure that's sitting closely so you can just take some little chain nose pliers and then squeeze that together. Now here's the option with the hammering if you would like after we did this ring I have so fallen in love with hammering things flattening them out and taking taking the wire beyond just being round in certain areas I kind of like the mix of well this area of the wire is round but we use the file over here and gave some flattening and some shape to it so that's what I did with some of these links and what you're going to do is slide one of these loops right on the end of your your bench block and hammer that out with a chasing hammer until you like it. Now all the time when you hammer whatever you're hammering comes out of position just the one thing that's unfortunate when you go to hammer so just take your pliers and just squeeze that little loop back down together and the the other thing I did was I took a needle file and I flattened out because it's a little hard to get the hammer right there in the center of those wires that cross over this is totally optional several of these I filed that flat for really smooth flashy light catching surface to the link so if you don't feel like fooling with this you don't have needle files who cares grab your 16 gauge and a couple pliers and you really have a great link for bracelets and necklaces even earrings really I want to explore it some more because I think this area right in here makes a great channel for lots of different things I'm thinking maybe a coil you know me in coils I haven't experimented with getting a coil down in there but I think it might be possible so something like that you would just keep filing it until you got that look the flash the flatness that that catches your eye I want to do something just off the cuff right now this is what I mentioned at the beginning of the video where I had something in my mind and I just want to try to elevate this link with some beads so what I'm my spool I'm going to flush cut that and I think I'm going to cut I think I'm going to cut six centimeters and see what happens because what I'm going to do is make the loops just a tiny bit bigger remember these little garnets that I got from Dakota stones several weeks ago and several you asked I'm excited to find out how you use these I thought this might be a nice way to experiment how does a little faceted micro bead fit in there so that's what I want to try right now I haven't done it before yet but it just kind of came to my mind and I want to try it I've got my six centimeters I'm going to try that and it's the exact same thing I want to find the center which is three hope and pray I have enough wire on these arms oh I guess I'm going to have to trim it down differently I need a little more than a centimeter don't I okay so I'm just I'll figure something out any kind of wonkiness just go ahead and get it out before you move on press that one over like we just did these little beads right here that are so beautiful are three actually they're more than three millimeters they're like 3.3 millimeters so what I'm going to do I'm going to figure out what would I trim this down to I think I'm going to go for a centimeter and a half remember we we were measuring from the center of this crossover area we did originally a centimeter out I think I'm going to go to a centimeter and a half and then trim same thing through the other side and then my bail pliers these are from beadsmith they start at two millimeters so my second bail is the three millimeter to try to go along with these three millimeter beads and it's the exact same thing just using a larger bail I've got this side using a three millimeter bail I think that's pretty centered I'm going to find out when we do the other side here make sure your pliers on the very end of your wire is possible that ensures that roundness that loop shape even through the end of the wire I'm just going to bring this over and kind of eyeball it and center those loops together boy I got this on there nice and snug okay all right now same deal if you got it like sitting not quite flat and straight just with a little bit of chain nose pliers make it lay down and bring those two little wires together so that's sitting nice and tight so what I'm hoping is that when I take these little bit bigger than three millimeter faceted garnet beads that is going to sit right in that little it's a little hard to see just sit right down in that loop I'm going to grab a little bit of some thin wire to wrap these beads and what you would do say you want to add a little color to this link find you know a three a four millimeter bead that you might have I would definitely use round and then you would just use the corresponding bail or the area on your round nose pliers to accommodate whatever size beads you're going to use so let me grab a something I'm thinking let me look at this hole maybe maybe a 24 gauge on that hold on I'll be right back so I've got a little bit well I've got a lot I've got some 24 gauge here and I am just going to cut off a link this is like two or three inches you adjust whoa a slinky bill you just adjust the length to whatever you're comfortable with working with slide that down into the center and then you're going to take both of those tails and bring them down on either side of that bead and lots of times I like to tuck it in tight so you don't have too much bowing on either side of the bead these are gorgeous they they have such um they have like a raspberry color to them or like a a wine color they're really really beautiful I'm very pleased with what I've gotten from Dakota stones anyway I'm going to drop down those tails right down in the center press that down in there and we're just going to put a couple wraps use your pliers to help you really get that wire through there two or three should do you I'm going to leave that side with two and and work on this side first or to finish before I add any more I want to make sure I have enough room to get these wraps in it because it is kind of a tight fit I'm not going to lie you could even go uh use your four millimeter bail to do a three millimeter bead and then it will sit right down in there of course it's not going to go anywhere because you're going to anchor it uh with some wire think if I did this again I would do a four millimeter loop or a loop using the four millimeter bail to accommodate the three millimeter bead but this still works it's just a little tight to get it in there actually I still have a little space here on the right I'm going to try one more wrap on either side why not I feel better about that I I do like to put three wraps if I can lay that down flat and then trim these ends and then with some bail pliers with chain nose pliers you can tell I love bail pliers we're just going to push these ends down if you need to say you want this option to add some beads keep that file handy and then you can if there's any rough spots just file it down that feels pretty good and that's how it would be with a bead mounted into these little loops I'm going to put another one on and just so you can get that dual effect so there I went ahead and put a one of these garnets on the other side just so you could see that dual effect I think that would be really nice with the earrings like if you did that for a little added touch of color but I just wanted to try that you know just while we're here it was an idea I had I'm like I'm going to do it with my wonky wire workers and see how that turns out so how do we put this together and how do we make this class I'm going to show you that right now it is super easy maybe you went ahead and bought jump rings you can make jump rings that's how I have these connected but another option that came to my mind is that you could just do a wire wrapped bead in between these if you want more color I'm going to show you just with the jump ring today I'll show you really quickly what do you do if you don't have any jump rings you can do this very easily with your bail pliers I used I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure that was nine yeah I had to remind myself I'm pretty sure that was the nine millimeter bail and I just leave the wire right on the spool insert the end of the wire right in between those large bails on the bottom and as you are turning the wire in you're going to make the end of this wire to this side of your pliers make it go to the outside of this coil that we are going to build and what that does is just allow for as many coils as you want you could just extend this thing and to the moon and back and not run out of space if you bring it into the inside you will only have as much room as as long as your bail is and I'm just very firmly anchoring my thumb and index guiding that wire to lay it down next to the previous coil and I needed about five more jump rings so I'm just I'm just making a making a coil here and really extending the the turn even beyond where I want to cut it so I I know that there's a there's turn and there's circularness into throughout the jump ring so what you can do I have a whole video on how to make jump rings with a with a jeweler saw which is my recommended way because you get really nice joint that you don't have to go come back later and file down but say you don't have that you can just do it with your flush cutters and what you're going to do is come in on either side you're going to cut one side you're going to turn your pliers and cut the next level in the in the coil and that will ensure that both sides are flush they're not really super flush I'm going to tell you that even though you're using flush cutters it's not really that flush on a microscopic level and you will not have a perfect seam so what after I cut a few of these I will show you what I do to make sure there's a nice smooth joint so I was not right it was seven millimeters you would think I would remember what I just did the day before uh no I I don't remember what I just used as my bail the day before but now I've got five jump rings that are nine millimeters how about that so I'm just doing the exact same thing you get faster and faster the more you do this and I needed five more of these seven millimeter jump rings so I'm just making another coil trimming this off these are 16 gauge by the way I forgot to mention that I like to use the thickest wire that I possibly can when making anything because you you know you want your piece to be secure I don't mess around with too many lighter gauges if I can avoid it so the one thing I would do is with a needle file is really go in here clean up these ends make them really nice and flat because even though a flush cutter it it makes it sound like it's going to be nice and flush it really isn't especially in the very center of your cut there's going to be this little nub that is left and you want to get that off of there so that your joint will come together nice and cleanly I really dislike jump ring seams and that is one reason why I am learning to solder because I just don't like it's like a pet peeve I really dislike jump ring seams so I wanted to solder just at least for that I think soldering some jump rings was essential for me so I am still working on that I want to get it to a point where I can explain it adequately I don't do anything unless I can explain it you can follow it and feel confident in doing it until I get to that point we're just going to have to make jump rings like this but it's in the works soldering is in the works maybe you're nervous about your your torch I made a video a couple weeks ago about your intro to the torch and just annealing so you're at least not afraid of fire so check that out if you want to at least get comfortable you've never turned your torch on that's a great video to get acquainted so I think this one is looking pretty good we're just going to go with it so we can move on and now that you've got a jump ring open you're just going to slide one end with a link on it and slide another link on the other side I mean it can't get any easier than that that's why I'm saying I was doing the the jump ring connection today but feel free to do a wire wrapped bead or whatever you would like and with two chain nose pliers my camera doesn't know where to focus but what I'm doing is bringing these two ends together and sometimes you need to push past where they actually meet bring them past push them in a little bit more and then when you bring them back down to sit next to each other it's a nice tight fit and I think I filed that really nicely that that is about as good as you're going to get with cutting with your cutters and then filing with the needle file something I noticed when I was making this I'm like oh my gosh how are these not going the right way if you notice it's kind of hard to see if I hold it like that one is kind of the other way something I noticed is that it would just get flipped around it wasn't on there wrong I put it on there correctly but the this slides through the back slides around so that's all you have to do if it gets a little twisted so this is basically how this goes together so I'm going to put them together and make some type of a bracelet length whatever comes out comes out and then we'll come back and we'll do this sweet little hook clasp so here it is put together I did add that one that we added beads to to the center maybe you just want to do one as like a little focal but I think that would be really lovely so let's make this little hook clasp really easy still using that 16 gauge make sure your end is flush I believe I used the three millimeter to make this little connecting loop and I apologize I totally forgot that I have another tiny little 16 gauge jump ring in here that I used using the two millimeter bail so go ahead and make yourself a couple of these little jump rings just how I showed you they are really great to have on hand I'm going to cut about two inches usually I do this on the spool I make one of these little hook clasp on the spool but I want to show you how you know some people don't like working on the spool and you're like well how do I do that so I'm just going to show you a cut to two inches and hopefully that will be enough again that three millimeter bail on the end of the wire just making this sweet little connecting loop and I use this seven millimeter bail to make it really is just a preference thing and I'm going to put it in the bail like that and then just press on around you can just turn this little bit if you need a little more room to keep pressing actually I think that two inches was absolutely perfect and then with some chain nose pliers I'm going to come in here right where I want that little flip out where it kind of does that little thing and just turn it mine is a little wonky already I just want to press that flat and this is just also a little preference thing at all however you want to trim it maybe I'm eyeballing and I'm trying to imagine it without that you know I think it needs just a little more bend I want a little more bend in that I'm imagining yeah that looks cute I'm going to cut that end off get that needle file out or your sandpaper and we're just going to clean that end up now to really get everything nice and smooth and polished this what I did with which one this one I had put that through the tumbler actually all of these pieces I had created them put them in the tumbler and then put them together once everything was done so that is an option as well someone had asked about that in a in a previous comment yes you can make all your links or whatever your parts that you're putting together and tumble them first before you put them together and like if you're concerned about will your pliers make marks and things on your on your pieces of wire you can use a little bit of masking tape there's a product out there called plasti dip that you can dip say like you got some junky chain nose pliers they're not your favorite but you still you know what I mean they're still good those might become your your pliers that you use to put things together once they've already been polished to give it a little strengthening slide over your bench block you can do a little bit with the nylon hammer if you want or that same chasing hammer that's an option for you when making the links and just hammer that end out okay I couldn't find a tiny little jump rings this is I probably made this with the four millimeter bail but I'm just going to use it to show you how the the hook clasp connects I'm going to add that here leave it open okay so I'm just realizing a option for you if your bracelet ends on a link you do not have to add this jump ring if it ends on a jump ring that's when you would add another smaller jump ring to reorient the the hook so that it can come around and slide into this the other link on the other end so let's just take this off I am adjusting as I'm here with you I'm going to open this connecting loop on the hook that we just made I'm going to slide that into the other side of a link just like we did a jump ring or if you're doing a wire wrapped bead that's where this would slide in and then as you have your bracelet on or maybe you're making a necklace this is going to come right around and the hook will slide right into another link and that's how it would come together and I really felt like this this hook clasp really blended in with the jump ring connectors and it's almost you almost don't notice it because it just fits within this pattern so well that you almost don't even notice it and I always try to do that make sure that the clasp blends with the design you can bring that together a little bit more if you're concerned about a gap there and sliding off and that is the link it is fantastic I'm going to make a necklace and show you as well because I just really felt like this would be really nice to lay across the collarbone really pretty you can make these earrings something like this I made the link it has a a jump ring with a nine millimeter bail this one is a five millimeter bail and and again a five millimeter jump ring up here and then just with an ear wire that created that very kind of simple somewhat chainmail like design so that's an option have fun with this I'm still going to play around with this link because of this channel I think there's some options in there for threading other wire through for lots of different designs so I might come up some things you might see something on the community page where I came up with a new design using this little link so watch out for that speaking of that on the community tab on the YouTube channel you can share what you're working on you can ask questions and it is a great little place where people are sharing what they're working on and it I just love it I'm also on Facebook and Instagram where you can share things as well I'm so sorry I still have not created a group it's been it's just been it's springtime we're planting gardens we're planting flowers it's been our birthdays and so I've just my list of to-dos is not really getting done but it is it is in the works and many of you expressed the importance of having that Facebook group so I am working on that well I hope you had fun doing this oh so simple anybody can do this yet it's so elegant this wonderful little link that can be added into so many different things let me know if you try this little beaded option and then let me know if you incorporate this into something else I just think that is so fun how you will take a an idea and then you run with it and you make it your own and expand on it I love to see that so make sure you share with that on the community tab or send me a message over on Facebook or Instagram I definitely will respond thank you for watching thank you for liking and subscribing let's get together next week for wonky wire Wednesday shoot oh my gosh what the heck was that come on yo what in the world come on my word what was that I hope that wasn't a bead well okay I know what I'm saying oh my gosh it wasn't nine millimeters it was seven millimeters oh my gosh ridiculous come on yo oh my gosh okay those tiny little jump rings oh fart I don't remember if there's anything else I want to say my brain is fried