A Foray into Rings

If at first you don't succeed try try try again!  My foray into rings is a work in progress.  With each ring I make I am getting closer to my ideal design, but until then I am learning from my misdirections.

My plan was to do something similar to the bracelet design, so the supplies are roughly the same.  However I also learned that I needed to add a ring shaper to my tools for the future (something like the copper stick below)--for the time being I improvised with a couple of highlighters/fat pens and repeatedly trying the rings on.

Supplies (previously purchased at Beads on Fifth or off Ebay):

• Wire cutter
• 18 gauge wire (gold color copper; tarnish resistant craft wire from Bead Smith)
• 28 gauge wire (14kt gold filled)
• Semi-precious rough cut garnets
• Rhodonite round pink beads
• Rough cut dyed jade

Ring 1

First I wound the 18 gauge wire so it overlapped 2 full times and then for about a cm 3 times.  Nexy I wound the 28 gauge wire around the doubled 18 gauge base.  I position where I anchored the three stone beads over the tripled up 18 gauge wire.  I think that creates a more streamlined look since that area of the ring is already distinct from the rest of the circle.  I found because the tripled up area was small that I had to do some extra wrapping of the beads to anchor them properly and avoid the ring base from continuously increasing in size.

The finished product, ring 1.  While I think it worked out well, in the future I'd like the reduce the "bulk" of the anchoring of the stones.  I much prefer a more streamlined look.  This may requiring looping through the bead twice to create a firm attachment.


Ring 2
This was my attempt to address the issue of expanding ring size.  This design contemplates a third full loop of the 18 gauge wire, but I decided to play around with the wrapping of the 28 gauge to create some interest.  I alternated between wrapping the top two and the bottom two wires.  While I do think this helped a lot with reducing risk of expansion, I am not in love with the resulting look.  It looks haphazard even though it was planned, in that I could each set top or bottom 28 gauge loops.

Another interesting lesson from ring 2, the use of a larger number of beads results in a "crown" look when worn.

Ring 3

My final product in this series.   For this ring I made a very conscientious effort to keep the ring size small and bulk minimal.  Towards this vein I decided to wrap the 18 gauge wire only once (with only partial doubling up).  In order to anchor the base so it would stay the same size I wrapped both ends of the 18 gauge (2 times) around the single loop and then wrapped the 28 gauge wire on top.  Some modeling with a matching shade of nail polish! But I won't be keeping this ring as it will be a belated birthday present from my friend Jane P. who has always encouraged my craftiness.

Wire Wrapped Bracelet

Just because you are not the *BEST* (or even very good) at something doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.  The inner perfectionist in me that I'm almost certain I shook off sometime in 1st grade, still peeks out from under layers years of becoming more outgoing and confident.  In the interest of making this blog more of a personal betterment project, I will try to post a personal thought along with each craft / thrifty entry.

A perfect segue way into any craft project, as what I love about crafts is the process of making and the pride of completion.  If I or someone else can use it, then its reason for existence has been met.  It does not have to be the "best" craftsmanship or design, just something that "works".

I have been thinking for a little time now about bracelets and also expanding from my earring projects.  I don't wear much jewelry, and what I do wear is almost constantly on (a ring and a necklace).  So earrings and bracelets are areas where I find most flexibility for expansion.  A problem I have had with many is that many one size fits all bracelets run too large for my wrists.   For my first bracelet project I wanted to make something that I could slip on and off when I wanted to but did not fall off easily.

I decided to work on a design that was similar to the wire wrapped earrings I've gotten into making in the last year.  Perfect because I already had most of the materials.  I considered purchasing new bracelet sized wire that is made not to lose its shape, but decided just using thick wire wrapped twice would work just as well for my purposes, and better yet I had some among my supplies.  As it will be completely covered in the finished project I was not concerned with material content.

Supplies (previously purchased at Beads on Fifth or off Ebay):

• Wire cutter
• 18 gauge wire (gold color copper; tarnish resistant craft wire from Bead Smith)
• 28 gauge wire (14kt gold filled)
• 6 Semi-precious rough cut strung stones (garnets)

I "measured" the size I wanted by slipping the doubled wire on and off my wrist.  This came out to a wrist to bracelet circumference ratio of 5.5/7.5 (but will ultimately depend on your hand size and how much you can or how much you are willing to contort).
*TIP:  When the measuring tape has gone missing (or never existed in your too box) always helpful to keep string around to check measurements.

I looped the 18 gauge strand around twice with just over an inch overlap.  The nice part about 28 gauge wire is that where you start really just disappears into the project.  I began with a decent strand unwound from my spool and wound that end to completion, then started with the longer end.

I ended up using one continuous strand of the 28 gauge, which required some carefully wrapping (to avoid tangling)--this is probably not absolutely necessary because the wire blends nicely when doing tight wrapping but I generally like to do so and hopefully in future projects I will figure out some tricks to streamline the process.  A little before halfway through winding (make sure to regularly push the loops towards the already made loops), I threaded in a few beads and and anchored them with a few winds in between each for spacing.  I positioned the winding so the beads would fall along the wider 3 thickness portion of the 18 gauge band.  Then, I finished the project by winding the 28 gauge around the remaining half of the band.