Mood bead spiral cage pendant

I did one of these spiral cages when I was learning to wrap, which was inspired by a caged bead pendant I had seen on one the facebook jewelry groups I am in on facebook. This in essence is also inspired by the same pendant :)

I had an idea while thinking about the heat conducting abilities of copper, that maybe I could cage a mood bead in copper and it would still work even if it didn't always have direct contact with the skin.

basket weave

I used a base wire in I think 16g and lined up pieces of 20g wire around it. I then used some 28g copper and after coiling around the one piece, I started doing a basket weave around the 6 base wires. I like to make a neck at the top of any basket weave so I can pull down curls over it and make it look a little like a flower.

where should the weave end?

 I then curled up the end of the 16g wire and hammered it flat, then textured it with my hammer. I put copper bead caps on the turtle mood bead and a crystal roundel and a wooden bead closer to the swirl. I then made the top section of the basket weave to slightly higher then the top of the bead cap.

I really hate trimming wire.. I would rather just find some place to curl or tuck it, but I have found if I don't line up my base wires right when I first start the basket weave, I end up trimming later as the curls need to be all the same size to achieve the look I like.

coiling and shaping

 As the coiling began, I measured the first arm I coiled against the bead cap on the other end and trimmed the wire, then forming it to the shape of the mood bead.

Repeated 5 more times.

Then, instead of trimming the weaving wire on the last arm, I use it to make a new basket weave section, or you could say, another neck. This is when I had to put the 16g with the beads on it permanently into the cage. I have to say.. coiling the protruding wire is much quicker and easier when you aren't doing it around a bead too.

basket weave a neck

 I then did the same coil and trim and shape as I did with the bigger bead, just in smaller scale.

When I got to the close spot on the roundel, I did another neck style basket weave and ended it where the wood bead was just peaking out. Them I trimmed all of the ends to the same length and curled them up onto the neck.

almost done

 I did the same curling and trimming at the top. If you notice, I had one of the top wires with a coil on it. I was originally thinking I was going to take that coiled wire and wrap it around the 16g wire to do a bail, but then I decided I wanted all of the curls at the top to be the same as the bottom, and I uncoiled the wire, and coiled up the 16g instead.

I coiled up the 16g till there was a little bit of bare wire left, and then I used my new multi-sized looping pliers to form the bail. Then I squished it more oval because I liked the look better, and I coiled the base and the end of the wire together and trimmed.

all done!

Thanks for looking!

Becca