Stainless steel wire.. ouch

I couple of days ago, a jewelry friend in a group I am in on facebook asked about wire cages. I decided to whip one up to show her how to do one in the crisscross style.

bottom view
 I should have picked copper or something, but the first thing I grabbed was the stainless steel wire in 24g. I have been thinking lately about unisex jewelry, and I really love the industrial and steampunk styles.. so that probably influenced my wire choice as well. I wrapped the center of the wire so that the stone would have something to sit on, and then I shaped that section to the cab.

I then pulled over the back two wires, to create something for the stone to sit on while I was shaping the crossing wires.
First crossing wires
 The crossing wires started with the front two, which are the bottom cross. I normally would secure them to the side frame at this point, but this wasn't working with the stainless, so I pushed the cross down a little further and tried to figure out where would look best on the pattern before I continued with the crossing.
second crossing wires
 The 'side' wires became the second crossed area. I then pulled out the back wires to the shape of the cab, and pinched in the top where I figured the bail was going to be. At this point I wasn't quite sure how I was going to make the cab stay in the frame because the back bits weren't holding it the way I figured they should. If I had done this in copper, I would have just squished them tight against the stone.
The back, first shot
 So I pulled the bottom crossing wires to the back, and did a swirly thing to secure them. Lots of excess wire sticking out yet! With the end of the swirly, I coiled a little bit around the two bail wires.

It was time to deal with the second set of wires. Oi.

over under crisscross
 I tightened the second wires, and tried to get them to sit where I wanted. Not an easy task with stainless!

The bail is also crooked still. Tweak.. tweak.. tweak..

front, after crystal
 I curled and twisted around the back wires a bit to get the two top crisscross wires to stay in place, and then I added a crystal and made a rose kinda thing around it. A rose is also harder in stainless.

While I was making the rose, the cab kept popping out, so I decided to pull in the sides on the back. I am glad to say it worked :)
the back, with the wibbles
While I was making the rose on the front, I also went around the back again a few times to make sure it wasn't going to wobble around.
 
almost finished
 I used my new looping pliers to make the bail.. widest one of this type I have made to date! I went around the back of the bail stem after the second time around the pliers, which seems to have helped with stability. There was some leftover wire, so I went around and around the bail until I decided it would look funny if I added any more, and I *gasp* trimmed and tucked. I know.. I know.. so out of style for me LOL

I think another reason I chose the stainless steel wire is because I just ordered this ball chain, with the idea of unisex jewelry.

All finished, with stainless steel ball chain.
Thanks for reading!

Becca

Comments

  1. Nice blog! This jewelry is very stylish and unique. Now-a-days Stainless steel wires are using almost every product . I appreciate your creative idea. I will definitely try your jewelry. Thanks for sharing with us such a wonderful post.

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  2. This is a very unique idea! Thanks for sharing! Using Wires as a necklace!

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  3. Your taste is amazing dear, love all of these amazing jewelry. thanks to share such information .

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