Great ring! Have you done these spirals many times before on other pieces? They look so perfectly spiraled. I have seen and done some pieces for practice but they do not look as smoothly spiraled. May I ask......what is the trick?

Thanks!  I have done a few pieces with spirals, I'm very attracted to them for some reason.  I wish I could say that I have a trick.  I start the loop and the first couple turns with my round nose pliers and then finish turning with my fingers. 

Thank you so much!! As a general rule I use sterling silver SOFT wire. Sometimes (not too often) I will use half-hard wire. My most used sizes are 16, 18, and 20 gauge round wire, but I have used everything from 14 gauge to 30 gauge in round, half-round, and square.

I do not use any special tools. I use round nosed pliers, chain nose pliers, and a wire cutter 98% of the time. I know this sounds silly, but the secret to working with wire is to work WITH it not against it... and be GENTLE and patient!

Now, if I may add recommendations here: Please start with COPPER! It is so much cheaper and you can "mess it up" without crying about the price (too much). Copper is harder to work with than sterling silver so if you can do it in copper, you can do it in sterling. I can also recommend particular books if you are good at learning through reading. I hope I have not overwhelmed you and PLEASE PLEASE let me know if you have any additional questions. I LOVE to help people learn the craft of wire wrapping! Good Luck!

(Sorry so lengthy...)

Love your work!  The cross is especially beautiful.  I have been working strictly with copper wire, and was wondering if you find that sterling silver soft wire hardens adequately as you work with it?  I have always been afraid that my pieces would end up too delicate. 

Very nice!  I've been wanting to expand out into rings.  May I ask what type of material the mandrel you bought is made out of?  I've been wanting to order one and my bank account likes the plastic ones yet my head is telling me the metal ones would probably be better.  I could imagine that the wire would chew up the plastic ones eventually.  I was curious if there was a marked difference in ease of handling between the two.

I decided to start with just a cheap plastic mandrel.  That way if I couldn't get a good technique down or didn't enjoy making rings I wouldn't feel too bad about the money spent on it.  So far it's worked pretty well,  but I think hardening the wire would probably work better on metal.

Gorgeous!  I think you should join the ring swap!   

If I had any idea how to do that, I would love to!  I'm still kind of a newb on this site heh

I finally decided to get myself a ring mandrel.  Here is my first attempt.






Thanks for looking! 

I have never posted here before, but I am dying for warm weather and decided to share some pictures I took last Spring in case anyone else is in the same boat

We have tons of Russian sage in our back yard that bees seem to love


A few flower shots from a tulip festival






Plum tree in my front yard


C/C welcome!

My dad really loved the cherry tree necklace I made and asked me to make one on a larger scale that he could hang on the wall.  I suggested he make it a necklace anyway (hence the Flava Flav subject line hah.)  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I also made an agate suncatcher for my aunt.  I like it but I think next time I'll use a heavier gauge wire and make the trunk thicker.  As far as experiments go, I think it turned out alright. 

So lovely!  You do such great work!

How awesome are these babies?! good job! I hit this rocks, I would love to learn how to do wire work like that. Did you figure that technique out on your own, or do you have some training in making jewelry?

Thanks!  I had seen some posts by other craftsters and decided to give it shot.  Took a bit of practice, but now I can't stop making them.

Bored+not tired=Trees, of course!