Skill Level - Intermediate

 

Okay so here we are going to look at making a coil in jewellery wire. They are not hard to do, but do need a little practice to perfect and they are very versitile.

 

I'm using gold filled wire, feel free to use whatever you want. I suggest starting with 20ga as this is a nice pliable size that will hold it's shape well. Once you have the technique worked out, experiment with different jewellery wires and wire gauages.

 

 

Making a Jewellery Wire Coil.

 

  1. Select your wire. I suggest using 8cm (approx. 3 inches) of 20ga dead soft wire.
  2. Put a loop in one end of the wire. We will coil around this loop.
  3. Using nylon pliers, hold the loop flat in the pliers - you must keep a firm grip. If you are holding the pliers in your right hand, the tail of the wire should be pointing away from you and be on the left hand side of the pliers - See Picture.


  4. Using your left hand, bend the wire tail in towards the pliers jaws. This is only a little movement, but this is slow and steady process. See Picture and compare it to the one above.

  5. Release the wire loop and reposition it so that the wire tail is parrallel to the plier jaws again (about a 4mm gap is good between the pliers and the wire tail). See Picture and compare it to the one above.

  6. Bend the wire tail in towards the plier jaws again.
  7. Now reposition the loop again, so that the tail is pointing away from you again.
  8. Repeating steps 6 & 7 is how you creat a coil. Bend the wire around itself, then move the loop around. See the picture for how the coil should be building.

  9. Continue in this fashion until you have a coil about 1 cm in diameter (about 3 rounds).

You can make the coil as large or small as you like. Practice makes perfect, but just remember:-

 

  • when coiling, hold your nylon pliers tightly, so the wire loop does not move. Just don't squash the wire as your coil will end up flat!
  • make sure that your starting loop (step 2) is nice and tightly closed, this will help enhance the look of your coil.

You can put a loop at the end of your coil and hang it from a pair of ear rings or make it into a necklace drop.