Wrapped Wire Loop

The wire wrap or wrapped wire loop is used with a variety of jewelry supplies and is a basic jewelry making technique. It's used with all kinds of jewelry supplies, often with headpins or eye pins, such as in earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. With wire wrap loops, you can make a charm bracelet. You can loop the ends of headpins or eye pins to make dangles for earrings or necklaces. Doing it well will take some practice, but it's not hard to learn how to make the loop.

The tools you will need include a pair of round nose pliers, two pair of chain nose (flat) pliers, and a side cutter (wire cutter), and (optionally) a pair of crimping pliers. (It is possible to make this loop with only one pair of chain nose pliers, but just a tad harder.) You will also need some wire. The thinner the wire, the easier it will be to bend, so it's best to learn with pretty thin wire, no larger than 20 gauge. If you use very thin wire, then select half-hard wire, as it will be stiffer and more manageable. In the case of 20 gauge or thicker, then use dead soft wire for ease in bending.

First, position your chain nose pliers about 2 inches from the end of a piece of wire or head pin, then bend the wire into an upside down "L" shape. (If you are right handed, the pliers are in your right hand, and the short end of the "L" is pointing away from you.) The corner of the bend will be at the base of the loop. When you have the technique down, you can make it shorter.

Use your fingers to pull the wire for this step. Place the round nose pliers in the corner of the upside down "L," with the top jaw on top of the short end that is pointing away from you. Pull the short end of the wire up and over the top jaw of the pliers wrapping as far around as possible. The wire will hit the bottom jaw of the pliers, so you have to stop there. Remove the pliers from the loop and put the bottom jaw back into the loop. This will allow the wire to continue on around forming a complete circle at the top. The short end of the wire will again be pointing perpendicular to the long end of the wire (same direction as when it was just an "L" shape.) At this point, if you want to attach the loop to another loop, for example a chain link, slip the other loop (chain link) into your loop now. It is recommended that for the learning stage, you should not add other pieces, as doing so will complicate matters and make handling the pliers harder.

Switch to your chain nose pliers, removing the round nose pliers from your work. Here's where the wire wrap begins. Hold the flat side of the beginning loop with the chain nose pliers positioned so the loop does not get squashed. Grab the horizontal wire end with the other chain nose pliers (or your fingers) and pull it from behind the vertical longer wire around to the front, encircling the vertical wire. Wrap the horizontal wire end around 2 to 3 times. (Most people just do 2 loops, but 3 is fine.) Make the wraps close together for a professional look. At this point, you will want to straighten your loop out a bit, so it is in better alignment with the longer vertical wire. When you are wrapping the wire, slow down and keep an eye on where you are placing the wrap. You may need to turn the piece around and reposition your pliers to see what's happening as you wrap.

All that's left to do is trim the wire that you wrapped around the longer one. Use your side cutter to trim the wire closely to the wrap. To avoid having a scratchy wire end sticking out where you trimmed, take your crimping pliers to it, pressing it with the part of the pliers used for rounding the crimp (the part nearest the end of the tool.) This will push the trimmed wire end into the coiled area as much as possible. Don't try to tuck it into the coil, but make it align with the last part of the wrap. (Doing this step well is actually the hardest part of the whole process.) You can also do this step with flat nose pliers, but it's more work. If you do, you'll need to hold the piece of wire by the loop while pressing the tail end in, otherwise it will rotate and you won't be able to press in the tail.

Now you have a nice wrapped wire loop on the end of a longer piece of wire to use in your jewelry making projects. So what to do with the longer piece? Make another loop, of course. You can create a chain effect or a complex piece of interlocking loops. If you've made the loop on the end of a beaded head pin or eye pin, you can thread through the loop, treating it like a dangly bead. There is no end to the ways this wire wrap loop can be applied. The key is to make the loop with as much precision as possible.