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HandoutHandout 1: What to Bring — Supply & Shopping List
Handout 1: What to Bring — Supply & Shopping List
Wire-wrapped jewelry making doesn't need much to start. That's part of why I like it. You need wire, a couple of pliers, something to wrap, and a willingness to make something ugly on your way to making something you'll wear. Below is what you actually need for week one, what's nice to have later, and where I'd point you if you're not sure what to buy.
The Essentials (budget tier)
Wire — copper, 20 gauge and 24 gauge, dead soft. Get both. We'll use 20 for structure and 24 for wrapping detail. Copper, not silver. I feel like this is the one rule I won't bend on for beginners — copper is cheap enough that ruining it doesn't sting, and you will ruin some. That's fine. That's how you learn where the wire wants to bend versus where you're forcing it.
Round-nose pliers. This is the one tool worth spending a little more on. Everything else in your kit can be the cheap starter version, but the pliers you use to shape loops need jaws that actually taper to a fine point and hold up. A $6 pair from a bargain bin will frustrate you more than it saves you money.
Flush cutters. For trimming wire ends clean, so nothing pokes anyone later. Regular scissors will not do this. Don't try it.
Chain-nose pliers (flat, not round). For gripping and tucking wire ends down. Different job than the round-nose, so yes, you need both.
A stone or object to wrap. This is the fun homework. Go find something. A river-smoothed stone from up the canyon is genuinely my favorite kind of thing to wrap — better than a perfectly polished cabochon, honestly, because the wrap has something to hold onto and the small flaws in the stone disappear once it's framed in wire. Bring two or three options your first week so you have a backup if one shape fights you.
Safety glasses. Wire ends snap when you cut them and they go somewhere. Usually not your eye. I'd rather not find out about the one time it is.
Nice to Have (not required week one)
- A second gauge of wire (26 or 28) for finer wrapping once you're comfortable
- A bead mat or small tray so pieces don't roll off the table (the tables in our room have a slight tilt, I've complained about it, nobody's fixed it)
- A small notebook. I'm going to nag you about this one all session. Write down what gauge and what length worked for a piece you liked. You will not remember later and our dry air up here does nothing for anyone's memory, mine included.
- A jeweler's file, for smoothing a cut end that's still a little sharp
- Nylon-jaw pliers, if you get serious about straightening wire without marking it
Shopping Notes
Craft stores carry copper wire in the jewelry aisle, usually near the beading supplies. Check the gauge on the spool label before you buy — I once wrapped an entire pair of earrings in the wrong gauge because I grabbed without reading, and the wire wouldn't hold the loop shape at all. Read it twice. Out loud if you have to, I still do sometimes.
You do not need to buy a fancy tool kit. The all-in-one beginner kits sold as a set are fine for the cutters and chain-nose pliers. Just don't let the round-nose pliers in that set be your only pair if they feel flimsy — that's the one place I'd spend the extra few dollars separately.
If you end up with wire or a piece that just isn't working, don't feel bad tossing it or bagging it up for a DI run. I've donated a whole box of my early failures that way. Then panicked a little that someone would buy one and think I meant it. They probably didn't notice. It's fine either way.
See you at the first class. Bring the stone, bring the pliers, and bring something you don't mind ruining a little.
HandoutWire Wrap Cheat Sheet
Wire Wrap Cheat Sheet
Keep this in your tool bag. I still glance at my own version of this half the time, so don't feel like you're supposed to have it memorized by week two.
Wire Gauges (what to reach for)
Gauge Use it for Notes 18-20 Frame wire, structure, the wire holding the stone in Stiffer. This is your "skeleton." 22 Wraps, coils, most of the decorative work The workhorse. If you're not sure, start here. 24-26 Fine wrapping, delicate coils, small stones Fussier to control. Save for after you've got a feel for tension. Copper first. Every time. Practice the whole piece in copper before you let yourself touch silver. Copper's cheap enough that a mistake is just a mistake, not a small tragedy.
Basic Loop (the one everyone struggles with)
- Trim your wire end clean, no little hooks or burrs.
- Grip the very tip with round-nose pliers, out at the narrow end for a small loop.
- Rotate your wrist, not the pliers. This is the part that takes people the longest to trust.
- Reposition the pliers partway through if the loop's fighting you. One continuous twist rarely works for beginners, and that's fine.
- Check it's centered before you move on. A crooked loop only gets more crooked from here.
Wrapped Loop (the sturdier version)
Same start, but leave extra tail wire. After you close the loop, wrap that tail around the stem two to four times, snug, moving down. Trim flush and press the cut end in with your flush cutters so nothing pokes out and finds your sweater later.
Basic Stone Wrap (cage-style)
- Measure your frame wire generously. You can always trim, you can't add back.
- Cross the wires behind the stone first, so you've got a stable base before you start shaping the front.
- Work symmetrical pairs of wire together where you can, but don't panic if they drift a little. Two sides that are close but not identical still reads as handmade, on purpose, and I actually prefer it that way.
- Bring your wrapping wire around in even coils. Even spacing matters more than tight spacing.
- Tuck every tail end. Run a finger over the whole back before you call it done. If it catches on your finger, it'll catch on skin.
Tension, Generally
Firm and steady beats tight and white-knuckled. If your hand is cramping, you're gripping too hard. Small tight coils (what some people call magic rings) are still the one thing I can't get consistent, and I've made peace with that. I'll show you my method, just know it's not the gold standard, it's just what works for me most days.
Tools Worth Spending On
- Round-nose pliers — the one place not to go cheap. Everything else in a basic kit can be the budget option.
- Flush cutters, kept just for wire, not for anything else in the house.
- A bench block or scrap of leather to work on so stones don't roll off the table (mine has rolled off more than once).
Quick Troubleshooting
- Wire won't hold a shape → you're probably in too fine a gauge for the job.
- Loop keeps coming out lopsided → slow down, reposition your pliers mid-twist, don't force one motion.
- Stone won't sit still in the cage → your frame wire is too loose. Snug it before you start decorative wraps, not after.
- Wire snaps → it's work-hardened from bending it back and forth too many times. Cut it off, start fresh, don't try to save it.
Write your own notes in the margins here. What gauge you used, what stone, what worked. You will not remember next month, I promise you, especially with how dry it gets up here, my memory is worse for it too.
Worksheet```markdown
```markdown # Wire-Wrapped Jewelry Making ## Handout 3: Your Piece, Start to Finish
Fill this in as you go, not after. I mean it. Notes taken after the fact are notes you invent to make yourself sound smarter than you were in the moment, and I've done that, and it doesn't help you next time.
---
Before You Start
- [ ] Stone or object I'm wrapping: ______________________
- [ ] Where it's from (trail, box of grandma's stuff, Costco bin, wherever): ______________________
- [ ] Wire gauge: ______________________
- [ ] Wire length cut: ______________________ (read the label twice. out loud if it helps. ask me why.)
- [ ] Copper or silver: ______________________ (if this is your first piece, it should say copper. that's not a suggestion.)
---
Shape Check
Before you touch the pliers, look at your stone or object for a second and answer honestly:
- [ ] Does it have a natural "top" where a bail could sit?
- [ ] Is there a narrow point to anchor the wire around?
- [ ] Am I trying to force a wrap onto a shape that doesn't want one?
If you answered yes to the third one, I feel like you should stop and look again. I lost a whole summer to a stone that was never going to cooperate, and it's back on my windowsill now, undefeated. Don't be me. Or be me, but earlier in the process.
---
The Wrap Itself — check off as you go
- [ ] Made my first anchor loop with the round-nose pliers
- [ ] Loop looks reasonably round (reasonably. not perfect. we'll talk.)
- [ ] Wrapped wire around the stone, checked it sits the way I want before tightening
- [ ] Second loop / bail formed
- [ ] Tension feels even, not loose, not white-knuckled
- [ ] Trimmed excess wire
- [ ] Tucked or filed any sharp ends (run your finger along it. if it catches, it'll catch on a sweater too.)
If your tension is a little uneven, that's fine. This is the part I still fight with on small tight coils. I don't have a clean trick for you here. I just keep trying and so should you.
---
Before You Call It Done
- [ ] Does it sit the way I want when I hold it up?
- [ ] Does anything wiggle that shouldn't?
- [ ] Have I tried to quit in the last ten minutes?
That last one matters. The last twenty percent of a piece is where you learn the most and also where you most want to walk away and get a drink of water. Finish it anyway. An ugly finished piece will teach you more than a good idea you abandoned. I have a whole donated tackle box of ugly finished pieces to prove it. (They went to the DI run. I panicked a little on the drive over, honestly, thinking someone would buy one and take me seriously as a jeweler. I'm not one. I just kept going.)
---
Notes to Myself for Next Time
(This is the part I actually care about. Write it down now, not later. You will not remember what gauge worked by next Tuesday, and the dry air up here does nothing for anybody's memory.)
What worked: ______________________
What I'd change: ______________________
Gauge/length combo worth repeating: ______________________
---
One Last Box
- [ ] I am wearing or holding a finished piece I made with my own hands today.
That's the only box on this whole sheet that actually matters. Everything above it is just how you got there. ```
HandoutHandout 4: When It's Not Going Well (A Troubleshooting Guide)
Handout 4: When It's Not Going Well (A Troubleshooting Guide)
Every single thing on this list has happened to me, most of them more than once. None of it means you're bad at this. It means you're doing it. Here's what's probably wrong and what to do about it.
---
1. My loops look uneven or lopsided. This is almost always a tension problem, not a you problem. You're probably relaxing your grip partway through the wrap instead of holding steady. Slow down, and check that you're using the same spot on the round-nose pliers every time. I mark mine with a little scratch so I land in the same place. If you're using a different width of the jaw each time, your loops will be different sizes, and that's fine to notice, just adjust.
2. The wire keeps kinking or getting a weird bend I didn't put there. Wire remembers everything. Once it's kinked, it's kinked, you can't wrap it out. Cut past the kink and start that section again. I know it feels wasteful. Copper is cheap. Use more of it.
3. My wraps look messy and gappy instead of tight and even. Usually this means you're not pulling the wire snug against itself as you go. Feel free to use your fingers to press the wraps together as you work, don't just rely on the coil to sit right on its own. I feel like this is the single most common thing I fix when I sit down next to someone.
4. The stone won't sit still, it wiggles in the cage. Your base wires probably weren't snug against the stone before you started wrapping. Take it apart (yes, really) and re-set the stone tighter before you do the decorative wrapping. Trying to fix wiggle after the fact never works. Ask me how I know.
5. My wire keeps snapping. You've work-hardened it, which means you've bent that spot back and forth too many times and the metal's given up. Wire has a limited number of bends in it before it's done. Move to a fresh section, don't fight the same spot.
6. My spiral looks fine until the last curl, then it goes wonky. Almost everyone's does. The last curl is the hardest part of a spiral because there's no more wire behind it to brace against. Go slower right at the end, and don't be surprised if you need a few tries. I still have to concentrate hard on this part.
7. My tight coils and small "magic rings" are a mess. Okay, so, I want to be honest here: I still can't get these perfectly consistent myself. Tension on really small tight wraps is genuinely hard. What I do is wrap slightly looser than feels right and then squeeze the whole coil gently with flat pliers afterward to even it out. It's a workaround, not a fix. If you find a better way, tell me.
8. My two earrings don't match. Honestly, I don't think this is a problem. I like when a pair looks like two things made by the same hand instead of two things made by a machine. If it bothers you, keep better notes (gauge, length, number of wraps) so you can repeat yourself more exactly next time. But you don't have to chase perfect matching to call it done.
9. The wire looks dull or tarnished already and I just started. Copper does this fast, especially with the hard water around here getting on it while you work. A quick polish with a soft cloth at the end fixes most of it. Don't panic mid-project over tarnish, it wipes off.
10. I want to quit halfway through because it looks bad. This is the one I really mean: finish it anyway. The last part of a project, the part where it's going badly and you want to walk away, is where you actually learn something. An ugly finished piece teaches you more than a good idea you abandoned. Set it down, breathe, come back to it, but come back to it.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —so I told her, it's copper, it's a five dollar spool, nobody's going to arrest you for messing it up. And she still looked at me like I'd handed her a live wire. Which, fair, it's wire, but.
VALERIE: That's the thing though. People treat the first cut like it's permanent. It's not. I feel like that's the whole first fifteen minutes of week one, just getting people to believe they're allowed to mess it up.
JESS: Okay, for people listening who aren't in the room yet. This is Wire-Wrapped Jewelry Making, session one just wrapped, and I'm sitting here with Valerie, who teaches it. Valerie, tell them the thing you always tell me you're not.
VALERIE: I'm not a jeweler. I want to say that up front every time because I think it matters. I'm someone who does this. I'm self-taught, I learned off videos and a lot of ruined wire, and honestly I think that's an asset for a beginner class, not a liability. I'm not going to make anyone feel behind because I remember being behind.
JESS: How'd you even get into it, for people who don't know the story.
VALERIE: So my grandmother passed some years back, and then an aunt after her, and there was this storage unit that finally got sorted, the way these things do, way later than it should've been. And in a box of odds and ends there was this little twist of copper wire around a river stone. Nothing fancy. Obviously homemade. And nobody in the family could tell me who made it or why.
JESS: Nobody knew.
VALERIE: Nobody knew. And that bugged me more than it probably should have. I just wanted to understand the person who made it, so I started trying to figure out how it was done, and then I sort of never stopped. That stone's still on my workbench. It's the reason any of this happened.
JESS: I love that. Okay, give me one thing from tonight. Something for people listening who aren't taking the class, just so they walk away with something.
VALERIE: Sure. Honestly, the one thing I'd tell anybody starting on their own at home: buy decent round-nose pliers and let everything else be cheap. Your wire cutters, your cheap little kit, fine, doesn't matter much. But the pliers are what you're shaping with, they're touching every single loop you make, and a bad pair fights you the whole time. You'll think it's you. It's the pliers.
JESS: That's such a specific tip.
VALERIE: Well, I learned it the hard way, which is most of how I learn things.
JESS: Speaking of the hard way. You've got a story about a stone that never worked out, right? I feel like you've mentioned this and never finished it.
VALERIE: Oh, the green one. Yeah. I spent basically a whole summer trying to wrap this one stone, it was this odd asymmetrical shape, gorgeous color, and it just was not built for the wrap I wanted to put on it. And I would not quit. I redid it, I don't know, eight, nine times. Different gauge, different pattern, everything.
JESS: And?
VALERIE: And the stone won. I had to admit it. It's back on the windowsill now, unwrapped, just sitting there being pretty and unbothered by me. Which is fine. That's actually a good lesson for week one, honestly, that some stones tell you no, and you have to hear it eventually.
JESS: That's oddly comforting.
VALERIE: It's fine, though. It's fine. Nobody wraps every stone. I still think people should bring in rocks they found up the canyon rather than buying something perfect, by the way. The flaws hide better than you'd think, and the piece just means more when you picked it up yourself.
JESS: Okay, so for anyone listening who's on the fence about signing up, next session is what?
VALERIE: Next time we're doing our first actual pendant, start to finish, with copper, and I'm going to have people bring a stone from home if they've got one. Doesn't have to be nice. In fact I'd rather it wasn't. We'll go slow, I'll be down at the table with people, not up front lecturing at anybody. And everyone leaves with something in their hand, even if it's a little wobbly. That's kind of the whole deal for me.
JESS: I love it. All right, that's episode one. Come find Valerie's table if you want to see the green stone that got away.
VALERIE: It's a good stone. It just wasn't my stone to wrap.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —and I'm just saying, four hours is a long time for one pendant.
VALERIE: It is. And it looked like a bird's nest that gave up. I mean that's genuinely the best description I've ever come up with for it, and I've had years to work on it.
JESS: Okay, for people just joining us, welcome back to the podcast for the wire-wrapped jewelry class. I'm Jess, I produce this thing, I am not a wire person, and this is Valerie.
VALERIE: Hi.
JESS: Last episode we talked about how you got into this, the grandmother's stone, all of that. Today I want to know about the actual class. Like what happens in week two, once people have survived their first ugly pendant.
VALERIE: Week two is loops, mostly. Which sounds small but it's not. I feel like the loop is where everyone struggles, honestly, more than the wrapping itself. You'd think it's the fiddly wire-around-the-stone part that trips people up, and sometimes it does, but the loop at the top, the part that actually holds the jump ring so you can hang it on a chain, that's where I see the most frustration.
JESS: Why is that one harder?
VALERIE: Because it has to be round. Everything else can be a little wonky and still work, honestly, a little wonky is kind of the charm of it. But a loop that's egg-shaped instead of round, it doesn't sit right, the chain doesn't hang straight, and people get in their heads about it.
JESS: So what do you do.
VALERIE: I sit down next to them. I don't do the thing where I'm up at the front doing it and everyone's supposed to follow along from across the room. I go person to person, I do the loop right next to them, same time, same pace, and usually that helps more than any explanation does.
JESS: I want to ask about a specific story, because I think you told me about this once and it made me laugh.
VALERIE: Oh no.
JESS: The bracelets. For the girls' trip.
VALERIE: Right, okay, so my friend Alice talked me into making matching bracelets for this trip we were taking, years ago now, and I stayed up way too late the night before finishing them because I'd put it off, which I do, and I got the sizes slightly off. Not dramatically off. Just enough that if you looked closely you'd notice they weren't quite matched.
JESS: Did anyone notice.
VALERIE: Nobody said a thing. Everybody just wore them the whole trip. And I noticed that nobody noticed, if that makes sense, and it kind of got me thinking about how much I worry over precision that other people aren't even looking for.
JESS: That tracks with what you said last time, about not loving matched sets.
VALERIE: It does. I think two pieces that are close but not identical look more like a person made them, which, they did. I won't push that on anyone in class, some people really want their earrings to be twins and that's fine, but for me the slightly-off pair is the more honest object.
JESS: Okay, I want a practical tip. Something somebody listening at home, not even in the class, could actually use today.
VALERIE: Sure. If you're going to try wire wrapping at all, even just messing around, buy copper wire to practice with, not silver. It's cheap enough that you won't panic if you ruin six feet of it, and you will ruin some. And read the label on the spool before you start, twice, out loud if you have to. I once did an entire pair of earrings in the wrong gauge because I grabbed the wrong spool and didn't check, and the wire wouldn't hold the loop no matter what I did. I just hadn't looked.
JESS: Twice, out loud. I like that as a rule for basically everything, not just wire.
VALERIE: It's saved me more than once. Dry air up here does nothing for my memory either, so I write things down now too. Gauge, length, what worked. You will not remember later, I promise you.
JESS: Good tip. Okay, last thing, tell people what's coming in the next session so they know what to show up for.
VALERIE: Next time we're doing stone selection and the actual first full wrap, start to finish. I'm going to ask everyone to bring in a rock if they've got one, something they found, doesn't need to be pretty. I'd honestly rather someone bring a rock they picked up walking a trail up the canyon than go buy a perfect polished stone from a shop. It means more when it's not perfect. The flaws hide better than people think, too, once the wire's around it.
JESS: And if somebody doesn't have a rock.
VALERIE: I'll have a bowl of them. I always have a bowl of them.
JESS: All right. That's episode two. Thanks for listening, and Valerie, thank you.
VALERIE: Thanks for having me. Bring your rocks.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —and you're telling me you just left it there, on the windowsill, defeated by a rock.
VALERIE: I mean, the rock won. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Some stones are just the wrong shape for what you're trying to do and I spent a whole summer refusing to admit that about this one particular stone. Oval, kind of a lopsided oval, and I wanted this specific wrap on it that needed something more symmetrical. I redid it probably nine times.
JESS: Nine.
VALERIE: At least nine. And finally I just sat there and thought, honestly, this stone does not want to be this thing, and that's fine. It's back in the bowl. I see it every day. I feel like it keeps me humble.
JESS: Okay, so that's a nice segue actually, because today I wanted to ask you about something a little different. Not a mistake, a piece that mattered.
VALERIE: Oh. You mean the Woodruff one.
JESS: If you're comfortable talking about it.
VALERIE: Yeah, no, I can talk about it now, it took me a while though. So this was during a stretch where I was doing family history research, which is honestly how I got into all of this in the first place, the wire wrapping, not the family history. And I found this ancestor, a Woodruff, way back, and there was nothing on her. No letters, no photo, nothing anyone remembered. Just a name and two dates. Born, died. That's the whole record.
JESS: That's it?
VALERIE: That's it. And it bugged me the way things bug me, which is a lot, apparently, if you've listened to the last two episodes. So I made a small wrapped piece for her. Simple, nothing fancy, a little stone I'd had sitting around. And I didn't tell anyone why for a long time, because it felt sort of private, making something for a person I'll never know anything about. I'll never know what she'd have liked. I just wanted her to have something made, I guess, since nobody else ever did.
JESS: That's lovely, Valerie.
VALERIE: It's a little strange when I say it out loud. But I feel like that's kind of the whole thing about this hobby for me. You're making a physical object to hold a person, or a place, or a rock you picked up on a trail. It doesn't have to make sense to anybody else.
JESS: I don't think it's strange at all. Okay, switching gears slightly, because I know people listening might not be in the class and I want to give them something they can actually use today.
VALERIE: Sure, let's do a tip. Okay, here's one I give people on day one and I'll say it here too. When you're starting your wrap, do your steps in the order your hands actually need to do them, not the order you thought of them in your head. This is very much my day-job brain talking, I write technical documentation for work, and it's the same problem. People write instructions in the order they understood the concept, which is almost never the order you should physically execute it in.
JESS: Give me an example.
VALERIE: So with wire wrapping, people want to cut their wire to length first because that's the first thing that occurs to them, cut wire, right. But if you cut before you've test-wrapped the stone even loosely, you'll cut short almost every time, and then you're digging through your scrap pile mid-project feeling defeated. So the actual order is, hold the stone, wrap loosely with slack wire first, see how much you need, then cut with room to spare. Write that down, actually, in whatever order matches your hands. Keep a little notebook of gauge and length that worked for you, because you will not remember next time. Especially with our dry air out here, I don't know what it is, but I forget everything.
JESS: That's a genuinely useful tip for somebody who's never touched wire in their life.
VALERIE: I hope so. It's the same advice for basically anything you're learning with your hands, honestly.
JESS: Okay, last thing, tell people what's coming in the next session, because I know a few folks are on the fence about signing up partway through.
VALERIE: Next time we're doing the loop at the top of the pendant, which I feel like is where everyone struggles, myself included some days. We'll go slow. I'll sit down at tables and do it right alongside people instead of standing up front, because watching me do it fast from a distance doesn't help anybody, it just makes you feel like you're behind. We're also going to talk a little about matched sets versus not, because I have opinions there that I don't force on anyone, but I'll share them.
JESS: You will not force them.
VALERIE: I will mention them strongly and then let people make their own choices. That's as far as I go.
JESS: Fair enough. Bring your copper wire, folks, not your silver.
VALERIE: Please, not your silver. Copper first, always. Come ruin some copper with us.
Videos worth your time
Hand-picked by your instructor, with notes on what to watch for.
- Basic Wire Wrapped Pendant Tutorial (Great for Beginners!)Nolan McClelland
Follow the full start to finish process for a basic pendant so you understand the order of steps before trying your own.
- Wire Wrapping Tutorial- Simple Wire Wrapped Cabochon Pendant- Great For Beginners!Zurick Designs Jewelry and Art
Pay attention to how the stone gets trapped and secured with just round wire, since that's the trickiest part for newcomers.
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