Tips for Making Jewelry Wire Work Links for Polymer Clay Disc Beads

"Would love to see the wire working how-to." ~Joyce-M

Polymer clay disc beads are often drilled though the center. This can pose some challenges in how to string them. One way to deal with this design challenge, is to use wire to create a link.

For the disc bead shown in the photo above, I used a length of 20 gauge black steel wire obtained from the hardware store. It is the kind of wire that a guy might have in his shop for fixing the fence or cinching together a big bundle of sticks or something. You know the super handy stuff that is inexpensive and comes on a small spool at the hardware store.

A while back, I wrote an article about creative shopping at hardware stores like Home Depot. You can read it here: Cheap Jewelry Making Supplies

When making a wire wrapped link with a loop on each side (like the one in the photo above), keep the following tips in mind:

• Use a long enough piece of wire so that you can create the loops as well the wraps, with lots of wire left over. This will make it easier to get nice tight and even wraps. Plus it will make it so that you end up with the same number of wraps on each side. The excess wire can be trimmed once you are finished wrapping.
• Slide the bead to the center of your cut piece of wire length, and use round nose pliers to make the loops on each side before making the tight wraps. Then make a wrap or two on one side and then do the same on the other. Keep switching from side to side when wrapping. This will ensure that both sides have an even number of wraps and that the bead is centered. Then trim off the wire tails with a flush cutter as close as possible and tuck in the ends with your flat nose pliers. This is way easier than wrapping one side and then trying to match the other side. Trust me… I've had problems with this!

I will show you how to make a few different types of wraps in a video tutorial since so many of you expressed an interest in this topic. What are some other ways that you have come up with for stringing your polymer clay disc beads?