Braided Wire Rings

1. Introduction: Hello, folks, Katrina here, and welcome back to another class. Here, I will be showing you how to create two braided and beaded rings. The overall design of these rings is the same, but the placement of the beads is different. I would recommend watching each video all the way through before going back to begin creating your jewelry. As you are creating your piece of jewelry, feel free to pause the video or go back if you need to. If you enjoy this class, which I hope you do, please rate it and if you create the rings, upload a picture of your project, I would love to see the beautiful jewelry that you make. Also check out the rest of my videos where I have many more wire jewelry tutorials for you. Let's jump into the video and start creating these braided and baited rings. 2. Braided Ring: centered bead design: Let's begin creating this braided and beaded ring. For this ring, I chose a silver plated copper wire in 20 gauge. Next, we have a ring mandle and I chose a size seven. We will also use a file and a ruler. Then we have our two millimeter seed beads. Pliers, we have plastic coated pliers, flush cutters, chain nopliers, and round nose pliers. After straightening out a length of wire with our plastic coated players, we're going to place it onto a ruler at 5.5 ". This is about how much wire I will be using for size seven ring. Holding the wire at that 5.5 inch mark, I'm going to bend it over and crease the wire. Draw on our fingers down the wire, so it is straightened, we will take our wire cutters and snip off the wire flush to that first end. Taking out another length of wire, we're going to place it on the ruler and measure to that 5.5 inch mark. We're going to bein this wire in the same manner as the first one. But this time for the long end of wire that is attached to our spool, we're going to trim it short to about inch and a half long. We are now going to take both ends of the wire and pull them apart to tighten up that bend in the wire. We are going to do this with both pieces of wire. Placing our wire into the round nose pliers, we're going to pull the ends apart to tighten up that loop and then bring the long ends of the wire down so that they are more aligned underneath that loop. Place both wires onto your roundnse pliers with the wire that has the short tail on top of the other. We are going to use this short end of the wire to wrap the other three. Draw the short end of the wire up close to the round noose pliers to create a tight loop and then begin wrapping the other three wires with this short end. Wrapping the wire with our fingers, we are going to go around about two or three times. When we come towards the end of the wire, we're going to grab our flat nose players to finish securing the end of the wire. Holding the wire in our round nose players helps us keep a secure grip while we tighten it down with the other hand. Tighten this wrap securely, not only pressing the wrap together, but squeezing the spiral as well so that there are no gaps. With this loop secured, we can now begin braiding by crossing the right side, outside strand, into the center, then taking the opposite left outside strand into the center. Then again, taking the right outside strand, crossing it over into the center of the braid. This wire that it is now in the center of our braid is what we will be adding our beads to. After adding the bead, we are going to take the left outside piece and cross it over into the center of the braid. Then we are going to take the right outside piece and cross it over into the center of the braid. This outside piece has become the piece, and this is what we will be adding our bead onto. The way I'm holding the wire here, the bottom outside piece crosses into the center, and this is what we add the bead onto every time. After adding the bead, we cross that top wire that's on the outside down over to the center, and then bring the bottom outside piece up to the where we add our bead. Continuing this simple pattern all the way until the ring is as long as you need for the size that you are making. When the braid is as long as you need it and you have added your last bead, we're going to cross the wires once more just to keep that bead from sliding off. If you need to, you can use your flat nose pliers to adjust the wire so that they are center underneath the braid. Choose one of the wires that looks like it will best wrap around the other two. You're going to wrap this wire all the way around one time. These two center wires we are now going to draw down through the loop that we created at the very beginning. This is going to bend our ring all out of shape, but don't worry about that because we're going to fix it at the end with the ring madule. After placing both wires through the loop, we are going to draw each end out opposite sides of the ring. Work the wire into the loop until it is all the way through and both ends of the ring are meeting each other. Place the ring on the mandle to not only fix the shape, but to pull the ends of the wire to make sure that the ring is the size we want. Having drawn the ends of the wire up to create a small loop, we're then going to tram the excess wire. Using our flat nose pliers, we're going to pinch those ends of wire together underneath the ring. Having turned the ring to the side, we are going to use the flat nose pliers to tighten down and press those ends against the ring. With these secured, we will now take this last length of wire and wrap it tightly around those ends of wire. As you wrap the wire ad, use your flat noose pliers to tighten it so that the wrap is secure. Once this wrap has reached the loop on the other side of the ring, we will snip off the excess wire. Grabbing our flattens pliers, we are going to secure that end of the wire into the ring, making sure that it is well hidden. Switching to our plastic coat of pliers, we're going to tighten down the ring overall. Lastly, we're going to pop the ring back onto the ring mandrole to make sure that it has that circular shape. That's it. You finished the ring. Thanks for watching and I hope to see you in the next video. 3. Braided Ring: crown design: Will break this ring in the same manner, but add the beads to a different wire. We're going to be using a 20 gauge silver plated copper wire. Next, we need a ring mandrel of some sort, and I chose this one in a size seven. We also have a file and a ruler. Of course, two millimeter seat beads in the color of your choice. We have our plastic coated pliers, flush cutters, chain nose pliers, and round nose pliers. Now let's hop into making the ring itself. Holding the length of wire, we are going to straighten it with our plastic coated pliers. You will need more or less wire depending on what size you want the final ring to be. For the size seven ring that I'm making, I'm using about 5.5 " of wire. Holding my thumb tightly at the 5.5 inch mark, I'm going to bend the wire, creating a crease in the wire. Folding the wire down, I'm going to grab my wire cutters and trim off the length of wire, so that is even with the first. Point out another length of wire. You're going to line the tips up with the wire that we just cut and then bring the long end of the wire down to the crease or bend in the wire that we just created and line up the wire there. You're just going to imitate and copy that crease by pinching the wire with our fingers and bending the wire down and around to match that first crease. Don't stress over making this bin perfect because we will come back and adjust it slightly with our pliers in a moment. Checking the ends of the wire to make sure that they are all lined up. You're going to take the long end of the wire that's still attached to the spool, and we're going to trim it to about an inch and a half. Using our wire cutters, we're going to trim this to about an inch and a half or 2 " at the most. Using our roundness pliers, we're going to place the wire into the pliers to begin creating a loop. Holding it securely in the pyres, we're going to separate the ends of the wire so as to tighten it against the pyres. I place the wire that has the short tail on top of the other. Now we can tighten down the second wire, the one with a short tail so that it matches the first wire. Now we are going to take that short end of the wire and begin wrapping it around the other three wires. This doesn't need to be very long. I only went around about three times, but you do want to make sure that you wrap it tightly as it will hold the rest of the wires securely when we begin braiding it later. Once we have finished the wrap, we are going to snip off the excess wire with the wire cutters. Using the flats piers, we are going to tighten that end down, making sure that it doesn't stack out. Now we are going to begin braiding the wire. This is just a basic three strand braid, where we take the outside wire and place it in between the other two wires, and then take the opposite outside wire and place it between the other two. Following this pattern, we can now begin adding beads onto the wire. Find your outside wire and add a bead onto it. Having added the bead, we will bring that wire into the center of the other two, and then take our opposite outside wire and cross it over to create a stitch of braid. Now we're going to take another bead and add it to the outside wire. After adding the bead, we are then going to braid the wire, crossing it up into the center, and then bringing the opposite wire from the top down. Repeating this pattern, we are going to only add beads onto the outside wire in the position that I'm holding it here is the bottom wire. Now, we're just going to continue this braiding pattern, adding the beads only to the bottom wire, and then braiding the wire, adding another bead, braiding the wire. Continue this until the ring is as long as we need for the size that we are making. Once our braided wire is the length we need to wrap all the way around our ring mandle, we can then begin to secure the end of the wire. Holding the wire tightly onto the ring mandul, you can see if you need to braid more or maybe undo some of the braid like I do here. I need to remove this bead so that it's not in the way so I can finish off the ring. Next step, we are going to prepare the wires so that we can close off the ring. First, we need to find the center wire and pull that down out of the way. Because I had to unbrad some of the wire, I now need to straighten it and flatten it back down using either my needle nose pliers or I could also use the plastic coated pliers. With the wire all straight, we will take the center wire that one that we bent down out of the way, and we're going to use it to wrap it around the other two wires. Holding the two wires closely together, we will wrap them with the third wire. Then using our flattens players, we are going to tighten the wrap as we go. Tightening the wire with our pliers, and then wrapping it again and then tightening it with the pliers. Turning the ring, we want to tighten that spiral from the side so that there are no gaps in the wire. Using our wire snips or wire cutters, we're going to trim off the excess wire. Switching back to the flattens pliers, we're going to crimp down the end. Now we're going to read these other two wires down through the loop that we created at the very beginning. This may make your ring bend way out of shape, but don't worry about that because we'll go back and place it on the ring mande when we are done securing the wire. Continue working the wire into the loop until you have it all the way through. Once we have all of the wire through the loop, we're going to take one wire and thread it back through to the opposite side of the ring so that we have a wire on each side of the ring. Taking one end of the wire, we are going to pull it back over itself, bending it tightly to create a loop. Repeat this with the wire on the other side of the ring. With these wires bent up, creating that loop that secures both ends of the ring together, we'll place the ring back onto the ring made. Using a pair of pliers, I press the ring back into shape. Crossing each end of the wire back through the ring, we are then going to grab our wire cutters and trim off the wire close to the ring. After we've trimmed the wire, we're going to switch back to our flat nose pliers and flatten down and tighten the ends of wire. Take care to make sure both ends of the wire are pressed tightly up into the wrap of the ring so that nothing catches on your finger when you wear it. Now that the ring is secure, we can go back and correct the shape. I also like to take the plastic coated pliers and press the ring just all around in general to make sure that everything is tightened together. Next, we're going to grab the file and test if there's any ends of wire that are sticking out, we're going to just smooth those down to make sure everything is rounded over, and nothing will snag on our skin. As a final check, we can place the ring back onto a ring madule and make sure that it is circular. Well done on creating this braided and beaded ring. Thanks for watching and I'll catch you in the next video.