How To Make Wire Wrapped Ammonite Jewelry

Today, we're turning this polished ammonite into a beautiful necklace. So to make this necklace, the first thing you will need is something to wire wrap and I have this ammonite.This one is about an inch and three quarters across but you can wire wrap any kind of stone that you have.Yyou'll need some wire. In part two of the video, I'll show you the beads and the accent materials. This is just 20 gauge dead soft wire.

You'll need a number of tools, some bail making pliers, Chain-nosed pliers, wire cutters, nylon jaw pliers, round-nosed pliers, and a Sharpie will be helpful. You are wrapping and it just doesn't have to be an ammonite. It can be any kind of stone.

And I found that this is easiest done with just a scrap of fine gauge. This is probably 26 gauge wire and I'm just going to start up here and will probably have this kind of curve into that bend a little bit. And then just wrap all the way around the edge of your piece. And then add about six inches to the end, four to six inches, and that will give you the measurement for the wire that you'll need for wrapping. And the first step is just to make a few wraps around your bundle of three wires with your shorter wire and this will do all the wraps by the way.

And you can use chain-nosed pliers to not only squish those coils together if they're apart but also to flatten those wire ends. Then just shape your wire a little bit. You kind of use your fingers and curve it to the same shape as your pieces to be wrapped and determine where you want your other wraps. Now they will slide around a little bit until we secure. So then take the rest of your wire, your shorter piece and go ahead and make the same number of wraps at each of those spots. So here we are with the wrapping began and now you just need to pull out two of the wires. The way this works is one wire traps the front, one wire traps the back, and one wire stays along the edge.

Now for this bit, I like to just take the edge of my bail making pliers and just kind of shape that curve and just keep messing with it and push those six ends up so that they're at a 90 degree angle because this will be part of your bail and also your wrapping and what this will hang from. And you can take your round-nosed pliers if you want to and just kind of shape these pieces a bit more and get the back as well. And next find the next three longest wires and I'm going to wrap those around the seven millimeter loop on my bail making pliers. I think having three pieces of wire on the bail looks nice but you can do less if you want. You can do one or two.

And then go ahead and pop your ammonite out from it so that you can finish the wrapping, the loop on this bail because it's in the way otherwise. And then just go ahead and wrap those so that they finish the loop and then grab the ends right below that loop and bend them all down to a 90 degree angle. Now we'll get this all held together. So pop your ammonite back in there, make sure it's seated just the way you want it and then hold all these wires together, kind of pinch them all together a little bit and then take this longest wire that you would set aside. And I found this is best done by holding the end with a pair of chain-nosed pliers so you can do some nice, firm wraps because there's a lot here to bind together. You want them all to be even and round. These wires that are the ends of that bail. I'm just bending up so that nothing slips.

Take your chain-nosed or your round-nosed pliers and give the wire a bit of a twist and that will definitely secure it in there. And then repeat on the front. And give it as much of a twist as you likeOne more time. Straighten your bail wires and now these last few wires that are left hanging you can just take your round-nosed pliers and make little spirals and loops as decoration. When you make a spiral you start with the very tips of your round-nosed pliers and get the smallest possible loop and then switch to chain-nosed pliers to continue curling that loop around. So then after much fiddling about I finally am satisfied with my bail and my loops and ready to make this into a necklace which I will show you in part two.