Tutorial: Simple Loops

For this first tutorial, we’re going to be starting at the very beginning with wire wrapping–we’re going to learn how to make simple loops.

Don’t let the name fool you–simple loops will do a lot of heavy lifting for you in the world of making jewelry, especially when you’re starting out. Once you learn this technique, you can make dangles to hang from earrings, charms for bracelets, or even a chain of beads. You’ve probably seen this last technique before; the other name for simple loops is “rosary style loops” (or links), as it’s the practice by which jewelers create rosaries.

To start out, you’re going to need a good set of tools. Starting at the bottom left corner of this picture, you can see my chain nose pliers, wire cutters, and round nose (or rosary) pliers. Take a good look at the black wire cutters–these aren’t actually recommended for wirework. Their intended use is to cut soft beading wire, like Softflex or Beadalon, that will be crimped. However, these wire cutters get very close to the wire, so I’ve dedicated the pair to my wirework. If you string and work with wire, you’ll want to be careful about using these cutters on hard wire–the wire will eat into the pliers with time, dulling them.

Next, you’re going to need a headpin and the bead of your choice. As you can see, I’ve curled the bottom of my headpin into a spiral–I’ll dedicate a later tutorial to different ways of creating your own headpins. For now, a regular headpin is just fine.

Place the bead onto the headpin, and then grasp the bead at the bottom, between your thumb and forefinger.

Use your forefinger to push over the headpin that’s exiting the top of the bead. You want to push the wire straight over, as close to the bead as possible.

Grab your wire cutters and trim the bent wire to about 1/4 of an inch long. Notice in this picture how I’m holding the cutters so that the flat end is against the piece of wire that I want to keep.

Now it’s time to pick up the round nose pliers. Holding your bead & headpin as shown earlier, between the thumb and forefinger of your left (or less dominant) hand, use the pliers to grasp the end of the wire, making sure that there’s no excess wire leaving the right side of the pliers (any wire left on the right side of the pliers won’t turn, making our loop kind of bumpy). Notice how the pliers are graduated? This means that if you grab the wire at the very small tip, you’ll end up with a teeny tiny loop; if you grab the wire too far down, you’ll make a massive loop. You’ll have to work a bit to find the space that works best for you, but hopefully you can judge from the picture how far down the headpin rests in the pliers.

Curl your wrist over so that the wire forms a loop over the top of the bead. If you’re right handed, you’re holding the bead in your left hand and the pliers in your right. You’re going to curl your wrist up and over, counterclockwise, until you can’t move anymore. This will probably only get about half of the loop completed–that’s fine! (There’s a way to do this so that you can finish the whole loop in one fell swoop, but it was impossible for me to photograph by myself–that’s a picture for another day). Once you can’t move your wrist anymore, remove the pliers and reinsert them so that the bottom jaw of the pliers is inside the loop (see the above picture).

The finished product. Both ends of the wire meet, forming a round loop. Yay! We’re done!

But wait… what do we do with this now?

Use your chain nose pliers (I knew I photographed them for a reason!) to grasp the cut end of the loop, and pull up firmly. This is the same technique that you use to open jump rings–you never want to pull the loop out, as that will weaken the metal and change the nice round shape of the loop. Slide the opened loop over a link in chain, an earwire, or another closed simple loop, and then use the pliers to push the wire back until it meets the other half of its loop.

So why didn’t we just form that loop around whatever we wanted to hook it to? Well, it’s difficult to do that–and it almost never creates a perfectly round loop in the end. It’s much easier to make the loop and then open it with your chain nose pliers (which do not mar the wire the same way that the round nose pliers would).

A few last tips–always use heavier gauge wire with simple loops. You’d probably be all right with 22 gauge, but I like to use 20 for all of my simple loops, especially if the beads are heavy (if they’re really heavy, I’d probably use a wire wrapped loop instead of a simple loop, but that’s another tutorial for a different day). If you want to make a chain out of these loops, use a piece of thick wire or cut the head off of a headpin. Use pliers to turn the wire over so that you have an inverted L–1/4″ of wire on top, and the rest of the wire at the bottom. Use round nose pliers to make your loop. Slide the bead onto the leftover wire, and follow these directions to make your second loop.

Enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions or problems with this tutorial–and certainly show me some jewelry if this inspires you to try something new!