Why We Love This Tutorial:
This tutorial demonstrates just one of the ways that you can use wire (instead of a pinch bail) to create a bail for front drilled pendants. The necklace is a simply strung, long necklace using tiny size 15/0 seed beads as spacers (as opposed to knotting – which of course you could do instead, we recommended size 0.8mm nylon if knotting). We’ve used some of our always-beautiful natural jasper beads for this necklace, specifically matte Red Vein Jasper and Scenery Jasper. We’ve also used one of these gorgeous little Silver Leaf Jasper pendants. As usual, we have many other gemstone pendants available and so many 8mm round gemstone beads to choose from, so you could make whatever colour combination you like!
Beads and Materials You’ll Need:
- 20x Matte Red Vein Agate Round Beads 8mm
- 20x Scenery Jasper 8mm Round Beads
- 30x Matte Black Onyx Round Beads 8mm
- Size 15/0 Seed Beads. Choose a colour to match – we used pearlised cream seed beads.
- Gemstone Pendant (we’ve used a Silver Leaf Jasper pendant. Please note, our range of pendants changes constantly, so if this pendant is no longer available, any front drilled pendant will work just fine).
- 20 gauge wire. We’ve used tarnish resistant silver.
- Clasp of your choice
- 4x Crimps
- Tiger Tail (we used 0.3mm)
Tools You’ll Need:
- Flat Nose pliers
- Round Nose pliers
- Flush Cutters
- Scissors (for cutting tiger tail – never use pliers for this!)
Method:
- Take approx. 60cm of 20ga wire and thread through the hole on your pendant. Leave a small tail of about 5cm out one side, with the majority of the wire out the other side.
- Take the small tail and wrap it 2-3 times around the base of the long wire.
- Trim the tail using flush cutters.
- Using round nose pliers, take the long wire and form a wrapped loop. However, rather than just wrapping 2-3 times, continue wrapping your way down the stone.
- Now, depending on how large you would like your swirl, you will need to trim the long wire. I cut this one down to 10cm. This stone is quite small at 40x25mm, so if you have a bigger pendant and want a bigger swirl, cut your wire a little longer. Take your round nose pliers and form a loop to start to swirl.
- After you have starting the swirl, you will need to change over the flat nose pliers to continue coiling the swirl.
- Coil the swirl right up to the pendant. Then using your fingers, push the swirl flat against the pendant.
- In terms of the necklace, it’s pretty easy! Simply string all of your beads onto the tigertail in your desired pattern, using a 15/0 seed bead as a spacer between each bead. Don’t forget to add the pendant when you get to the middle point!
- Finish off your necklace using crimps and the clasp of your choice.
- And that’s it! Super simple
