Jewelry Lovers

Necklaces

Another use for twisted wire is to make it into links for a necklace. An interesting range of permutations for these can be achieved, as the examples indicate. The necklaces make use of beads which can be bought, or made from clay, and links from silver tubing. This tubing comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. It is usually bought in 2.5cm (lin) lengths and is sawn easily into slices.

The necklace with the green beads uses two sizes of square tubing and is excellent practice for soldering very small links. The twist links are made of two different thicknesses of wire. The necklace is 57cm (2211n) long.

First take 35cm (14in) of both the 0.7mm (gauge 21-22) and 1.6m (gauge 14-16) silver wire, anneal and straighten.

Using the drill and clamp, twist the two pieces of wire together. Keep a lot of pressure on the wire to make sure that the thick wire bends around the thin one to the same degree as the thin does around the thick.

Saw the twisted wire into six even pieces about 3m (1 kin)long. Straighten the pieces with your fingers and file the ends flat.

Now cut the tube. Make sure that one end is square by filing it flat. Begin with the larger piece of tubing.

Take a pair of dividers and spread the points 2.5cm (lin) apart. With one point touching the flat end of the tube, scratch a line 2.5cm (lin) up the tube with the other point. Make sure the line goes all the way around the tube.

Continue marking off 2.5cm (lin) sections on the tube until it is divided into six sections.

With the piercing saw, carefully cut off the sections, making sure that the saw is not going crooked by checking with the lines on the sides of the tube.

Set the pair of dividers at 4mm (Ain) and mark off these lengths on the short, thicker piece of tubing.

Cut off these sections. You may find that you have to hold the tubing in a pair of pliers to get a proper grip when sawing.

You will now need to make 18 small jump rings, about 3mm (kin) in diameter. These are made by annealing 11.5cm (4 kin) of the 0.7mm (gauge 21-22) wire and then winding it around a dowel or knitting needle.

Slide the coil of wire to the end of dowel and cut through one side of the wire, pushing the wire to the end of the dowel as each link is separated. One of these jump rings must be soldered to each end of the twisted wire links.

Take 12 jump rings, make sure they are quite round and file the ends so that they join as closely as possible.

File the wire flat at the join so that it is half its original thickness. Do this to all 12 jump rings.

Put all the twisted wire links and prepared jump rings on the asbestos mat. The flattened side of the jump rings must be pressed close to the flat ends of the twisted pieces.

Borax all the places to be joined and put a small piece of medium solder on each join. Heat until solder runs, allow to cool and then pickle. You will be left with six twisted wire links with jump rings soldered on each end.

The remaining jump rings must be soldered to the large square links. First open up the jump rings and file the ends to an angle of 45 °, to ensure they will sit snugly on the corners of the link . When soldering the jump rings into position on the 10mm ($in) square silver tubing, the jump rings will have to be raised a little to be half way up the thickness of the tube. To do this, place a thin piece of asbestos underneath the jump rings so that they are at the right height for soldering.

The beads and the small square tubing are then strung on the rest of the 0.7mm (gauge 21-22) wire. Loops are made at each end and turned over with pliers so that the loose end can be tucked back against the bead. Do not solder these as the heat would crack the bead and melt the thin tubing. Polish all parts of the necklace separately with tripoli, then jeweler’s rouge on a soft cloth. As there should not be any scratches on the silver this polishing should be sufficient.

Now join all the pieces together. Open the unsoldered links, i.e. those through the beads and small square tubing, and thread the fixed jump rings onto them. The sequence is bead, thin square tubing, twisted wire link, bead, large square link, bead, twisted wire link, thin square tubing and then back to the bead and repeat the procedure.

A final polish with a soft cloth and the necklace is finished. There is no fastening as it should be large enough to slip over your head.

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Twisted silver wire jewelry part 3