Materials
- Rubber mallet or plastic mallet or rawhide mallet
- Chain nose pliers
- Cup burr
- Flush cutters
- Plastic ring mandrel or metal ring mandrel
- One 6 to 8mm bead
- One 21” of 22g wire or 20g wire
Step 1. Slide the bead into the wire
Choose one 6mm or 8mm bead to be used as the ring. After you get your desired bead, slide the bead into the wire. Check to see that the bead is positioned at the wire center. The bead used in this project is the garnet bead sized 6mm. You can use either faceted bead or round bead.
Step 2. Choose the size of the ring
Place the wired bead onto the ring mandrel. Take one size larger than the actual ring size. Let’s say, if you intend 5 sized ring, then you put the wired bead onto 6 sized mandrel.
Step 3. Bind the wire circling the mandrel
Bind the wire carefully for about three or four times circling the mandrel. In this project, the wire is wrapped four times; two times above the bead and two times below the bead.
Step 4. Collect the wire beneath the bead
After finishing the wire binding, then collect all the wires much closer into the bead. Do this slowly to maintain the shape of the ring.
Step 5. Bind the bead
Take the ends of the wire and use these ends to bind the bead with counter-clockwise direction. Each bind needs to go beneath the previous bind. When you are binding the wire, maintain the tension at both wires. You can bind the bead three or four times.
Step 6. Loop the bead wire
Take the ring away from the mandrel. When the ring is removed, you need to have two wires facing in opposite directions; one wire is up and one wire is down. Make some adjustments so that the wires are like the picture. Start with the wire end facing up. Bind this wire down and pass the one ring band side. Do the same step for both wires.
Step 7. Finish the left loop
Pull the end of the left wire up with the nose pliers after each loop. When you have looped the wires three or four times, you have finished making your ring band. Make sure that the loops are tight. You can push the loops together using the pliers.
Step 8. Finish the right loop
After the left side is finished, repeat step #7 to finish the right side. What you need to know is that if you loop the ring more than four times, then the ring will be much smaller. Or, the more the loop, the smaller the ring.
Step 9. Smooth down the band
Put the ring back to the mandrel. Use the plastic mandrel for this step as it won’t scrape the finish. Drag the ring down so that the band will be neat and the overlapping wires will be straightened out. Make sure that each wire is neatly next to one and another.
Step 10. Finish the ends
For the remaining wire ends, trim them off and encircle the ends using the cup burr. Press the ends down to make them not sticking up.
Step 11. Form the band
Smooth down the band for the last time. Fix the shape using mandrel. Don’t forget to flatten the wires to maintain its form.
