If you need to make curves, bends, loops or rings in different sizes, the Stepped Bail Making Pliers are for you! In this episode of Facebook Live, Wyatt White showed how to make a gorgeous bail, several different shapes of connectors, hooks, and rings out of both Round and Flat Artistic Wire.
Stepped Bail Making Pliers make 6 different loop sizes: 9 mm (0.35 in), 8 mm (0.31 in), 6 mm (0.23 in), 5 mm (0.2 in), 3 mm (0.12), and 2 mm (0.08 in). By just moving your wire to a different size on the jaw, you can vary your design and create all kinds of components. Join them together with Jump Rings made on one of the larger sizes for custom chains!
As always, Wyatt's video is filled with tips and great advice for working with Wire. For example, when he uses thicker Artistic Wire, he recommends the 12 and 14 Gauge Cup Burr attachment for the Battery Operated Bead Reamer as a great tool to round off those sharp ends.
Wyatt broke down two amazing projects using the Stepped Bail Making Pliers!
1. Simple bail for a large bead
Materials: 14 gauge Artistic Wire, 5mm Flat Artistic Wire
- Cut a 10 inch piece of 14 Gauge Artistic Wire
- Bend it in the center so that both sides are even
- Figure out how long you want the top to be - leave about 2 inches to make the bail
- Take a leg and bend it at just shy of a 90 degree angle
- Bend the other side to match
- Use your Stepped Bail Making Pliers to bend the legs back in to start forming the "shoulder" of the wire around the bend of the bead
- Snip the ends of the wires so that when you thread them through the bead hole they will meet in the middle and thread them through the bead
- Make a sleeve with a .5 inch of 5mm Flat Artistic Wire
- Bend, squeeze and cut until it is the size and shape you need
- Slip the sleeve over the top of the bail to hold the two sides together and capture the bead in place
- Use a Nylon Jaw Pliers to tighten the sleeve around the wires
- Use the Stepped Bail Making Pliers to make the bail
- Grasp the top and make a gentle bend away from you
- Grasp the wires under the bend and roll it back toward you into a bail
- Adjust as you desire to finish your design
2. Simple Hook
Materials: 12 Gauge Artistic Wire
- Cut the end of the wire with Flush Cutters and use the 12 and 14 Gauge Cup Burr Attachment for the Battery Operated Bead Reamer to round the end
- Grasp the end of the Wire in the middle part of the pliers and bend the top away from you
- Grasp the wire just below the bend and bend it away from you
- Grasp the Wire about an inch from the bend with one of the smallest loops and bend the wire around to form a loop
- Cut off the excess wire and use Nylon Jaw Pliers to tweak the ring into place
Wyatt truly is a wizard with the Wire Working!
Happy Beading!
Meredith
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