Saturday, May 22, 2010

My Inner Ringo

Today my friend JennyB showed us how to make wire wrapped rings.  I like this technique, as no ring blank is necessary.  All you need is some wire, a nice (preferably) flat bead, and a gizmo called a mandrill mandrel, which allows you to size the ring properly.  (Duh!  Just edited my spelling....isn't a mandrill a baboon??)
I don't have a mandrel here at home, so no photo, but it is a tapered rod with lines and numbers corresponding to ring sizes.  After you string the bead or beads on the wire, you center them and hold the bead over the correct size on the mandrel and then begin the wrapping process, bringing one end of the wire up one way, and the other end up around the other side of the bead.  You finish it off by sliding the ring off the mandrel and wrapping the wire tightly a few times on either side of the bead to hold everything in place.

Very hard to describe in words, and I'm sure there's a video tutorial somewhere here in cyberland.  I did one with silver wire, one with gold, and one with a gorgeous chocolate brown wire.
Is this too much?

10 comments:

Elaine A said...

Not too much Eileen - just perfect! I love how your rings came out - really sweet looking!

Elaine Allen

Kerry said...

I love it Eileen! That's exactly what I saw a while ago and got me interested in wire wrapping jewelry! I've been putting off buying a mandrill -guess I will, Thanks so much for sharing. I will need a video! LOL! Kerry P.

Dorothy said...

Those are great Eileen!

Lori said...

I don't think it's too much, but if you want to get rid of one, I'll take the brown one, lol. Looks like a really cool technique, lots of possibilities here....they turned out fabulous, you should be proud of your first attempt!

Anonymous said...

These rings are absolutely stunning.

Anonymous said...

ROFL........Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh maybe all at once!!! LOL But I LOVE the rings.....they are AWESOME!!!

Sandi M said...

Never too much! Those look fun to make, very cool looking!

Angie Hall Haviland said...

Now that's a hand full of BLING!!! They all look great!! Makes me want to get out my mandrel, beads and wire!! :)

Barbara Mason said...

Neva too much dahling!!! Very cool-I want to learn!!!

Patzee said...

Eileen, no, the rings are not too much, for a gal in the big city! Fashion? Weapon? Whatever they are, they are quite lovely!! (Just don't let that Mandrill get out of the zoo!)