2013 LINDA ASPENSON BERGSTROM

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1 Tutorial: PRISMS AND WIRE Created by Linda Aspenson Bergtrom This particular prism is a former chandelier prism I found at an antique store. Any prisms or spears will work with this, you may need to scale down the wire length or bump it up, but that is easy enough! A little wire wrapping and a little fun make a fantastic pendant! Any metals! Try this with spear shaped stones too! Easy, no previous wire wrapping experience needed. It s all taught here. Just have fun with this. The variations are endless. Materials: Prism. (mine is 3 inches long, you can use any) side drilled is easiest. Size 10 seed beads or 3-5 mm round beads, the number depending on your design. 5mm pearl or other stone is optional gauge wire, dead soft or half hard, 36 of 24 or 28 gauge wire for wrapping. Tools: Wire cutter Round or needle nose pliers ruler Step 1: Cut 24 Inches of 20 gauge wire (you can use 21 or higher depending on the size of your prism. Larger, larger wire, etc., and 36 inches of 24 or 28 gauge wire. (It really depends on the length of your piece as to how much wire you will need, this is for a 3 inch prism) You may end up with some scrap, but if so, save it! PLEASE READ ENTIRE TUTORIAL BEFORE STARTING. I AM AVAILABE FOR QUESTIONS VIA JEWELRY LESSONS ONLY THROUGH PRIVATE MESSAGES, BUT AM HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS. THANK YOU. 1

2 Step 2: In the middle of your twenty four inches of wire, make a mark and then make a loop like this (around a pen, tool, etc) You want just what you see here, not a full circle. Half circle. Make it the size you want it to be. This is your bail. Step 3: On the vintage prisms for a chandelier, you see I have an L shape hole. This presents a few problems, easily tackled; however I am fairly sure you are using a side drilled prism. IF you are using an vintage prism with an L shaped hole, make a curl at the end of your 24 gauge wire and feed it through, it will go through! You will need to grab the end and pull it through with a pliers, but it ll work! Step 4: The U shape we made in step 2. I have started with the midpoint of my wrapping wire and wound it around the shape. (this can be as large or small as you like) Tails out either side. Step 5: I then fit it to my prism. You see here I have an arrow in the spot I had to go through with my wrapping wire (L shape) You will most like have a side drill but the idea is the same. This shouldn t give you any problems. 2

3 Step 6: Coming out the side, I wrap that wire around the 24 gauge at LEAST One time to hole it. Step 7: IF you have a side drilled, do the step 6 on the other side of the bail piece. If you have an L drilled prism, go around the prism with the wire your just used to hold the 20 gauge and take it to the other side where the other half of the bail is. Step 8: Wrap it around that 20 gauge piece just as you did in step 6. Then take the 20 gauge and wrap that around the top of the prism as many times as you like. (I normally wrap around 5 or 6 times) You have to keep a tight pull on this as you wind it around, and pull on it again later to keep it tight. We ll get to that. 3

4 Step 9: Here I am taking my 3mm copper beads and loading the wrapping wire with enough to go all the way around the top of the prism. This is one place you will be able to change via beads, plain wire, as you do more of these, and change up the look. Step 10: All the way around with the beads on the wrapping wire. Gives a nice finished look to the top. You will then take the wrapping wire from the opposite side, bring it around the back of the prism and then make a loop up and down behind your beads to hold them secure. Your two sides of the wrapping wire should now be on the same side. Step 11: Give the wire that is part of what you wound around the top of the prism a tight pull making sure it s a good fit, nice and snug. Both of your 24 or 28 gauge wires (wrapping wire) should now be on the same side.(b) Bring the two 20 gauge wires (A) up together as you see in the photo. 4

5 Step 12: Use the wrapping wires (B in above photo) and wrap around the 20 gauge pieces as you see here. As many times as you like is fine. I do 3 or 4 times normally. Step 13: If you are familiar with wire wrapping I invite you to do this any way you want. However the way I m doing it here is by taking one piece of wrapping wire and coiling it around one of the 20 gauge wires. And inch to 1.5 is a good length to do this. Step 14: I am then going to wrap 3 times around the opposite wire, go behind and up and around the second wire, wrap 3 times. I will change my wraps frequently here, you do what you like. 5

6 Step 15: Here I have gone around both wires with the wrapping wires. I do so 3 times here. You can do more or less. Here I did 3 wraps around both wires, 2 around 1, 3 on both, 2, then 3. You can vary this as you like. Step 16: When you have wrapped these two wires as much as you want (Look at example photo s) you will then wrap those wires around your prism. Wrap tight, pull tight and wrap in the design that pleases you, or follow along here. Step 17: With this design I warp the prism all the way to the bottom and make a loop around the point ON the bottom, cutting off any extra and using the needle noise pliers to make this loop secure and tight fitting. 6

7 Step 18: It now looks like this. You should have remaining wrapping wire. We will use that next. Step 19: Bring it away from your prism. Step 20: Load it with the beads you have chosen (3-5mm) 7

8 Step 21: Take that wire from the place it comes off your 20 gauge (photo in step 19) and go back up to the top with your beads. You can cover over the 20 gauge wires or beside them. Both options are pretty. Step 22: When you get that beaded wire to the top, you should then meet your other half of the wrapping wire. (if not, wrap it around the top of the prism between the larger wires) Step 23: I then hand twist these two wires together. 8

9 Step 24: I wrap that twist, adding a nice look and new dimension, on the top, over and between the first wires I wrapped around the prism first. Neatly tuck these in in a place that won t show. (Between those top beads is a good place to hide them) Step 25: If you want to add a pearl of crystal, or other stone to the top, run another short piece of wrapping wire through that stone. As you see in this drawing. Where I have written wrap is where you will wrap the ends to secure. (2 times on each side is plenty) Step 26: Example of adding Pearl. 9

10 Step 27: Here is an option: I cut the wire short, so they do not go all the way to the bottom and give them a loops. This leaves more of the prism showing by itself. I like both. (if you are insecure about this staying AROUND your prism, dab a tiny amount of clear glue under it on the bottom of the wrap, very small amount will do the trick, though I don t often find this necessary.) Here you can see that on one, I added a pearl to the bottom loops by making a closed loop and attaching it. That makes a nice added extra. Enjoy your prisms and I hope this tutorial has been helpful. Thank you. Linda Aspenson Bergstrom 10