Wire Jewelry Embellishments

Though you can make beautiful jewelry using only wire, you can also embellish it with beads, charms, stones, cabochons, and all sorts of other materials.

Beads and Wire Jewelry

Beads can be threaded onto the wire jewelry or findings you create, or they can be dangled from other stringing materials such as cord or thread (for more details on creating beaded pieces that you might want to incorporate into wire jewelry, see Beading)

If you’re threading beads onto wire, you can secure and anchor the beads in place by bending or looping the wire around the beads. Just be sure that the holes through the bead centers are wide enough to accommodate the gauge of the wire you’re using, and that the bead’s size or placement will not interfere with the wire work.

Charms and Wire Jewelry

Charms are small decorative figurines, icons, or objects that have a small ring attached. A charm ring can be hung from a jump ring and attached to a chain, a loop, or other rings.

Stones, Cabochons, and Wire Jewelry

 

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Stones and cabochons (round-top, flat-back stones or gems that have been polished rather than faceted) also make great embellishments for wire jewelry. You can incorporate these items into your wire jewelry designs by wrapping them in wire or mounting them and joining the mounts to the piece with jump rings or other findings.

Mounting Stones and Cabochons

You can mount stones and cabochons in pronged settings without any specialized tools. The settings may be part of pendants, dangles, or other components that you can attach to your wire jewelry. Settings are sized by the diameter of the mounting for ease of selecting a stone to set. A setting labeled “5 mm” will accommodate a 5 mm–wide stone. Two of the most popular settings are Snap-Tite® and Easy Mount®.

Snap-Tite Settings

Snap-Tite stone settings don’t even require pliers in order to place a stone within the prongs. Place the stone face-down on a solid surface and align the stone setting above it. Push down with just a bit of even pressure. The prongs of the setting will snap around the stone and secure it in place.

Easy Mount Settings

Easy Mount settings are a bit sturdier and more secure than Snap-Tite but take a little more time to set and require gem-setting pliers to secure (see Tools for Making Wire Jewelry). To mount stones or cabochons in Easy Mount settings:

1. Place the stone or cabochon within the prongs of the Easy Mount setting. The setting has little grooves that should make the stone or cabochon easy to place.
2. Adjust the jaws of the gem-setting pliers slightly wider than the prong setting, then place the jaws of the pliers so one jaw is flush with one prong and the other is against the top of the opposite prong.
3. Compress the jaws so the prongs tighten and secure the stone. Next, reposition the stone setting so another pair of prongs is flush with the jaws and repeat until all of the prongs are compressed around the stone.

Other Embellishments

There’s a virtually unlimited number of possible embellishments for wire jewelry. The table below includes some ideas for materials to use as embellishments, plus attachment methods and design ideas.