The Elliptical Ring

Tuesday Tutorial

Something old, something new.

I was looking through my jewelry box a few weeks ago and found a necklace that I had picked up ages ago. I never liked the setting, but I loved the stones that were used. When I saw it again, my crafty brain went into overdrive! I could take it apart and re-make it into something else. Jewelry making is not something I had ever done before, so I had no tools or materials on hand. So I took a trip to my local bead shop for a quick wire wrapping lesson and left with some wire, some tools and a few beads. I finished that project and still had some stuff left over, so I decided to try something else.
ETSY is where it's at.

I had already saved a few tutorials to my Favorites on Etsy, so I went there first. I know that there is a wealth of free patterns available on the internet, but I don't always have time to wade through everything to find the gems. I decided on a beautiful ring from WireGuild, The Elliptical Ring - A Wire Wrapped Tutorial.

I gathered my supplies:

20 gauge dead soft wire
22 gauge dead soft wire (pattern called for 21 gauge half round, half hard wire, but I didn't have that)
3 x 4mm beads
square or chain nose pliers
wire cutter
ruler or tape measure
ring mandrel or something to wrap the wire that is your ring size (a fat pen, lipstick tube, etc.)

The pattern has 56 detailed steps with clear photos to go with each one. Even a newbie (like me!) could follow along.

But here is where it got interesting. For some reason the pattern wouldn't open up in my Kindle Fire, and I didn't want to drag out my laptop, so I opened the PDF on my phone. You should have seen me trying to hold and wrap the wire, while simultaneously trying to follow along with the pattern and keep the screen from timing out! In hindsight, it would have been way easier to just fire up the old laptop. I guess I was just too excited to get started.

Wrap, rewrap, and repeat.

I did end up having to undo and redo a couple of times. Totally NOT the fault of the pattern, just my inexperience. Also, I have some tool marks in my wire, but I am probably the only one who would notice. And again, totally my inexperience working with the wire.  In the end, I had something super cute and totally wearable! I am definitely going to make this one again, perhaps a few in different colors.

The Elliptical Wire Wrapped Ring

I highly recommend you check out WireGuild on Etsy. She has other cute tutorials and even some pre-made jewelry, if you don't want to do it yourself.