Start Wire Onto Jewellery Project

In wire wrapping, often you need to start a wire onto an existing project. 

But how do you do this without having spikey bits and sloppy work?

For this tutorial you will need:
1. Two short pieces of practice wire of different gauges, one thicker, one thinner.
2. Flat Needle Nose pliers
3. Wire cutters

Step 1: Attach Wire to Project

First, wrap the wire you want to add to an inconspicuous spot on the back of the piece you are creating. 

It may even be easier to add the new wire with the back facing you and later thread the new wire through the frame to the front into position.

Start with a 1 inch (2.5 cm) tail with the new wire and coil around desired spot of the piece a few times to anchor. 

Make sure your tension is tight so there are no gaps between the new wire and existing anchor site.

If you will be continuing the coiling, leave a small tail to hold onto.

If the new added wire is anchored sufficiently, use the wire cutters to cut off remaining tail.

Step 2: Snug Tail End

Hold the flat needle nose pliers in your dominant hand.

Line pliers up with tail end and squeeze gently around coil.

Twist the pliers in the same direction as the coil to continue nestling the wire end against the anchor site. 

Rub your finger over the wire end to see if you can feel it poking out.  If you can feel it, use the flat needle nose pliers again or use a small metal file to file the pointy bit down.

This will tuck the wire end in to keep snagging from happening while piece is in wear.

Step 3: Tips on Wire Placement

One of the trickiest things with wire weave is where to start and stop all the wire ends.

In a complicated piece like a pendant, never cut anything until the very end as one wayward wire can be picked up later in design to do a different weave.