Video:How to Make Wire Bangles

Transcript:How to Make Wire Bangles

Hi, I'm Jeanette Caines. I'm an instructor here at Jewelry Arts Institute and I'm here for About.com. I'm going to show you how to make these fantastic bracelets. These are just like the bangles you can get a Tiffany's. I have Valerie Bloom, my apprentice, here to assist us.

Materials Needed for Wire Bangles

For each bracelet, you're going to need:

• 8 inches of fourteen gauge sterling wire
• Bracelet mandrel
• Leather mallet
• Soldering board
• Tweezers
• Some medium solder
• Scissors
• Flat nose pliers
• File
• Riveting hammer
• Torch
• Kiln

Make Edges of Wire Flush

First, I'm going to take my eight inches of fourteen gauge sterling. I'm going to take my file and I'm going to file the ends nice and flush. I'm not really worried about the shape. I'm just going to get the two ends together and solder them shut using medium solder. At the moment I'm really just using my fingers. What you have to do is just go past the seam a few times and create a little bit of tension. Okay, I think I have it.

Solder Ends of Wire Together

I'm going to cut a small piece of medium solder. Generally, it's easier with something like this to put your little square of solder underneath the piece. You can put your seam resting directly on top. And then put your flux and then when you heat it just will climb right up toward the heat. The solder always goes toward the most heat. So, I always position it so that my heat is on the other side of where I want the solder to be. There you go and that way it just fills in the seam. What I'll do is I'll cool it off by putting it in my bowl of water.

Place Wire Bangle in Pickle

Now that I've soldered, I'm going to put it in the pickle like I always do. Usually two or three minutes is really all it takes. When we make up a fresh batch of pickle, we're going to use about a quarter of a cup of the sodium bi-sulfate per quart of water. Extremely important: add the acid to the water. Not the water to the acid.

Shape and Polish Wire Bangle

What we're using is this riveting hammer, that's just going to make a nice straight line. If you go all the way around, it's just going to give you that little bit of texture. I threw mine in the tumbler just to give them a little bit of polish. With these bracelets, it's really about strength in numbers. The more of them you make, the better they look together.

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