Wire Cages for Undrilled Stones

I love how wire responds as it warm up in my hands.  All of the links and the cages in the necklace of this video are free-form. The necklace came to be by just letting the wire tell me how it wants to embrace the stones and link each element to the other.  The two big chunks of red jasper are undrilled.  Therefore the wire cages.  This work is so therapeutic.

I was going to post a video on creating wire cages or wire bundles as of Szarka of Magpie Gemstone calls them.  Szarka does such a complete job of setting the foundation of this technique that there is nothing more I can say.  In fact I can do nothing but learn from Szarka.  What I can do and what I don't see as much of, is creating a cage for a stone that hasn't be cut into one of the classic jewelry design forms or shapes.  Let me know if that is something you would to see or if you already see a lot of it on the web.

More about cage on this blog;

•  The Earth has Weight a collar I made with a 1-3/4" Green Aventurine  undrilled cabochon.
• I reposted the following video from Youtube.  The artist is creating a necklace from - sea glass.  The glass is undrilled so she uses cages to make the sea glass a part of the necklace, 

Wire Cages an Alternative to Drilling Jewelry Elements

I love this technique and the results it produces. So I've re-posted the article that this video was a part of.  Re-posted from The Beading Gems Journal: Jewelry Expression in Bloom.

When it is too cold to go outside is a good time to reminisce over your previous summer holidays and maybe plot your next one. Even better if you have a project to do to preserve summer memories.  Here are more sea glass jewelry tutorials for all you hoarders out there!

If you can drill holes in the sea glass pieces yourself, try making a wire crochet necklace (above) as shown by Cyndi Lavin's tutorial over on Beading Arts.  You canpurchase frosted fake sea glass beads too if you don't have any real ones on hand.

One way to avoid having to drill is to wire wrap large pieces of sea glass.  I have covered the tutorials before (see links below) but here is a lovely video tutorial by Gayle Bird. 

She demonstrates a really easy way of making a wire cage by using wire twists.  Just make sure you start off with a generous length of wire because it is difficult to predict how much you need with such an informal method. She introduce kinks in the wire which are necessary to tighten the "cage". They do add charm to the design.




Not everyone can drill holes in sea glass nor do they wire work, so check out this even easier solution!  Just glue the pieces onto a disc and loop bracelet. This works also if the sea glass fragments are too small to drill or wire wrap.  The idea is from Martha Stewart.com

Before You Go:

• How to Drill Sea Glass
• How to Wire Wrap Sea Glass Jewelry
• How to Tumble Glass to Make Faux Sea Glass

Other "Wire Cage" articles on this blog;

• necklace made with undrilled nuggets of  red jasper 
• "The Earth has Weight" a collar I made with a 1-3/4" Green Aventurine  undrilled cabochon.

The Earth Has Weight

The symbol at the center of the cage is from the Adrinka people of West African and it means "The Earth Has Weight." It is a reminder of we must live with care for this planet. Copper collar with caged wired stones. Two colors of green Aventine, turquoise, glass seed beads and Swarovski crystals.

Other articles on "wire cages";

• A necklace of tumbled red jasper undreilled nuggets 
• I reposted a video from Youtube.  The artist is creating a necklace from - sea glass.  The glass is undrilled so she uses cages to make the sea glass a part of the necklace.