The first bracelet and earring set that I made recently and inspired me to make two more. This one is done with white, slightly baroque fresh water pearls and 14K gold filled wire, chain and findings.

I’ve been in a pearl mood. Could be because it is June. Well, it will be for a little while longer anyway. Or it could just be that pearls are awesome and I like them in all their varieties.

I also really enjoy working with wire. Stringing pearls is nice too, but I like wire much better.

A staple of wire wrapping is the loop. I finished three pearl and wire bracelets with matching earrings recently and have embarked on making a necklace. The pearls I selected for the bracelets were on the large side and so the bracelets grew to a good length fairly quickly.

These are the other two bracelets (there are earrings to match). One is made with copper and the other is sterling silver.

But for some reason, general craziness probably, I’ve selected smallish pearls for the necklace. That’s a lot of wrapped loops to make. The whole thing could be done with eye pins, but with a wrapped loop you never have to worry about it coming apart. Next to soldering, a wrapped loop is the most secure.

I have about nine inches of pearl chain made so far. I will go to at least 16 inches and add a two inch extender chain.

The thing about a wrapped loop, though, is that you can never cut the wire as close to the bead as you need. I have some very fine pointed wire cutters for use with the smaller gauges of wire. 24 or 26 gauge wire fits through the tiny holes in pearls the best (pearls are sold by weight so the tinier the holes, the heavier the pearls). But even with my fine wire cutters, there is always this little nub of cut wire sticking out that can catch on skin, fabric or hair. So the time needed to make a wrapped loop is increased by the need to always go back and be sure to tuck in that little nub.

Usually, two wraps is all you really need to secure the loop. But I think one or two more looks nicer.

I might be adding some dangles between the pearls. I was thinking some tiny Swarovski Austrian Crystals would be nice. I’ll  know more once I get the necklace to a good length.

This photo gives you an idea of the scale at which I am working. That is my thumbnail next to the pearl.

The minimalist trend in jewelry is still holding on. The addition of dangles would tend to move it away from that style. Also, adding dangles will increase the cost.

I don’t know if most jewelry artists ever recover their cost of time (labor). Because I am using copper wire (it looks really nice with the pale mauve/pink of the pearls), and because I bought these particular pearls quite some time ago, the major part of the cost of the necklace will be the labor.

I pay myself (or attempt to pay myself) at the rate of $20 per hour. I don’t think that is unreasonable for skilled labor. But when I figure a selling price for a piece of jewelry, I have two figures to look at … the actual cost of the parts, and the cost of the parts plus the labor. Most often, I have to ignore the labor because if I didn’t no one would buy the item. It would be too expensive.

So shoot, I started out talking about wrapped loops and here I am, having digressed, talking about not recovering labor costs.

The upshot is that while it would take less time to string some pearls on some cable and attach a clasp, I do actually prefer doing the wire work. There is something meditative about it. The focus required to bend the wire just so, get the coils right smack next to each other, and all the while keeping all the loops the same size precludes thinking about much else.

It’s a great way to get outside of your head for a while.

The Tao of wire wrapping.

Quote courtesy of Gracious Quotes.