Wednesday, May 20, 2009

March 25 - Jump ring bracelet

After yesterday's time of playing with metal wire I decided to make a jump ring bracelet from steel rings.

The steel wire I use is sold as tie wire and has been heated so that it's soft to use. The heating process also leaves it covered in soot so it's dirty to use as well, but that cleans off.

To make the jump rings I twisted the wire around a metal rod to form a spring that was about 3 cm long. I needed quite a few rings so I made 5 of these. Then I put the springs one at a time into a small vice and used a jewellery saw to cut lengthwise through one side of the spring. This gave me the jump rings.

I looked on the internet for ideas on how to form the rings into a bracelet but I didn't see anything I liked so I worked it out for myself. First I linked 2 rings, then held them together and put another ring through both. Then I put another ring through just 2 of them and continued in this way, attaching the next ring to the previous 2. When it was the length I wanted I formed a hook with wire and attached it with another jump ring. Voila!

To clean the bracelet I first used a wire brush to take off the soot, although a lot of it had already ended up on my hands by this stage through working on it. The forming and cleaning of the wire acts to harden it so by the end of the process the bracelet really was as hard as steel.

After the wire brush I used a set of polishing papers from 3M. They graduate from rough to smooth and I put a lot of elbow grease into it, so the steel was very shiny at the end. To finish it off I rubbed Renaissance wax into it. This stops it from rusting and keeps it shiny. I am very happy with the result.

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