Wire Groove-Wrapping a Stone

WIRE GROOVE-WRAPPING A STONE

By Garry Mahan How to turn your cabochons into simple, yet elegant pieces of jewelry

Tools and materials used in this tutorial

Grooving machine is Gold-filled wire Hobby Vise shown on next page 20 GA round, half- hard 21 GA half-round, half- hard Quilter’s rotary cutting mat

1/4” wooden dowel

Plastic-coated needle- Wire cutters Uncoated needle- nose pliers nose pliers This is a grooving machine. It is a Gryphon Gryphette. It was originally designed to put the grooves in glass when working stained glass. This machine was purchased from eBay. Machine, 2 grooving grind- ers, and shipping costs totaled about $100.

Grooving machine This is the grooving cutter/grinder currently mounted on the Gryphon Gryphette machine shown on previous photo.

Diamond coating on edge of cutter/grinder

Set screw You’re ready to start making your pendant. The first thing to do is select a stone. Pick a good quality cabochon. The purpose of wire wrapping is to showcase the stone, not necessarily the wire.

A quality stone wrap always begins with a quality stone. This stone is dendritic jasper from Burro Creek, AZ. Use a soft touch. Hold stone with flat side down and turn on grooving machine to make the groove. It is best to make 4 to 6 passes around the stone to prevent chipping and prevent diamond from “wiping” off the diamond-coated grinding wheel.

Woof!

Putting the groove in the cabochon Measure the distance around your cab and cut a length of round 20 GA gold- filled wire. The length of the wire should be equal to the distance around the cab (plus approximately 5 inches for the bail). Groove-wrapping takes only about 1/3 to 1/4 as much wire as conventional wire wraps.

Round 20 GA gold-filled wire Insert the wire in the groove made in the stone and hold the wire firmly. A small hobby vise is used here to clamp down on the wire, holding it firmly in place. Alt- hough the vise isn’t a necessary piece of equipment it comes in handy to free up both of your hands.

Hobby vise

20 GA round gold- filled wire for the main wrap Next, cut a small length of binding wire. For this wrap I used 21 GA half round, half-hard gold-filled wire. Cut about 4-inches of this wire for the binding that will hold the bail together.

Half-round binding wire. Cut a 4” length of this wire. Using the uncoated needle-nose pliers, bend a small hook in the end of your binding wire so you can get it started around the bail.

Small hook in binding wire to allow you to get it started on the bail.

21 GA half-round binding wire With the stone & wire held by the hobby vise, hook the half-round binding wire over the round wire as shown and start wrapping the bail.

Hobby vise

Half-round binding wire hooked onto the round wire. Getting ready to bind the bail together. Take 5 wraps of your half-round binding wire going around the round wire. Start about 1/2-inch above the stone and wrap downwards toward the stone. When done with this step, push the binding towards the stone to make the round wire tight against the stone.

21 GA half-round binding wire. 20 GA round wire.

Push this binding down towards the stone as far as possible. Bend the 20 GA round wire over a 1/4” diameter dowel to form the bail. Bend from back to front so the back of the wrap will be flat.

1/4” dowel Binding wire is now ready to wrap around all 4 round wires, moving upward. Now take the half-round binding wire and wrap it around the en- tire bail. Remove the dowel and squeeze the binding wire after every 90-degree bend to make the binding tight. Use plastic- coated pliers for this so you don’t scar the wire. Cut off excess binding wire and tuck it in at the top of the binding wrap.

Plastic-coated needle-nose pliers Bail

Cut off excess binding wire and tuck the loose end into the bail at the top of the binding wrap. Add any desired decorations at the top of the pendant by bending the round wire. Now your groove-wrap pendant is completed!

Lonesome pine at sunset

Front of pendant. People always look at the backs of your work, so be sure to polish the back too.

Back of pendant Additional comments & tips

Where to buy wire. Here are the sources I use. There are many more places to buy wire: Gold and silver: Rio Grande (www.riogrande.com) is where I buy my gold-filled and silver wire. You can also get it at www.brandywinejewelrysupply.com. Bronze: You can buy round or square bronze wire from Rio Grande, but not half-round bronze. Half-round bronze wire can be purchased from wirejewelrybootcamp.com. Craft wire: This is copper, brass, etc. & is very inexpensive. Joanne’s, Michael’s, etc. carry this. You can also so get craft wire from www.parawire.com or www.brandywinejewelrysupply.com.

What size and type of wire to get: When in doubt, buy 21GA, dead soft. You can use this size for just about anything. For doing groove-wraps I normally use round wire, 20GA or 21GA. I buy the softest wire I can get (dead soft) when possible. For doing a quality stone I always use gold-filled or silver wire. For practice wraps you should use craft wire. Always use half-round (20 or 21 GA) for the bindings, whether you are using round or square for the main wrap. You probably won’t be able to find half-round wire that is dead soft, so just get the softest you can find.

End of tutorial