Thanks, Iggy!

Wanita, I think you’ll have a lot of fun creating these wire rings! 🙂

I would use half hard myself. I dont usually use soft wire as its too easily bent out of shape by the wearer, even though its so easy to work with.

Dixie, thank you! These rings are so much fun to make. 🙂

My pleasure, Barb! Thank you so much for letting me know you liked it! 🙂

My pleasure, Jean! These creative rings are one of my favorite jewelry making projects – and I’d love to see the flair you address

Hi Edyta, I think darkening would depend on the metal you use. Also, you might try Renaissance Wax on your metals (like these rings) to prevent or at least slow any tarnishing.

Great tip Gayle! Thanks!

Thank you, Terrace! 🙂

Yay! Thanks for letting me know, Hazel! 🙂

Hazel, thank you so much! And yes, you can save the tutorials as PDF’s.
See my instructions here:
Easy Way to Print a Jewelry Making Journal Tutorial
Have fun! 🙂

Hi Rena, lovely name you have too! 🙂 I didn’t have any particular design in mind for a man’s ring. I was just thinking that angles are more masculine than curves, so perhaps a heavier gauge of wire and more angles than curves would result in a cool ring for a guy. Thank you for your lovely compliment, and welcome to the JMJ community! I’m very glad to meet you!

Thanks for this wonderful journal, I love how you are able to break down the steps to make us successful in making such pretty jewelry!

Hi Vickie, thanks for asking how to print my Jewelry Making Journal tutorials. You can go to printfriendly.com , and paste the URL of the page you want to print. I hope this is a good solution for you! 🙂

Hi Rick, I’m looking forward to seeing your rings! And happy to hear how well the bubble wands are working out for you. You’re right, there are a lot of good bubble recipes online. One of the ingredients for great bubbles is glycerin, which you can find over-the-counter at pharmacies. Try this recipe:

3/4 cup water
1/4 cup liquid dishwashing soap
5 drops glycerin

Have fun! 🙂

Thanks so much, Rick! I’d love to see some of your rings, if you’d like to share them with us! Also, have you considered making wood pendants? That could be another good jewelry item in your booth – for both guys and gals.

Thanks for asking, Pamela! I would start with my jewelry pricing formula. Then consider whether to bump the prices upward based on the metal used in the ring, and / or the perceived “specialness” or uniqueness of the ring design. Wishing you all the best with selling them at your shows! 🙂

I’ll do some experiments with some different wires. I haven’t gotten time to try the ring using brass–hopefully i will get time tonight and if not, tomorrow. I will try to find some sterling silver wire to use as well.

Is there any specific brand of wire that you would prefer? Also, how much is the average sterling silver wire?

Thanks for your help!

Rings tend to take more of a beating than any other jewelry item, since people use their hands all day long. So you want to be sure – especially if you sell your jewelry – that the materials and construction of your rings are able to take a bit of being banged around during the normal course of being worn.

Here’s a great way to develop a feel for the best wires to choose (and avoid) for different projects:

I recommend that you get small amounts of a few different kinds of jewelry wire, in different metals, gauges, and hardnesses – and play with them with your various jewelry tools.

As you experiment and play with each kind of wire, test what each kind of wire can do, can’t do, and how well the finished pieces hold their shape.

You really will get a good feel for the different wire options this way, especially if you jot down a few notes about your testing of each type of wire.

I hope this helps! 🙂

I bought the wire in the jewelry section so I assume it’s meant for jewelry making? However, it is not sterling silver. I threw away the packaging so I can’t see what exactly the material was.

I’m going to try the 16 gauge brass wire tomorrow for the same ring. The ring still turned out great though! The flexibility it actually kind of good so the spiral can form to your finger just the way you want it to!

I just want to make sure – you’re not using Artistic Wire / craft wire for these rings, right?

Because that’s pretty flexible wire, and might not hold up as well for these rings. I recommend brass, copper, sterling silver, or other jewelry wire for these rings.

You might also try using half-hard wire and see if that makes a difference for you.

Please let me know how you do with different wire! 🙂

I love this tutorial! It’s so simple! I just made one of these yesterday and it turned out great! My only concern is that it’s very easily bendable and not very sturdy. I’ve hammered it onto the ring mandrel but it still moves easily. This is my first wire ring so I’m not very experienced. I would love your feedback! Thanks

Valeta

On that ring the large curve is basically an open wire spiral – see my 3-minute video on that here: How to Make an Open Wire Spiral.

The small curve is just the beginning part of an open wire spiral.

I hope this helps – and that you have as much fun with this folded wire ring technique as I have! 🙂

What a clever idea. I was really looking at your rings and first thing that popped into my head (I know, smell the smoke)…… wait for it….. wait….
NAPKIN HOLDERS/RINGS!!! If some are not jewelry ring wearers, they could still be a great seller. Make just a little more large, to fit around folded cloth napkins, I think they would look great!

Can’t wait to make some.

Just fabulous… I really enjoy your web-site Rena!!!! Thanks for sharing!

Jennifer, I have used both soft and half-hard wire. If you can form the wire into the shapes you want with the half-hard wire, that’s probably a sturdier choice. But if the half-hard is too difficult to shape, then I’d go with the soft wire.

Zoraida, I love hearing about your experiences with making, selling, and wearing rings like this. One thing that I love about these is that they’re totally adjustable. My fingers tend to be different sizes throughout the day (swelling / shrinking a bit), and I find adjustable rings so much more comfortable than ones that are just one size.

I think adjustable rings are also easier to sell, because they can fit a variety of fingers! 🙂