How Do You Make Wire Jewelry Bead Cages?
A wire bead cage is a jewelry design where a large bead is adorned by being wrapped in a spiral of decorative craft wire, forming a pendant cage. As impressive as this type of design looks when finished, it’s simple to achieve with a little practice and the right set of tools and techniques. This method is a good choice for times when you have a large, beautiful bead in your collection but have nothing to pair it with in traditional beading techniques. Cut a long piece of wire from the spool and straighten it by sliding between your thumb and the outside of the needle-nose pliers’ jaws. Cut a length at least 10 times the bead’s diameter to give yourself extra length to work with. Create a loop in one end of the wire by gripping the very tip in your cone-nose pliers, then wrapping the wire around the cone to form a circle. This will be used for hanging the finished cage as a pendant. Insert the wire in the bead. Line up the bead with the loop end so that the rest of the wire’s length pr
