wire wrapping

Wire wrapping is most frequently practiced by jewelry makers and sculpture artists, but it can be used for building functional/structural pieces as well.

resources — jewelry-focused

Some resources that one could dive into more with:

• Jewelry Tutorial HQ [youtube]
  • Everything you wanted to know about jewelry wire — wire size, hardness, wire shapes, materials, and work-hardening.
    • Part 1. Wire gauge sizes
    • Part 2. Wire hardness
    • Part 3. Wire shapes
    • Part 4. Wire materials
    • Part 5. Which gauge wire for what?
    • Part 6. What is work-hardening?
    • Part 7. How to work-harden wire.
  • free online course about wire-wrapping
• Kernowcraft
  • choosing wire
  • wire size
  • work-hardening
  • (there's lots of specific projects listed on the parent page)
• Nolan McClelland of Raftark Jewelry @YouTube His jewelry is absolutely stunning, truly.
  • playlist — wire wrapping tutorials
  • playlist — wire wrapped rings
  • list of paid wire-wrapping tutorials
• Jewel School
  • wire hardness
  • wire gauges
• Zurick Designs @YouTube
  • playlist — wire wrapping tutorials
  • playlist — basic wire wrapping
  • playlist — wire wrapped earrings
  • playlist — wire wrapped rings
  • playlist — wire wrapped pendants
  • playlist — wire weaving
• wire wrapping 101, by Cooks On Gold
• YouTube — OxanaCrafts
• a paid class that looks interesting (pages associated with this class)
• (suggestions from reddit.com/r/WireWrapping)
• (list of tutorials sold on Etsy)

resources — more structural

For functional pieces, one of the important things to get right is 1) how hard is the wire that you start with (AKA wire temper), and then 2) how much work-hardening do you do to the wire before it's finished:

• Jewelry Tutorial HQ
  • Wire hardness explained.
  • What is work-hardening?
  • How to work-harden.
• Choosing what wire to use.

Marble track:

• ▶How to make a steel marble track, step-by-step | Daniel de Bruin
• ▶How to make a steel marble track | Bit Machines
• ▶@Copper-Gravity
  • ▶Building a marble run, time-lapse with commentary
  • ▶Building another marble run, time-lapse
• advice on using a small torch to solder: [1]   [2]   [3]   [4]   [5]   [▶6]   [6]
  • Lexivon butane soldering
  • Bernzomatic FirePoint Creator Tool — Capable of 2000°C if propane, and 2200°C if MAPP gas.
  • Oxy/propane or oxy/MAPP — Not worth it, because the Turbo Torch is about as good, but is more compact since it's only one cylinder.
  • Turbo Torch — acetylene and air — Capable of 1600°C.
  • O/A torch — Capable of 3100 to 3500°C.