Celtic Triangle Jewelry Wire & Beads Earrings Jewelry Making Project

(FOR FULL INSTRUCTIONS PAIRED WITH PHOTOS CLICK HERE)

There are two major steps in making these earrings. First, we need to make a piece of wire in the shape of a circle with a 1 1/2" diameter, then we need to shape that round piece of wire into the triangular shape shown at right. Both of these steps involved shaping the wire using pegs on our of our WigJig tools. For this particular shape, the WigJig Cyclops or Electra is the best choice of jig, although in a later page we will show how to make these earrings using the WigJig Centaur. Our step-by-step free instructions begin below.
Step 1: Using your Flush Cutter, cut a segment of 18 gauge soft wire 6 1/2 inches long.

Step 2: Using your Fine Step Jaw Pliers or your round nose pliers, make a 1/2 loop in one end of this wire. This loop needs to be big enough to fit over one of the regular metal pegs for your jig. You won't need a full loop because this loop is going to be cut off in a later step.

Step 3: Using your thumb and forefinger from your non-dominant hand, hold the wire by the 1/2 loop you just made and pull the wire repeatedly through the jaws of you nylon jaw pliers to straighten the wire.

Step 4: Position one 1 1/2" larger round Super Peg and one regular metal peg in your WigJig Cyclops as shown at right. Place the initial 1/2 loop on the regular metal peg and wrap the wire completely around the Larger Round Super Peg (shown in white at right). Continue wrapping until all the wire has been bent against the Super Peg. Hold the wire in this fully wrapped position for about 10 seconds and then let it relax. At this point the wire will appear as shown at right. You should note that the wire won't completely follow the Super Peg, but will be close. (The pattern for the Centaur can be found on page 6.)

Step 5: Remove the wire from the jig and cut the initial 1/2 loop off the wire. Upon completion of this step your will will appear as shown at left.

Step 6: Now we need to make a loop in one end of the wire, with the loop on the inside of the circle. The reason that we had to cut off the initial loop is that it is almost impossible to rotate that initial loop from outside the circle to inside the circle without bending the circle out of shape. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to make a loop inside the circle using your round nose pliers or preferable your Fine Step Jaw Pliers. When you have completed this loop, your wire should appear as shown at right.
Step 7: At this point you will need to remove the Super Peg and regular metal peg from your jig and add four regular metal pegs as shown at left. Pegs 1, 3 and 4 are each separated from the other two by 120 degrees. Since pegs 1, 3 and 4 are on the same radius of your jig, they make a perfect equilateral triangle. (This means that all three sides are the same length and all three angles in this triangle are the same 60degree angle.)

Step 8: Now we are ready to start bending the wire into shape. Place the initial loop in your wire on peg 1 as shown at right. Position peg 2 in your jig, but not peg 3. Push the wire with your thumb as close to peg 2 as possible until the wire rests adjacent to the empty hole for peg 3 with no pressure applied. As you can see in the photo at right, you won't have to push very far. When this has been accomplished add peg 3.

Step 9: Now push the wire with your thumb as close to peg 4 as possible until the wire rests adjacent to peg 2 as shown at right. It may be easier to remove peg 2 and push the wire slightly beyond the hole for peg 2 then let it relax back to the position shown. When you have the wire in position add peg 2 back to your pattern.
Step 10: With peg 2 in position, remove peg 4 and push the wire until with no pressure applied the wire remains in position immediately adjacent to the empty hole for peg 4, then add peg 4 to your jig. At this point your wire should appear as shown at right.

Step 11: Now push the wire with your thumb as close to peg 4 as possible until with no pressure applied the wire rests adjacent to pegs 1 and 2. This may require first removing peg 2 then pushing the wire slightly beyond peg 2 and replacing peg 2 after the wire stays next to the hole for peg 2. It may also require pushing the wire up, over and beyond peg 1 so that with no pressure on the wire it will remain in position immediately adjacent to peg 1.

Step 12: Finally, we need to wrap the wire around peg 1 to finish the triangle shape. This is best done by pushing the wire with your thumb as close to peg 1 as possible. When completed, the wire should appear as shown at right. After this step is completed, remove the wire from the jig. If you have done each step correctly, the wire should remain in the shape shown.

Step 13: Cut the excess wire using your flush cutter and close the final loop using your bent chain nose pliers. This completes the triangle wire component.
Step 14: Using about 1 1/2" of 20 gauge wire, make an alternate figure 8 connector. You can find instructions on how to make an alternative figure 8 connector here. One side of the alternative figure 8 connector needs to be slightly larger than the other, large enough so that both loops in the triangle wire component fit inside the figure 8 connector.

Step 15: Using your bent chain nose pliers open the smaller loop in your alternative figure 8 connector and connect your commercial ear wire to that loop. Close the loop to complete that connection. Next open the bottom, large loop with your bent chain nose pliers and connect it to the two top loops in the triangle wire component. To finish this connection, close the loop in your modified figure 8 connector with your bent chain nose pliers.

Step 16: Now we need to add bead dangles to the bottom of the triangle wire component. For the beads on the two ends of the triangle wire component, you can use wrapped bead links. For the bead hanging from the middle of the triangle, you will need to make a large open loop. You can find instructions on how to make open and wrapped bead links starting here.

Follow these same instructions to make your second earring.

Alternative Designs:
The pattern for making these earrings on the WigJig Centaur is shown at right. This pattern is exactly the same size as the pattern on the WigJig Cyclops.

The earring shown at left is an alternative design. This design uses 8 1/2" of wire instead of the 6 1/2" used in the design described earlier. To make this design you proceed as you did making the original design until you get to Step 11. At that point, instead of wrapping the wire completely around peg 1, you push the wire against peg 1 as you did against peg 3 and 4. Doing that will cause the wire to overlap on the segment from pegs 1 to 4. The overlap will happen on opposite sides of the wire component. To finish the triangle wire component, you use 1/2 round wire to wrap the wire segments together on either side. If you look closely at the earring at left you can see the places where the wire overlaps and the wraps take place. After you have the wraps in place, you cut the excess wire at both ends.

We hope you like our Celtic Triangle Jewelry Wire and Beads Earrings. They may be just the thing to wear on St. Patrick's Day.