Wire weaving is a popular type of needlework that unites both women and men. Products made from different wire thicknesses have an almost limitless scope of application: it can be decorative details, interior elements, garden structures and furniture parts. It is not difficult to master the technique, but not everyone can do a truly masterful thing.
It is necessary
nippers, pliers, round nose pliers, triangular file, metal hacksaw, anvil, bench or hand vise
Instructions
Step 1
First, master the techniques of working with wire, start making the simplest chains.
Take a wire with a diameter of 0.3 mm to 1.5 mm. Shape each link in the chain on special mandrels. You can make mandrels from regular nails of different thicknesses. Cut off the sharp end and head from the nail. If you intend the mandrel for forming round links, then saw through a small recess at one of the ends so that the tip of the wire can freely enter. Sand the surface of the mandrel with fine-grained emery paper.
Step 2
Now treat the mandrel with petroleum jelly, you can use sewing oil. Clamp one of its ends in a vice. Insert the end of the wire into the slot you made in the mandrel, wind it with a spiral. Make sure that the turns fit tightly. When the wire turns are laid, then separate the finished spiral with a file or a metal hacksaw along the axis of the mandrel. You will receive individual link rings, remove them from the mandrel. If you need non-single links consisting of several turns, then separate them from the spiral with wire cutters.
Step 3
Go to the assembly of the chain. Divide all the links in two. Leave the first half open, and close the others with pliers so that the ends of each individual ring fit snugly against each other. Consecutively connect with each ring that you left open, two already closed.
Step 4
Another technique is called anchor. Form the links of the anchor chains on two mandrels. Clamp the mandrels in a vice, leaving a gap between them, into which you can push the end of the wire. Wind a wire around the mandrel, remove, file with a file, or separate each link with nippers. Collect a chain of such links in the same way.
Step 5
You get a special pattern from the links in the form of a figure eight. Form the links on a pair of cylindrical mandrels. Clamp two mandrels in a vice, leave a distance of two wire diameters between them. Slide one end of the wire between the mandrels, pulling the wire first around one and then through the gap around the other mandrel. Continue until you have a coil of sufficient length. Remove the formed wire. Separate each link with wire cutters.
Connecting them with rings, collect a chain.
