Easy Steps to Make Your Own Gorgeous Wire Spiral and Bead Pendant

Tools and materials:

• Focal bead
• Wire
• Chain nose pliers
• Round nose pliers
• Wire cutters

1. Cut 10 inches of wire

Start by cutting about 10 inches of wire. This may vary depending on the size of your focal beads. Mine is about an inch across, so maybe that can give you a bit of help deciding how long to cut your own wire.

2. Slide the bead on the wire

Then, slide the bead onto the wire.

3. Center and twist your wire close to the bead

Find the middle of the wire and center the bead on it. Then push the wire up to bend it, crossing it at the top in the middle. You want it to be as close to the bead as possible. This can be super frustrating but do your best.

Then, just twist it. Your bead should be centered in the middle of the wire and the wire should be twisted as close to the bead as possible. Do two twists for stability. 

4. Wrap the wire around to create a loop

Working with one wire at a time, we’re going to make a wire-wrapped look. To do this, hold the wire with round nose pliers a quarter of an inch above the twist, and wrap the wire down around the pliers to form a loop.

Then, hold the loop you just made with chain nose pliers and wrap the wire around the loop once, pulling the bead straight and straightening the loop so it’s straight above the bead. 

Wrap it around three more times, as neatly as possible.

5. Cut the end of the wire

With the other wire, use standard wire cutters to make sure the end is cut with a flush cut.

6. Make a spiral with the wire

Now, we’re going to make a spiral. Start by making a loop with your round nose pliers. Make sure the wire is at the top of the pliers, but not poking through, then twist away with your wrists while wrapping the wire with your thumb on the other hand.

Then you have a loop. That’s the beginning of our spiral.

Now, holding the loop with the chain nose pliers, push up with the wire and keep spiraling until you get to the middle of the pendant. You could also go closer to the top; the choice is yours. 

7. Bend the spiral back

Put your chain nose pliers right at the end of the spiral and bend it back so the spiral comes straight down. 

Make any adjustments you need, such as wrapping your wire once more to make it shorter. Push it down to make sure it’s flat against the focal bead.

8. Create a smaller spiral with the remaining wire

For the other wire, you can trim it off and be done with your pendant, but I’m going to make another spiral by repeating steps 5 and 6. I cut my wire so it was about half of an inch and used the tip of my round nose pliers since it’s a much smaller spiral. Mine is more of a circle than a spiral, so if you want a larger spiral, leave more wire when you cut it.

9. Twist the loop

Use your chain nose pliers to twist the loop and make sure it’s going in the opposite direction of the pendant.

Wire spiral and bead pendant tutorial

Now you can put a chain cord through the loop and wear your pendant! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to wire wrap a bead and it gave you some inspiration and ideas for making your own bead pendant! Let me know what you think and have a creative and inspired day!