The Five Cs of Wire Wrapping Step 1 The Circle

To achieve this quality, your movements will alternate between the pliers and wire.

Step 1: Circle

Over the next five lessons, we will make a wire wrapped segment with an 8 mm bead in the center. Begin with a 3 inch piece of wire in any gauge.

With round nose pliers in your dominant hand, grip the wire about 1.25 inches from the end, keeping the pliers parallel to the table.

Push the wire away from you until it forms a 90 degree angle.

Open the pliers, rotate them away from you 45 degrees, then close them.

Pull the wire toward you and wrap it around the top of the pliers so it points straight down at the table.

Open the pliers again, rotate them toward you 45 degrees, then close them so they return to their original parallel position.

Push the wire under the pliers on the right side, near the tip.
Left handed students may prefer pushing the wire under on the left side, away from the tip.

Why?

The act of rotating your pliers away from you is what creates the 45 degree bend in the wire at the point where the wire and circle meet. That bend centers the circle neatly over the wire, preventing it from looking like a P.

Pushing the wire underneath the pliers on the tip side means that in Step 3, when you start to wrap the coil, you will be wrapping towards you. I like to see what is coming! If you want to wrap away from you, push the wire underneath on the right side of the wire, away from the tip of the pliers.

Tip

If you want a consistent sized circle every time, mark your pliers with a Sharpie marker or a piece of masking tape. Even easier, consider purchasing a stepped round nose plier. These pliers have stepped jaws versus the graduated jaws of a standard pair of round nose pliers.