Cabochon Woven Wire Pendant

Use painter's tape or a measuring tape to find the circumference of your stone. Mine measures 2 inches. You can use a larger stone, but you will need more wire in both gauges.

Cut three pieces of 20g wire: two pieces at 8 inches and one piece at 12 inches. Use nylon jaw pliers to straighten all three wires.

Mark the center point of each wire. For mine, that is at 4 inches and 6 inches.

Since my stone has a 2-inch circumference, I start my weaving about 1 inch to the left of center, so I added marks there as well.

If your stone is larger, adjust where you begin the weave.

Hold the three base wires in the small clamp, lining them up with your marks.

Keep the longest base wire at the bottom of the stack.

Take the 28g and wrap it around the bottom base wire twice.

Leave a tail of weaving wire about 2" in length.

We will use this wire later.

Bring your weaving wire up over your first base wire and then up over and around the second base wire twice.

You are wrapping around both wires at this time.

Your weaving wire, should be in the back of the base wires at this point.

Bring the weaving wire from the back and in-between the first and second base wires.

Next, bring your weaving wire up and over the second base wire and up over the third base wire.

Wrap around the second and third base wires together twice.

Again your weaving wire should be behind the base wires.

This will complete a single rotation of this weave.

Bring your weaving wire down behind the top base wire and come up around the first and second base wires.

Wrap around base wires 1 and 2.

Then up and over wires 3 and 4.

Keep pinching your weaving wires together to make a nice clean even look.

The wrapping that we are doing at this point will be the back plate for the cab.

Repeat this pattern until you reach the bottom, or half way point of your cab.

Check this measurement against your cab to make sure that you are at the bottom.

Shape the wire around half of the stone.

You want to make sure that these 3 wires stay on the inside of the circumference of your stone.

This will hold your cab in place in the back of the pendant.

Make sure when you reach the mid-point or bottom of your cab that you finish your weaving on the top two wires (#3 and 4) Leave your weaving wire attached.

At this point you will pull that bottom wire so all the ends on the left are even with each other.

You'll have extra wire now that extends past the weaving you've done.

Bend your wire at the middle mark on the lower wire that you made before.

Then bring up the other side of the wire, making a tight "U" shape in this wire.

Wrap the weaving wire around the inner two base wires until you can resume weaving on all three.

Now grab that extra wire 28g wire we cut in the beginning.

We are going to use this wire to wrap together the two inside bail wires.

Bring this wire behind the outside base wire and wrap it up and around the middle wire.

Now your wire should be in the back again.

Bring the wire under the two middle wires of your bail wires.

Wrap around these two wires three times.

You can now trim off that wire.

Starting on the left two bail wires make sure that you mirror the pattern that you did on the right.

Leave a small tail and wrap around the inner most wire 5 times and then wrap around the two wires twice.

Next wrap 5 times around the top wire 5 times.

Continue this pattern 10 times.

(Shorter if you want a smaller bail.)

End with 5 wraps on the outside wire.

Trim off the weaving wire where you started.

Leave the end of your weaving wire attached.

We will be using this wire to weave the four bail wires together.

With the attached weaving wire we are going to connect the four base bail wires together.

Wrap around the two bail wires twice, come under and then over the other two bail wires and wrap around those twice.

Go under the top two wire and wrap around twice.

Then under and over the bottom two base wires twice.

End with three single wraps around the bottom wire only.

This should hold these wires together nicely.

Place your pendant on the front of your frame. Make sure the frame extends farther out than the cab. Use a small amount of painter's tape or quilter's tape to secure the cab to the frame.

Starting on either side of the pendant, grab two of the bail wire ends and bring them from the back to the front. I find it easiest to hold the cab firmly against the frame with my thumb and index finger.

This next part may test your patience, so take your time.

Begin forming small spirals, one inside the other, to create prongs that will hold the stone. Trim the wires shorter to make them easier to work with, and make small, controlled movements as you shape them.

You can adjust the spirals slightly as you go, but avoid creating sharp bends.

Use round nose pliers or your fingers to form the spirals that will sit along the sides on the front of your frame. Trim any excess wire once you have the spirals shaped the way you want.

Remember that "U" shaped length of wire at the bottom of your pendant? Cut the bend off at the bottom, leaving two separate wires.

We will use each of these wires to make another spiral on each side of the pendant.

Make sure that you trim the ends of your wires.

Since you aren't working on the bail at this time you can remove the crochet hook if you would like.