How To Make Jewelry: Make A Handmade Wire Wrapped Ring For Kids -- Make Children's Jewelry

Though kids may be young, plenty of girls love to accessorize and wear pretty jewelry. But there's no need to buy your daughter or niece expensive diamonds or gems. You can easily make -- or teach them to make -- fun, easy, inexpensive and, most importantly, beautiful jewelry pieces.

Most children love things that are colorful and whimsical and you get both with this wire wrapped ring pattern. It's bright and attention-grabbing and because it's made of wire, is durable. Plus, it only costs a few dollars to make! If your kid loses her ring at recess, it won't be a big deal; imagine if she lost a diamond ring instead.

These wire wrapped rings are easy enough to make that you can make them with a child. You can even host a jewelry making party for her and her friends! Of course, this is an activity for an older child (I recommend age 8 and up) and you want to make sure kids are supervised, as tools are involved.

These coil rings also make great gifts for birthday parties or holidays. Everyone, young and old, appreciates a cool, handmade gift that comes from the heart.

Making handmade jewelry is a fairly easy craft, once you master the basics -- and these wire wrapped rings are about as basic as you can get, once you get in some practice. For this tutorial,I'm making a wire wrapped monster ring, but you don't have to follow this pattern; you can make your ring look like anythng you want. Just use your imagination!

When using colored artistic wire, it's important to note that different colors seem to have different textures. I find pink and purple wire to be the easiest to work with. Black, however, tends to be pretty tough, for whatever reason. Of course, you can always use basic silver plated or copper wire, too.

I like to use a ring mandrel to assure that my rings are the exact size I want, but for this project, a mandrel isn't an absolute necessity. If you're making the ring with or for a kid, you can simply wrap the wire around her ring to get the fit -- though a mandrel will give the wire a perfectly round shape.

Here's what you need to get started!

MATERIALS:

1. 18 gauge silver plated, copper, brass or colored artistic wire (pink, purple, blue, green, etc.). You can find plenty of different colors online; some sites even sell multi packs of different colored wire.

2. Flat-nosed pliers: These pliers that have a flat tip are great for bending and crimping the wire.

3. Round-nose pliers: These pliers, that have a rounded tip, are perfect for making curves and loops.

4. Wire Cutters: Don't use scissors or a knife to cut the wire; use cutters, which will assure a clean cut without jagged edges.

5. Ring mandrel (optional): This conical shaped device allows you to make rings at an exactt size. It's basically a ruler for rings.

6. Small, flat jewelry file: This is to file the ring's edges so your little one doesn't cut herself.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cut about 12 inches of wire. Use the flat-nose pliers and your fingers to gently flatten and straighten the wire. If using colored wire, be particularly careful to keep it from chipping.

2. Start at one end of the wire and make a fun shape. For my monster design, I begin with a small loop and then curve the wire into a blob-like shape with legs so that it looks like the monster has one eye. You can also make spirals, hearts, flowers -- I show you several design ideas in my pictures. Don't make the shape too big. Remember, we're dealing with kids, who have smaller fingers. Keep the shape about a half inch high.

3. Once you make your shape, you want to begin coiling the ring. The coils should run BELOW and PARALLEL to your shape. If using the ring mandrel, begin wrapping about a size and a half below your desired size, i.e., if you want to make a size 5 ring, begin at 3 1/2. For children, I recommend sizes 3-5, though you should measure first, if possible. If you aren't using a mandrel, carefully wrap the ring around a finger, but don't make it too tight as you don't want to cut off the circulation or have the ring get stuck.

4. Wrap the coils tightly and evenly, making sure that the wire doesn't cross over itself. Also, make sure the wire is as flat as possible so that the coils line up evenly; you don't want lumps or bumps in the design. Wrap about four times around and trim the excess wire with the wire cutters. If wrapping the ring around a finger, remove it first before trimming! If the end of the ring is sticking out, use your flat-nose pliers to carefully bend it a bit so that it's even with the rest of the rest.

5. If using a mandrel, push the ring down until you reach your desired size. You want the ring to slip onto the mandrel and easily reach your size, but not be too tight or loose. If it's too tight, you can keep pushing the ring down the mandrel to stretch it. If it's too lose, use the flat-nose pliers to pull the edges in a bit and make it smaller. Gently use your fingers to press the shape in at the edges so that it curves along with the ring -- but don't overdo it. You don't want the shape to stick out too flatly, but you don't want it to appear mushed, either.

6. File the end of the ring so that it's blunt. You can also use the round-nose pliers to curl the end under in a loop so there is no flat edge of the ring. FYI, I have not done that with any of the rings pictured, but it is an option.

7. And the ring is ready to be worn! If giving one as a gift, a fun way to present it is to put it in a colorful box or tiny colorful gift bag. These make great gifts or even work as stocking stuffers and goody bag items.