Tumblebug's First Attempts At Wire Wrapping

[ctxtumblebug]

Jugglerguy AKA MichiganRocks comes through with the win for me once again and I totally appreciate that. First time was with the excellent tutorials on rock tumbling and this time it is the wire wrapping thing made simple. I watched a YouTube video showing him doing some simple wire wraps of cabochons. The key takeaway is that he gently cuts a small groove all the way around the rock that he wants to wire wrap. That groove is where the wire goes on the rock and allows for the rock to be wrapped very securely with the wire.  I simply cut a small groove all the way around the rock with a diamond tip on a dremel tool and took a single piece 20 or 22 gauge soft-temper copper wire to do the wrap for those rocks. I just mold the wire into the groove around the rock, then I take one end of the wire and have it sticking straight up from the top of the rock in the position where the loop will be formed. I then bring the other end of the wire around the piece that will form the loop and wrap it tightly around that piece about five or six times. After that, I make the loop and wrap it around about five or six times again, cut the tails off and smooth the cut ends of the wire out so they won't snag on the wearer's clothes. The end result is a decent looking tumbled rock pendant that can be easily placed on a necklace. These also sell very well at flea markets, farmer's markets and craft shows. Here are a few images of some rocks that I wire wrapped yesterday.

[khara]

Those look very nice. Also with these simple wraps, it allows the rock to really shine and be the star. Can you explain how you hold both the Dremel and also the cab to get the cut evenly around the perimeter?

[liveoak]

They look really nice.

I've done a couple of flat backed cabs like that, and cut the groove with my glass grinder,

but, I'd agree, I'd like to know how you did such a good job on free-form tumbled rocks ?

Or did you flatten the backs first ?

Patty

[rockjunquie]

Nice and neat! Great job! 

[ctxtumblebug]

Feb 8, 2024 6:37:13 GMT -5 khara said:

Those look very nice. Also with these simple wraps, it allows the rock to really shine and be the star. Can you explain how you hold both the Dremel and also the cab to get the cut evenly around the perimeter?

I just simply hold the dremel tool in my hand with my arm resting on a table for support. I take the rock and gently cut a small groove all the way around the rock with a beveled diamond tip by slowly guiding the rock along the cutting edge until I am satisfied with the results. To prevent cracking and chipping, I will dip the rock in water frequently throughout the process. This process does take some time for each piece but the end result is very satisfying. The wire wrap itself takes just a couple of minutes and the cutting takes about 5-10 minutes for each piece.

[susand24224]

You did an extraordinary job for your first attempts, or even for your 100th attempt! I am especially impressed that you accomplished this with very simple tools more manually than "usual." Nice!

[jasoninsd]

ctxtumblebug - Fantastic job on those! I'm super impressed you cut the groove by hand with a Dremel!!

[Jugglerguy]

I can’t imagine cutting a groove by hand with a Dremel. That’s impressive!

I don’t deserve credit for teaching you this. You may have seen me do it first, but I follow Chuck’s (Drummond Island Rocks) excellent tutorial. His method is different from yours, though.

Chuck’s Groove Wrap Tutorial