and the wrap goes on .....

Hi my name is Chantelle and I am a needle and thread beader. The more intricate the piece and the smaller the beads the happier I am. I have done the knotting and stringing thing, but have kept coming back to my first love, off-loom techniques.
I did however recently make a move to the OTHER SIDE of the beading fence. As a fair number of my clients are not needle & thread beaders I felt I should at least have a crack at making wrapped loops. Below are my photos of my first pieces made using wrapped loops. I enjoyed making these pieces so much that for now I am packing away my other beadwork. I am going through my stash of gemstones, pearls and larger beads that I have been  hoarding for ages.

I used a 0.60ømm silver plated wire for the piece with the agate, pearls and smoky quartz and made use of 0.40ømm silver plated wire for the piece with the chalcedony, biwa & round pearls, beryl rounds and lamp worked beads. For now I'll stick to the silver plated wire, I am still learning and by making use of the silver plated wire I don't feel to guilty when I have particularly ugly loop that needs to be sent to the trash can


August 2009
Well I've been making wrapped loops for about 8 months now and while I by no means consider myself an expert I have started using 925 silver wire and 14KGF wire.
I am currently working on a piece using 28 gauge 14KGF wire and 2mm to 3mm faceted garnets. As this is the thinnest gauge I have worked with to date it has been a whole new learning curve.  I will take a photo when there's a little more to see (only about 20 cm long at this stage) I intend to do 4 strands of wrapped loops - each line about 100 cm long. Luckily I have not set a deadline.

I have been asked what to do when you you have a few of the same type of bead or odd colours all the same shape or size beads. Well here's what I did.  I had a few really nice faceted amethyst wheels and some left over cultured pearls so I combined them with 14KGF chain.


For the next piece I used left over 4mm fire polish beads, 2mm sterling silver beads, faceted gemstone pillow beads and freshwater pearls. The wrapped loops were made using 0.40mmø silver plated wire

And last but not least my 1st piece using sterling silver wire! I used 19 different coloured 4mm Swarovski bicones, 2mm sterling silver beads and cultured pearls. As you will see I have not finalized the clasp! It's in place but the final wrap is yet to be made.