Content in the Meantime: Crochet wire wrap bracelets

Finally finished two crochet wire wrap bracelets! #newskill #crochetwirejewelry #wirecrochet

A photo posted by Sara Silva (@silvercchile) on Jun 30, 2015 at 11:25am PDT

I always wanted to make crochet wire jewelry. I love crafts that can be used in so many different ways. I have been looking for a better tutorial online, but I could never find something that gave all the information I was looking for. Here are some questions that I had.

What kind of wire should I use?
This is one of the most important questions. I had difficulty finding something in print, but there are some good videos online that tell you what types are good for crocheting.

Non-tarnish wire
First you want to look for a non-tarnish wire. The first wire I bought was for plastic flower arrangements. I couldn't us it because it was too think and smelled metal.

Gauge and mm wire
The size was also difficult for me to figure out. I was at Walmart when I had the desire to start looking at crochet wire jewelry. It was difficult to look for the right size on my phone. Now that i'm looking on the computer, I found better information.
There are two types of sizes: gauge and millimeters (mm). The higher the gauge, the smaller the thickness of the wire in mm. A few blogs I read suggest choosing between size 22-26 gauge. You could go higher than 26, but depending on what you are making with the wire, it might not be strong enough. (Here's a convenient gauge/mm conversion chart from Fire Mountain Gems.) You could even mix two wires together to make a stronger band.

How much wire do I need?
To make the two wrap wire bracelets I made, I used almost the whole package of wire. The suggestion that I heard from some of the videos that I watched, is to string as many beads as the length that you want the necklace/bracelet to be. I originally wanted to make this a 3 strand necklace, but I realized I didn't have enough wire and enough beads. It might have been a better idea to space my beads out more, but I liked the overall look of the beads.

What crochet stitches can you use?
I've seen wire crochet jewelry using all types of crochet stitches. For my bracelets, I used the simple chain stitch. But you can use single crochet, half-double and double crochet, and I saw a pattern using tunisian crochet!

I wish my phone could take clearer close-up photos! But these will have to do for now. At least you can see the colors.