Making Jewelry with Wire Crochet

There are lots of different ways to make jewelry, including bead stringing or weaving, macrame, polymer clay. But maybe you've never attempted any of these, preferring instead to work with yarn and a crochet hook. Well, you can use your crochet skills to make jewelry; you just need to make a few substitutions with the materials, and possibly adapt some of your techniques.

Materials needed
Wire crochet doesn't require many more tools than regular crochet. When you're working with yarn you need a crochet hook, scissors or clippers to cut the yarn, and a large needle to darn in the ends. When you work with wire you'll also need a hook, but you'll use wire cutters instead of scissors, and maybe a small set of pliers to tuck in the ends.

People who get serious about wire crochet like to use wire made from precious metals like sterling silver or gold. But when you're just starting out, that can be expensive, especially since you'll waste some wire during the learning process. A less expensive way to start is with plain silver- or gold-colored craft wire, usually available in spools from a local (or online) craft supplier. The instructions I've seen recommend 28 gauge wire, but I think that's a bit too thick for beginners; instead, try to find 30 or 32 gauge.

You'll need a very small, sturdy hook to work with wire. The best choice here is a steel hook—the kind you'd use for thread crochet. You can start with one of the bigger sizes, like a 2 or 3, and as you get more proficient scale the size down to an 8 or smaller. Obviously the smaller hooks make smaller holes and neater stitches. But wire isn't as flexible as yarn, and when you're just beginning you might have trouble inserting your hook in some of these smaller holes.