Jewelry making newbies often want to start out making the beautiful intricate designs they see in completed pieces, but it is the mastery of the simple loop that will determine the quality of your completed work. The simple wire loop is the starting place for all connections; connecting beads, making ear wires and forming chain. Start out with a four inch piece of 20 or 22 gauge dead-soft wire and grasp one end with your round-nose pliers about one third of the way down from the end. Make a loop but do not worry too much about perfection at this point.
You are aiming for a round loop that is closed and even. You want the loop to be round and symmetrical so that it closes without a gap and lays flat. Hold the wire between your thumb and index finger and use your other fingers to turn the pliers in a half circle motion to make the loop, while simultaneously using your thumb to guide the wire along the jaw of the pliers. The loop should form without your having to pull the wire. When you reach the point that the wire overlaps the stem, move your pliers so that the jaw is in the loop and use the pliers to bend the wire back against the stem to close the loop.
Many people end up with a teardrop shape instead of a round loop because they pull too hard on the wire instead of letting the loop form, or they fail to move the pliers to the center of the loop and bend the wire back. Another mistake newbies make is twisting their wrist instead of rotating the pliers. This will give you a kinked loop and weaken the wire. Instead, slow the rotation of the pliers down and focus on keeping the loop centered on the jaw. The wire will follow a circular path if the tension is even. Do not try to practice for more than 15 or 20 minutes at a time.
Sit down at a clear space with good lighting, with your pliers and a small pile of cut wires beside you and make nothing but loops for the entire time. Make an open loop, then close it, then open it again and check its shape. Every 5 or so loops check the last one you made against the first one you made. Are your loops getting more round? Is the closing point more even? Repeating the same motion over and over again will help you develop your technique much more effectively than trying to practice a variety of techniques in one sitting.
If you get frustrated because your results are not even, stop for a minute and stretch your hands, then come back and just try to make the next loop rounder than the last one. After a few sessions you will begin to see a difference. Your loops will close without a gap, the wire will no longer kink where the loop meets the stem, and the size of the loop will become more predictable instead of seeming random. And that is important because every ear wire, jump ring and bead connection depends on loops that will lie flat and be even. Once you can make a closed loop consistently, try varying the size of the loop while maintaining the same technique of rolling the loop.
The skills you master with simple loops will transfer to more intricate wire wrapping and chain making techniques. But don’t abandon this simple technique once you’ve moved on to other things. Coming back to it will help you maintain a gauge of the quality of your work. Every improvement you make will build on the last and eventually what seems clumsy now will become second nature to you and evident in the quality of the jewelry you make.