Wire Coiling Tips August 15
Coiling wire is a technique that I use pretty extensively, as you can see in my gallery. As I was working on a piece tonight that involved coiling wire, it struck me that it would have been a huge help if I’d had these two tips when I started doing coiled wire pieces. So I nabbed the camera and took a couple of pictures to pass on these two tips.
Wire Coiling Tip #1
When coiling one wire around another wire, stick a finger inside of the coil loop you’re making so that you can catch any potential snags before they become problems. If you pull the wire tight right off, it’s much easier to get snags and funky twists in the wire. Trust me on this. I must have done it a few hundred times before I figured out a way to prevent it.
Here’s another view to make sure you know what I mean.
Wire Coiling Tip #2
When pulling a wire tight, hold very close to whatever you’re coiling it around. That way you’re not work hardening the entire length of the wire and making it too hard to do the rest of the coiling. This is especially important if you’re using a long wire to do the coiling. I’ve tried pulling it from further away and ended up with 2 and 3 foot long pieces of hard, stiff wire that I had to cut off and toss because they were too hard to coil. Not fun.
Coil on!