“Egyptian” Spiral Bracelet
taught by Caitriona inghean ui Chionaodha
Tools Needed:
Wire cutters
Round-nose pliers
Flat pliers (“chain nose” or “flat nose” both work)
Small files if desired (not used in this class)
Ruler or tape measure
Materials Needed:
20g wire, approx 7 feet for a 7” bracelet, (add 14” of
wire for each additional inch of bracelet)
Large jump ring for clasp, or pre-made clasp, optional
Now, no offense to Tim McCreight (see excerpt, left),
but I don’t think his directions are very clear. Here’s
the step-by-step directions for this class.
1. Cut at least 20 pieces of 20g wire to 3.5” or just
a little longer. (In my sample I did 18 pieces at this
length and 2 pieces of 5.75” - to add some interest to
the final piece.)
2. Coil each end of the wires to a coil approximately
1/4” diameter. [the files that we aren’t using would have
been used just before this step, to taper the ends of the
wire. This would produce a tigher bend to start the coil
and a more even finished product - but I don’t think it’s
essential to a learning piece, so we’re skipping that step.
Hey, we only HAVE an hour!] I like chain-nose pliers for
this process. (tip- use smooth-jawed pliers or tape your
toothed pliers to prevent marring your wire)
3. Once both ends are coiled evenly, use round-nose pliers and bend the piece in half to form the funny little shape
seen in the bottom left of the Tim McCreight sketches.
4. Bend the open loop area of the “U” under, as seen in the sketches above - make sure the loop is visible below the
coils - you’ll need it to be accessible to the next piece of chain. I like round-nose pliers for this step.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 with all pieces, and assemble the chain. (I actually recommend that you do step 2 to all pieces,
then step 3 to all pieces... it will make the finished bracelet more even if you’ve made them all consistent, and that’s
most easily done by performing the same steps to all pieces at the same time. However, if you are trying this for
the first time with a new gauge or length of wire, do steps 1-4 with some sample pieces first, THEN cut a large
batch of pieces. I cut an extra length of each size to use as a template for the rest of the lengths, rather than
writing down measurements.)
6. Attach a jump ring and clasp to the chain - I will demonstrate a simple S-shaped clasp you can make from a 3.5”
wire piece, or a way to turn a standard link into a clasp, or you can use a pre-fabricated clasp.
History:
To be honest, I can’t yet find WHY jewelers call this chain an “Egyptian Spiral”. Although spiral motifs are present in
Egyptian art and metalwork, I have not yet found evidence of this particular chain design appearing in Egyptian artifacts. Ancient Egyptians did use wire in jewelery, especially copper wire, so this is certainly a possible design from
their period. I will keep looking, and will update this handout for future classes. In the meantime, it is a good design for
practicing wire-working skills, and requires no soldering to complete, so tools and materials should be readily available
to anyone. Enjoy!
“Unsoldered Chains” excerpt from The Complete Metalsmith, by Tim McCreight. ISBN 1-929565-05-4, Brynmorgen Press,
Inc., Portland, Maine. (p.225 in the 2004 “professional” edition, but also included in older editions of the text)