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How to Make a Jig for Wire Jewelry
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It's easy to make your own jig to make wire jewelry, earrings, clasps, and other components. All you need is a piece of wood, some finishing nails, and a hammer. Here's how you do it...
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Skill Level
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Suitable for beginners.
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Time Required
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About 15 minutes.
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| Materials | Comments |
| Hammer | |
| Nails | I used 18 gauge finishing nails (small heads). Other brads or nails will work. |
| Block of Wood | I used a palm-sized scrap of 2x6. I think a piece of 1x4 or 2x4 would be perfect. |
| Template (optional) | You can use a jewelry component (e.g., clasp or earwire) or a printed template to help get the spacing you want. |
Why would you want to make your own jig? Maybe you have children that you don't want to play with your jig. Maybe you can't afford a machined jig. Maybe you only make a few components or a lot of a limited style of components. Maybe you just want to try wirework without the commitment of purchasing a jig. There are lots of reasons for having a handmade jig. You can make a jig with removeable pegs (nails) or you can make a permanent jig (great for making a lot of one design). Whichever you choose, have fun!
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To make this jig, I printed a jig template from Wig Jig. Their jigs are greatly superior to the handheld wooden jig because their holes are perfectly machine-spaced, the jigs are clear and smooth (no splinters), and the pegs are easy to remove and stand perfectly vertical. Also, you really can't get the close spacing for the delicate components (as with WigJig's Delphi or Electra jig) because it's too difficult to accurately place the nails. The Olympus and Cyclops templates are suitable. Alternatively, you can choose your jig spacing based on an existing jewelry component (just place the pegs a little more tightly to allow for the natural springiness of the wire). Other materials you will need are a hammer, a piece of wood, and nails.
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 Lay your template or component on the wood and hammer the nails as desired (hammer through the paper template into the wood). If the placement is to be permanent, you can hammer the nails securely. If you want removeable pegs, hammer in the nails such that you can remove them without difficulty. Careful, precise nail placement will pay off in uniform results!
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 I removed some nails (left enough to hold the template) so that I could expand the pattern of the jig. My pegs are meant to be removeable. Once you have made all of your holes/placed your nails, you can tear the template away. If your nails have heads, you can use wirecutters to snip them off (in which case you will probably want to file the cuts to make them smooth). If you want to make wider pegs, one option is to use larger nails (great for making clasp or earwire jigs where the pegs are not removed) or you can wrap aluminum foil or cardboard around the nails (for removeable pegs).
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 Here's what my jig looks like with the pegs removed. As you can see, the holes don't line up in a perfect array. That's the advantage of a machined jig over a handmade jig. It doesn't really matter for large components, but it is critical for small components. It doesn't matter that some holes are bigger than others; it means some nails were placed more deeply than others during jig construction.
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 Here's the jig I just completed, set up to make a chandelier component for an earring or pendant. You may find you enjoy wirework so much that you want a machined jig. You can read about one of the jigs that I own: WigJig's Delphi Model.
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