Wire Bending Tricks

Basic Bending Tricks

• Long-nose pliers, the main tool in wire-bending, come with different heads, lengths and designs. To use pliers, hold in a palm grip and secure with enough pressure. Hold the wire in place using the pliers and use your other hand to bend it. The only time you need to use two long-nose pliers is when the bend is too difficult to be shaped by your hands.

Creating Basic Shapes

• A trick to easily create basic shapes is to use household items with the form you desire. For example, you can create a perfect circle by using a bottle and wrapping the wire around it. Pull the wire as tightly as you can around the object so that it retains its shape when you remove it.

Paper as Mold

• Create a hollow armature or art piece by using paper as your mold. For example, create a hollow ball of wire by crumpling a piece of paper and shaping it in a sphere. Wrap the wire around the crumpled paper and shape it according to your design. Once done, find a safe place to light the paper on fire.

Wire Jigs

• Buy several wire bending jigs and use them to create difficult bends. These wire bending jigs are available in specialty or hardware stores. Wire bending jigs come in different designs and let you bend wires in a myriad of positions. Most also comes with holes so that you can fix them on a workbench. Others come with small steel pins that you can move around the jig to create custom molding patterns.