Table of contents for Making medical jewelry fancy
- Medical jewelry, plain & fancy, part 4
Today’s project is the most elaborate, and the one on which I can provide the least in the way of exact instructions. Strange but true. 🙂 This is because I took a plain bracelet emblem and wire-wrapped it, and explaining how to do wire wrapping is best left to someone who knows a lot more about it than I do. Fortunately, there are plenty of books that can teach you the technique, and any good public library should have at least a few (or they can get one for you through interlibrary loan). I used Wire Wrapping: The Basics And Beyond which provides clear tutorials for almost anything you’d want to try with a pendant.
For this project you will need a bracelet emblem of your choice (I used the gold titanium sleek stretch bracelet emblem), wire of your choice, a small bead or crystal, pliers, small screwdriver, and a jump ring. Remove the bracelet as detailed in the previous posts, and if you’re using a bracelet with a chain, remove both of the rings. Wire wrap the pendant in whatever style looks good to you, but be sure the wire does not obscure the MedicAlert graphics on the front or the essential information on the back.
Cut a piece of thin wire about 1-1/2 times as long as you want the drop on the bottom of the pendant to be. Make a loop in one end, thread on your bead or crystal, and make a loop in the other end but don’t close the loop. Hook this through the opening at the bottom of the emblem and then close the loop. For the dangle on the bottom (which is optional) I took a piece of the twisted-square wire I’d used for the wrapping and wound it into a small, tight spiral with my pliers. The end of the spiral was angled up and around to make another loop, which I slipped through the loop on the bottom of the crystal bead and then crimped closed.
Attach a sturdy jump ring to the top of the pendant, add a decorative chain of your choice (make sure it is sturdy and not delicate), and you’re set to go. This is a MedicAlert emblem you can wear just as you would any fancy pendant.
If you’ve done “remodeling” work on your own jewelry, I would love to hear about it!
Next up: Attaching a Medic Alert emblem to a large thrift-store bracelet.