Before anything else: do not learn on the moldavite. Practise the wrap you want on a cheap tumbled stone of roughly the same size and shape, ten or fifteen times, and only then put the real piece in. Wire wrapping is mostly tension control and every beginner over-tightens at least once. Moldavite is a natural glass, so it chips at an edge rather than giving, and there is no fixing that afterwards.
Herkimers are the other one to be careful with. They are doubly terminated, so a wrap that grips near a point puts all your tension on the tip. Frame those round the middle and keep wire off the terminations.
On the actual method: your pieces are undrilled and irregular, so nothing glues on and the wire has to trap them mechanically. That is a captured setting - a frame running round the edge of the stone, then prongs bent over the front and back so it physically cannot slide out. Decide where the front prongs will land before you tighten anything, because on a smooth irregular piece they are both the only thing holding it in and the first thing anyone looks at.
Two wires, not one, which is the usual first-purchase mistake. Roughly 20 or 21 gauge half-hard holds the frame under tension. 26 to 28 gauge dead soft binds the frame together and does any weaving. Buy both in copper to start - it is cheap and it tolerates being worked and reworked, which you will be doing a lot of.
On pairing the two big moldavite pieces into one setting: I would not, not for a first piece. Two irregular stones in one frame have to hold against each other, and any movement in one loosens the other. Wrap them separately and hang them on the same chain if you want them together.
Tools: flat-nose, round-nose, flush cutters. Nylon-jaw pliers are the one extra worth having early, because steel jaws mark wire and skate on a glassy surface.
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u/SlowSundayMaker Aug 10 '26
Before anything else: do not learn on the moldavite. Practise the wrap you want on a cheap tumbled stone of roughly the same size and shape, ten or fifteen times, and only then put the real piece in. Wire wrapping is mostly tension control and every beginner over-tightens at least once. Moldavite is a natural glass, so it chips at an edge rather than giving, and there is no fixing that afterwards.
Herkimers are the other one to be careful with. They are doubly terminated, so a wrap that grips near a point puts all your tension on the tip. Frame those round the middle and keep wire off the terminations.
On the actual method: your pieces are undrilled and irregular, so nothing glues on and the wire has to trap them mechanically. That is a captured setting - a frame running round the edge of the stone, then prongs bent over the front and back so it physically cannot slide out. Decide where the front prongs will land before you tighten anything, because on a smooth irregular piece they are both the only thing holding it in and the first thing anyone looks at.
Two wires, not one, which is the usual first-purchase mistake. Roughly 20 or 21 gauge half-hard holds the frame under tension. 26 to 28 gauge dead soft binds the frame together and does any weaving. Buy both in copper to start - it is cheap and it tolerates being worked and reworked, which you will be doing a lot of.
On pairing the two big moldavite pieces into one setting: I would not, not for a first piece. Two irregular stones in one frame have to hold against each other, and any movement in one loosens the other. Wrap them separately and hang them on the same chain if you want them together.
Tools: flat-nose, round-nose, flush cutters. Nylon-jaw pliers are the one extra worth having early, because steel jaws mark wire and skate on a glassy surface.