Wire-Wrapped Sea Glass Pendant

My friend and I frequently run to the nearby beach together and go treasure hunting (the treasure being sea glass or shells). I made this pair of necklaces, silver for her and black for me, because I wanted personalized friendship necklaces that would be unique to us. Both pieces of sea glass are light blue, which is perfect because blue is our favorite color.

The wrapping is very simple, and I just stumbled onto it when I was trying out various other wire-wrapping looks. It's basically a spiral of wire around the sea glass, and if you look closely at the pendants above, I switched the direction of the black spiral and the silver one (different slant direction) so that the necklaces would complement each other; somewhat like yin yang.

Materials

wire (For this type of wrap, thicker gauge wire [probably 22 or thicker-- I used 20 gauge] is much better than thin gauge because the weight of the sea glass might warp the wire over time. If your sea glass shard is larger, use thicker gauges to match the weight.)
sea glass
pliers
necklace chain or cord
OPTIONAL: vegetable or olive oil + scrap cloth or paper

Polishing Sea Glass

When you pick up natural sea glass, it looks a bit cloudy. The cloudiness does look nice and natural, but I chose to polish my sea glass with olive oil so that the cloudiness wouldn't blend in as much with my silver wire.

To polish your sea glass, simply pour a tiny amount of oil (vegetable or olive) on your cloth or paper and rub your sea glass until the cloudiness comes off.

Beginning

Start by making a small loop. This will be the loop that you'd attach a jump ring for a pendant.

Then decide which slant direction you want and position the wire behind the sea glass accordingly. From the picture above, you can see that my slant will have a negative slope (from top left to bottom right) (negative slope -- yes, I am that nerdy).

Wrap Number One

Firmly pinch the wire and sea glass between your left thumb and index finger. Then bring the wire around to the front of the sea glass. Keep the same pressure so that the wire doesn't move much, and wrap the wire around to the back of the sea glass.

First wrap done! Take a moment to rest those fingers or shake them out; only a few more wraps to go.

Continue Wrapping

Pinch the wire and sea glass firmly again. Wrap the wire around to the front and then around to the back. Make sure that your wraps are evenly spaced.

Last Wraps

Continue to wrap the sea glass in a spiraling fashion until there's no more room for another wrap. When you've reached that point, cut the wire, leaving about a 0.75" tail.

Last Bits

Make another small loop at the end of the tail using your pliers. Then gently, using fingers and pliers, curve the loop into the final spiral at the bottom so that the small loop looks like it's the bulls-eye of an archery target.

Completion

Your pendant is finally complete! Take a moment to adjust the spirals with your fingers so they aren't crooked relatively to each other.

Make another one if you're making a set for a friend like me. You could change the slant direction like I did too so that the spirals complement one another.

Jump Ring and Chain

Use your wire to make a small jump ring by making a loop and cutting it off. String the pendant's top loop through and then attach it to the chain to complete your necklace.

Voilà; a new necklace to remind you of fond memories from a beach.