How To Make Wire Wrapped Jewelry

How to learn jewelry making and design?

I have been very passionate about jewelry my entire life. As an adult, I have made dozens of beaded pieces and several wire wrapped pieces. I’m very interested in learning other techniques to take my jewelry making to the next level but I don’t know where to start. Since I am a busy professional, I’m interested in taking weekend classes either group or private.

I currently live in the Sonoma County in California. I would love any local leads or resources. I don’t know where to start as to learning how to proceed with bench work, molds and other techniques.

You can check whether there happen to be night classes at any university near you which offers jewelry classes, though there are probably not too many. But you can also ask the professors there for advice where to go.
You can check the offerings of local community art centers.

http://www.fallbrookschoolofthearts.org/classes/jewelry-making.html

Local shops where you can buy beads often offer short workshops.

Unfortunately I don’t know whether there are corresponding institutions in California, but the Penland School of Crafts has good classes:http://www.penland.org/, if you can’t find anything closer maybe spend a week vacation there.

And of course you can check your library and bookstores for inspiration. You could for example look into paper jewelry for a different and not tool intensive route to explore. You could also search the internet, Rio grande has various project suggestions:http://forum.riogrande.com/?q=projects

Introduction to Wire Wrap Jewelry : How to Make Wire Wrapped Bracelets