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Daily Wire Tip Nov. 16: Wrapping a Metric Wrist

By on November 15, 2010
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Daily Wire Jewelry Making Tip for
November 16, 2010

Question:

I am making a classic wire bracelet with a stone in the middle. The bracelet is being made from 6 feet of 21-gauge square half hard sterling silver wire, and 1 foot of 21-gauge half round sterling silver wire. The person that I am making it for says her wrist measurement is 15cm. How long, in inches, should I cut the six feet of square wire to fit her wrist? The clasp would be included in the measurement, since I am not making a hook and eye clasp.

-Jacqueline in Virginia Beach, Virginia

Answer:

When I take a custom order in centimeters, to transfer it to inches, I measure and cut a piece of string in centimeters, and then place it alongside a ruler for the correct inches. For reference, to convert centimeters to inches with a calculator, you can multiply the length in centimeters by 0.394.

As for the correct length of wire, well, how loose or tight would the customer like her bracelet? Our Faculty members and I usually plan the wrist plus ½” (1.27cm). If you were to make a hook and eye clasp, you would also need to add the lengths of wire that will be bent over to form the hook, as well as the width of the eye.

I am presuming that the stone is going to be set separately and then attached? If not, then you would have to take the distance across the top of the stone into account as well.

I hope that half round wire you mention is half hard for strength. Actually, I would recommend either using the same 21-gauge square wire for the wraps, or upping the half round to 18-gauge, because 21-gauge half round is not large enough to support a 21-gauge wire bracelet – unless you plan on doing a LOT of wrapping! This style of bracelet is always difficult to formulate and get perfect, as there is no real opportunity for corrections.

Have fun!

Answer contributed by Dale “Cougar” Armstrong

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5 Comments

  1. avatar

    Cristina - DeCris Creations

    November 16, 2010 at 8:41 am

    Hi!

    Dale gives, as usual, great advice, and if you don’t mind I just wanted to add my two cents…
    I use the metric system so I’m often faced with doing the math on measurements! I’m not that good at math so I use an online conversion calculator. This one is pretty good and you can choose the units you want to convert: http://www.metric-conversions.org

    I hope to have helped.

    Cris

    • avatar

      dalecgr

      November 16, 2010 at 10:09 am

      Thanks for the conversion link Cris!

  2. avatar

    Kathryn Kienle

    November 16, 2010 at 4:50 pm

    If you have an iPhone or iTouch, there is a app for converting metric to US or US to metric. It is called Convert Units and converts any unit of measure, mass, length, volume, etc. It is extremely handy to have.

  3. avatar

    Lorraine Brooks

    November 16, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    This is rather long, so Dale might want to edit it, but I keep this saved in Note Pad on my computer.

    Useful length conversions
    1 meter (m) = 100 centimeters (mm)
    1 meter (m) = 1000 millimeters (mm)
    1 centimeter (cm) = 10 millimeters (mm)

    1 foot (ft) = 12 inches (in)

    1 inch (in) = 2.54 centimeters (cm)
    1 inch (in) = 25.4 millimeters (cm)
    10 inches (in) = 25.4 centimeters (cm)
    12 inches (in) = 1 foot (ft) = 30.5 centimeters (cm)

    Convert inches to mm
    1 inches = 25 mm
    1.5 inches = 38 mm
    2 inches = 51 mm
    2.5 inches = 64 mm
    3 inches = 76 mm
    3.5 inches = 89 mm
    4 inches = 102 mm
    4.5 inches = 114 mm
    5 inches = 127 mm
    5.5 inches = 140 mm
    6 inches = 152 mm
    6.5 inches = 165 mm
    7 inches = 178 mm
    7.5 inches = 191 mm
    8 inches = 203 mm
    8.5 inches = 216 mm
    9 inches = 229 mm
    9.5 inches = 241 mm
    10 inches = 254 mm
    10.5 inches = 267 mm
    11 inches = 279 mm
    11.5 inches = 292 mm
    12 inches = 305 mm

    • avatar

      dalecgr

      November 17, 2010 at 10:55 am

      Thanks Lorraine! I did shorten it. Folks if you need to know inches to cm, simply divide the mm by 10. For example 1-inch = 25mm divided by 10 = 2.5cm.