Twisty wire wrap jewelry (corkscrew bead)

Apache tear obsidian, tourmaline, and
apatite necklace and earrings

I had purchased a book on making wire wrap jewelry, and the book is very cool.  My main issue is that I don't like to follow the directions.  The second pitfall I have is that I buy the supplies first, books second, and don't want to buy new things after that.

So I come across a necklace I just LOVE, but you have to buy these twisty tubules to go between your beads.  I don't have twisty tubules, and I already spent WAAAAY too much on gemstones.

Kunzite, garnet, and rose quartz necklace

Last night, I am not sure what came over me, but I used a little dowel and wrapped my wire around it with my fingers... and wrapped, and wrapped.  Then, I pulled it apart with my pliers and had a really neat looking spiral shaped wire.  Well, the only thing left to do was to connect it to my necklace (which had nothing on it yet) and presto!  change-o!  A beautiful necklace I love.  So beautiful I made two different ones and am finding it very difficult to give either one away this Christmas.

Well, I couldn't just leave out the earrings, could I?  No.  Of course not!!!  I've been looking at more earrings people are wearing, and got some ideas.  This look incorporated a straight beaded earring with the twisty wire concept, and I like them!

They were super simple to make, and I just LOVE the look.

Note: my fingers are still sore from wrapping the wire around the dowel last night.  These were used in place of the curved silver tubes recommended in the book Beautiful wire jewelry for headers: Creative wirework projects for all levels by Irina Miech.  GREAT book, by the way!