SPOTLIGHT ON ... ARTICLE
February 2007

Spotlight on WigJig
Article and Interview by: Thomas Soles

There is an elegant simplicity to a piece of jewelry designed on a jig board. A linked necklace, a looping series of wires dancing around the wrist on a self-crafted watch band, a distinctive and glamorous chandelier earring - each radiate an easy air of minimalism and quiet professionalism. Just a glance and you might imagine that the designer had found a simple solution to creating dazzling, wearable art. For the most part, this is true, but just like any worthwhile task; there is a learning hump that can hinder an anxious artisan.

One of the most frustrating elements to mastering the jig board is finding one that works. This is much easier said than done. There is a wide assortment of jig boards on the market and each has their own plus and negative points. For instance, you might find a jig board in the bargain bin at your local hobby or bead store. The price looks right, under ten dollars, nice and cheap. After taking it home, however, you realize that the board and the pegs are made of a low grade plastic. A week later, after using the board a couple times, you will find that the pegs are breaking or popping out of the board as you turn a wire loop around them, it is this kind of showstopper that can dampen any kind of fun or desire to learn a new trade.

At Soft Flex Company, we believe that it is always best to find the most durable and the highest quality materials right from the start. If you invest in a sub-par product, you will find the initial cost will eventually outweigh the expense of a superior product after spending the money and time repurchasing damaged goods. We embrace quality when we find it and this month we are highlighting one of our favorite jewelry crafting tools, jig boards from the WigJig Company.

WigJig does not create the most economical boards, they create the finest. Rather than using a soft plastic, WigJig fashions their boards from the same acrylic that is used in aircraft windows. This means that when using a WigJig board, you never have to worry about the peg slots widening after use. A softer plastic will expand as you exert pressure on it and eventually your pegs will rock back and forth adding to the difficulty of a design. WigJigs are strong enough that they can be used in a vice and your designs can be hammered and work hardened while still on the board. Cheaper brands will often break with even casual effort. They tend to have holes drilled through the board where the pegs are placed and if the board is not sitting on a solid desktop, the pegs will drop right through. WigJig bores the peg holes and leave a base so the pegs will remain seated even if you have to pick up the board mid-design.

If you choose to go with a metal or wood board, you will not have to worry about the pegs widening, but, you will have a board that you cannot see through. If you enjoy working from patterns, your work will have to be sketched on paper and then placed atop a wood or metal board. You will then be puncturing the paper for peg placement, this equals a lot of guesswork as you cannot see the pegs beneath the pattern. It also means that you will never be able to reuse a pattern. WigJig boards are translucent; they are designed to be placed over a pattern so it is an easy arrangement of placing pegs. This means that any patterns you love will also be part of your collection again and again. It also allows the user to design from any pattern they find in nature by simply placing the board over it.

WigJig boards excel in versatility. They come in a wide assortment of sizes and shapes. If you are interested in a larger board, you can work with the Olympus model. If the width of the pegs is a consideration, you can find similar sized boards with differing peg sizes - the Olympus-Lite and Delphi are examples of this. If larger loops are what you are seeking, look into WigJig Super Pegs as an addition. If spiraling circles are what your design needs - WigJig Spiral Makers will provide tight coiling loops. If you lose a peg, you can always purchase replacement pegs, an option many jig boards lack. Another thing that other boards don't provide is circular designs; the Electra model will give you a soft arc to a pattern. If you are creating a necklace with linking pieces and do not want straight edges, investing in this design is a wise choice. They also offer a board that features a box configuration on one end and a half-circle on the other - this will allow the user to create any pattern a design needs on the fly.

Gary Helwig, the owner of WigJig Company, can be found at several Soft Flex shows and events each year. He is available at our booth for demos and demonstrations. His role as a jig board advisor affords him the time to show his skills with his creations. It is fascinating to watch him at work as he does not always use his tools in a conventional manner that most teach. He is an out-of-the-box thinker and has honed his craft using innovative techniques that are not shown elsewhere. His website - www.wigjig.com - is an expansive collection of design hints, patterns, and products that will move any user from beginner techniques to advanced crafting.

Gary's tentative show schedule can be found on his website under the show link: www.wigjig.com/pages/shows.htm.

You will be able to find him at Tucson and Milwaukee this year:

Interview with Gary Helwig:

What was the inspiration behind WigJig?
My mother was teaching how to make jewelry with wire and beads and each of her components was hand made without a pattern. For this reason, each was slightly different. I explained to my mother that I could make her a pattern and that would allow her pieces to be more uniform and consistent. She resisted at first, but after thinking about it decided to experiment. The result was our first "Original WigJig" made with fixed pegs which evolved over time to our current clear WigJig products with removable pegs.

What is your favorite piece of jewelry created by a WigJig board?
One of my favorite designs is the Deluxe Duplex Bracelet that can be viewed here:
www.wigjig.com/jewelry-making/duplex/pg12.htm. The designs that I personally like are simple and yet strong. I don't like making designs that could accidentally be pulled apart. I have what I call the "Baby Test". If a 20 pound baby could grab the jewelry item and accidentally pull it apart then it would not pass the baby test. I don't like making jewelry that doesn't pass the Baby Test.

What kind of board innovations can we look forward to in the future?
This is a great question, but unfortunately I don't have a great answer. Our latest new products are round nose pliers and bent chain nose pliers by WigJig. These are modifications to previously existing tools that provide the functionality that we think is necessary to make jewelry using our techniques and to do this at a reasonable price.

How long have you been designing jewelry?
I have been designing jewelry since February of 1999. I try to get ideas by looking at other peoples designs and seeing how I would make that design using my tools and techniques. Since most commercial jewelry is cast and not made by wrapping wire, I always change the original design so that I can make it with wire instead of casting and so that I can make it consistently. Frequently, it is easy to make one attractive piece of jewelry, but the key is being able to repeat that design in a consistent manner and then to describe how that design was made to other people on our web site (www.wigjig.com).

What board is your personal favorite and why?
My personal favorite of our WigJig Tools is the WigJig Centaur. The Centaur has both a square peg pattern and half of a round peg pattern and uses our smaller 1/16" pegs. This jig is our most versatile jig for making jewelry. It isn't perfect for all projects, but is outstanding for about 98% of the jewelry projects that I make.

Do you teach classes? - Where can I attend one?
I do not teach in any scheduled classes. I enjoy teaching; I just don't enjoy the business aspects of teaching including getting students, charging fees, getting a classroom, etc. I like to teach because we have developed some simple shortcuts and techniques for making jewelry that allow everyone to be more consistent. These techniques are not taught by the general teaching community for the simple reason that the general community doesn't know our approach. In my answer to your beginner's question below I will try to cover these shortcuts and techniques.

Do you sell any of your finished designs on EBay or any other websites?
I do not sell my jewelry. Mostly I give the pieces that I make to my family and friends. Selling jewelry is hard work. Making jewelry is fun and creative. I like to make the jewelry but don't like the hard work involved in selling it.

When did Boomer become your spokesdog and can we look forward to more pictures of him being posted on your site?
Boomer became our spokesdog in September of 2006. We wanted to personalize our newsletter and Boomer is far more photogenic than I am. After all, I am so old that my birthstone is lava. Many people find that Boomer adds personality and interest to our newsletter rather than a dry rendition of jewelry projects. Unfortunately, a few people preferred the dry rendition of projects. We have learned that you can't please everyone.

Have you published any books?
WigJig has published several hardcopy books. Currently we have "Wonderful, Wearable Wire" on sale at a new, lower retail price of $22.95. This book has some basic instructions and about 180 pages of patterns for making wire components on our WigJig Olympus.

Can we find you on any television shows?
The story of my life is that my 15 minutes of fame lasted five minutes. I am on a short, 5 minute segment on the DIY channel in their jewelry making show. The episode I am on is called "Here Come the Brides" and the theme is jewelry that you can make for your bridal party. On the show I demonstrate how to make our "Flemish Spiral" bracelet. This bracelet is based on the wire component that started our business - the Flemish Spiral. It was the wire component that my mother gave me and asked me to make a pattern (or jig) for her to consistently make that component.

Do you ship to overseas addresses?
We do ship to most international addresses. We are only able to ship pre-paid, non-credit card orders to West Africa and Venezuela.

What bead shows do you attend?
The only shows that I attend are the two shows with Soft Flex mentioned earlier.

What should a beginner know when purchasing their first board?
We generally recommend that people who want to start making jewelry at a lower cost consider our WigJig Olympus-Lite or our WigJig Delphi. These two jigs have a square peg pattern and are our most economical jigs. For people who want to make jewelry and don't want to purchase a second jig later, we recommend our WigJig Centaur. The Centaur is the closest we have to a single jig that will do almost everything.

Do you have beginner sets available online?
We sell a "Beginner's Kit" and an "Internet Starter Kit" online. The Beginner's Kit includes books and a DVD along with tools some wire and our WigJig Olympus Lite. The Internet Starter Kit is for people who are comfortable using the Internet as it does not include any instructions, but allows people to use our 2,500+ pages of free instructions on the Internet. You can view these two kits here: http://beadstore.wigjig.com/kit-beg.html and http://beadstore.wigjig.com/kit-starter.html

What kind of learning materials will help the beginner advance on a WigJig board?
There are a few tricks/techniques to learn that will make the beginner more successful when learning to use our WigJig Tools. We had to learn these techniques the hard way so to help everyone be successful we documented the techniques in "Beginners Instructions" on our web site. You can view those free instructions here:
www.wigjig.com/making-jewelry-with-beads.htm

The most important techniques are the following:

If beginners can master these four simple steps they will find that it is very easy to make wire components on our WigJig tools. What is intuitive for beginners using a jig is that they want to put all the pegs in their jig and pull the wire by the end of the wire. This is not a technique that will lead to success.

How long can I expect my WigJig board to last?
How long will a pyramid last? I know that I answered a question with a question here; my point is that one of our WigJig tools will last almost indefinitely. I still use the first WigJig tools that we made and they haven't worn out.

Why should I buy a WigJig board?
The simplest reason is that the pegs in our jig are the most stable. We drill the holes in our jigs to a tight tolerance and for this reason our pegs fit snugly and don't wiggle in the holes. You can pay less for an inferior product, but those inferior products make it more difficult to be successful. If you are successful in just one jewelry project, the value of that design will easily compensate the owner for the difference in price between our tools and the competition.

What is the inspiration behind some of the patterns on your site, such as the alphabet?
We get a lot of e-mail saying things like, "How would I make X?" Frequently, we don't know how to make X, but often the challenge is enough to pique our interest. Once we figure out how to do it, we then document it on the Internet. That was how we got going on making letters. Many people asked for it, so we did some experimentation and came up with some designs.

What kind of jewelry can I make with a WigJig board?
The only kind of jewelry that you can't make is jewelry that requires a cast component. If you cast the component separately, you can use our WigJig tools and techniques to incorporate the cast component into Earrings, Bracelets, Necklaces, Rings and other designs.

What is the best single tip you can offer on WigJig technique?
There are four tips that are important. We discussed these four tips in greater detail in the beginner's section above. The four tips are:

Start with straight wire.
Begin with just two pegs in your jig and add pegs as you go.
Push the wire with one finger. Don't pull the wire.
Push until the wire rests adjacent to the hole for the next peg with no pressure applied.

Are there any artists that design with WigJig boards that have caught your eye?
Many people make jewelry with our WigJig tools, but I don't go to shows where they sell finished jewelry so I don't see many of the finished designs.

What kind of wire should I use for my WigJig boards?
Beginners should use 18 and 20 gauge to make wire components on their WigJig tools and 22 gauge wire to make connectors to connect those wire components into jewelry.

Are there any sales on www.wigjig.com that I should be on the look out for?
We have a sale on a variety of beads, wire and jewelry supplies in our Internet store on an ongoing basis. To view our sale items you can go to: http://beadstore.wigjig.com. Because we sell our WigJig tools to distributors and retail stores, we do not place our WigJig tools and accessories on sale. This is a corporate policy that we do not want to put our store in competition with our business customers.

Are there any tool lines that you prefer?
As you can imagine, over time we make a lot of jewelry and use a lot of tools. This led us to find certain attributes of tools that we liked. Unfortunately, we did not find all the attributes for tools in any one vendor so we have worked with a manufacture of hand tools in Pakistan to develop our WigJig brand of hand tools. We feel that our WigJig hand tools have the best possible features at a reasonable price. These are the tools that we use ourselves for the simple reason that they work the best.

How long does a typical design take to finish?
My patience is limited so I don't do any projects that take hours to make. Typically, my designs take about 30 minutes to 90 minutes for me to complete. A beginner may take a little longer.

How long would you estimate it might take a beginner to really understand and use a WigJig like a pro?
Some beginners tell me that they are making jewelry that they sell after as little as one week of practice and reading on our web site. Other people may find that they need more practice. For each individual the time will be different.

How does the Mini-Athena differ from other WigJig boards?
The Mini-Athena has fixed pegs and is therefore limited to one pattern. The same pattern can be made on our WigJig Cyclops, Electra or Centaur with removable pegs. For most people, we recommend the removable peg solution because of the added flexibility it offers. The Mini-Athena is appropriate for people who what to make just the design it support in the most economical manner.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Sincerely,
Gary Helwig
WigJig - www.wigjig.com