Since these early times, patterns were known to be used in architecture and construction and were likely to be used in making jewelry. In 1914 the US Patent and Trademark Organization issued a patent for a metal bending jig with movable pegs to be used in bending rebar in the construction industry. In the middle 1930's some textbooks for making jewelry with wire showed how to make a fixed peg jig by simply hammering nails into a board. Prior to 1990, artists making jewelry were constrained to making their own jig or patterns for making their jewelry. In 1995, a patent was issued to Gary Helwig for a wire bending jig that contained a fixed pattern to be used for making jewelry wire components. As that time the WigJig Company was founded to make and sell those fixed peg jigs. The use of a fixed peg pattern was recognized as having limitations and during the late 1990s a vendor developed a metal jig with removable pegs. At about the same time, the WigJig company developed a transparent jewelry making jig with removable pegs. In July of 2001 a patent was issued for this "Transparent jewelry wire bender" (US Patent 6,253,798). At this point, the jewelry making community had a choice of a metal jig or the transparent WigJig Olympus both available options had a square peg pattern with approximately .25 inch spacing between the peg holes. This is my personal favorite.

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