Wire Working

I thought I would play with some wire, get back into creating something after the holiday. I went to the library and picked up a couple books. One is an older one, published back in the 90's. It's called "Making Wire Jewelry" by Helen Clegg and Mary Larom. It's pretty good, it has in depth instructions and a gallery of photos in the center. There aren't a lot of photos throughout the book in the instructions but they are good enough that the drawings they use are sufficient. The ISBN, if you want to do a search for it, is 1-57990-002-X

So they first technique I tried in this one was the Egyptian coils. The authors explain that it is believed that the first time this was used was over four thousand years ago by an Egyptian goldsmith. It was the first time a necklace was produced using only wire.

I've seen these made before but never tried for myself. Here are a couple pics.
The one on the right is a bracelet made with purple enamel coated copper.

This is one of a pair of earrings made with black enamel coated copper.








There are a few other techniques in this book i'm going to try, I thought this one was the coolest though. The other book is on Viking weave and twisted viking weave and wire knitting. I'm gonna be busy....

Viking Weave and Grammies Kraft Kabana

So, today is Thursday and I missed a couple days. I have been trying to learn viking wire weave. It's a very easy weave, my only problem is finishing it. I have tried a couple different ways and I am not satisfied. I guess my only option is to put it down for awhile, I have gone through an entire 24 yd spool of wire, been amazed at how cool the chain comes out, gotten frustrated at how sloppy the ends look and made my eyes go 'buggy' from reading so many articles on the computer. So when I come to this point I have learned that if I put it down for a couple days something will come to me when i'm not thinking about it. Weird...

I haven't posted anything on AF either....so today i'm going to concentrate on new stuff.

I also want to point you in this direction. It always amazes me when people can do things with a crochet hook or a set of knitting needles. I can go back and forth in a stright line but thats as far as that goes. This lady on AF makes all kinds of things, my favorite is this checker board. So try to go look through her shop, Grammies Krafty Kabana, http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&seller_id=41352&op=new&body=1
Her stuff is really reasonably priced, and winter is coming...

You may even be able to find your kids school colors. That always help keep their hats on their heads!!!