ANGEL WING Tutorial

"ANGEL WING"  TUTORIAL

I'm like a broken record! Every year I seem to
say the same thing: "I can't believe it's December
already!".

If you're like me, Christmas stuff (apart from projects 
and teaching) gets left until the very last week... 
Luckily, I do have lots of lovely females in my family, 
so I'm always making jewellery and decorative gifts,
which means you can customise each and every piece
to suit the recipient.

This is one of my favourites this year:
ANGEL WING design, which can be incorporated
into many things!

Decorate a candle with glitter paints (this one was done
by my 10 year old niece, Anni). Create the 'wings' and
push into each side of the candle! You can also bead it 
and turn it into a beautiful jewellery statement!

SO ... here goes with STEP 1:

Working from a spool of wire, create a circular link and
curl the wire around to form an open spiral.

STEP 2:

Decide on the length of the piece, and bend the wire back
towards the spiral, creating a curved tip at the end.

STEP 3:

Use your fingers or pen (bail making pliers will also do) to form
a loop in the wire and double it back down.

STEP 4:

Create a second loop in the wire, this one can be slightly larger
than the first.

STEP 5:

Bring the wire around to meet the base of the spiral and cut
from the spool, leaving just enough to form a link.

STEP 6:

Spend a little time adjusting the shape and once you're satisfied,
Whammer the outer ends with your steel and texturing head on
a steel block.

STEP 7

Using 0.4mm wire, secure and attach beads into the
framework in any fashion you desire! (Just go with the
flow ...!).

STEP 8:

And ... I think I will stop here!
Cut off any wire ends and neaten and then decide whether it's
going to be a tree decoration, a pendant, key-ring (or handbag charm)...
Decisions! Decisions!

I've chosen to make this into a scarf pendant ... it would make
a great Christmas gift for one of my sister's-in-law!

Suspended from a Kumihimo braid as a necklace, would also
set it off nicely!

Try creating them with a variety of bead colours!

Or, as candle decorations (as shown at the top of the page).
However, if you prefer earrings, just turn the posts into links
and suspend form ear wires!

That's probably enough inspiration, to get you running to your spool
of wire (1mm and 1.25mm are great for the frames and 0.4mm for
the wrapping).

If you want more Christmas inspiration, I will be on
CREATE and CRAFT TV 
this Friday (4th December) at 2pm
(Sky 674/ Freeview 36/ Virgin 748/ Freesat 813 in the U.K.)

Sending wire filled hugs and Christmas wishes 
to all creative wire artists everywhere! xxxxxx

PUTRA from DEBOU HANDYCRAFT

ARTIST FEATURE

PUTRA 
of
DEBOU HANDYCRAFT
*********************************
I love discovering new wire artists! Especially when they appear from 
different parts of the globe! That's the beauty of the internet, seeing an 
image pop up, that blows you away!

Le me introduce you to Putra, a 26 year old jeweller from Banten,
Jawa Barat in Indonesia. He only started making jewellery about 2 
years ago! Not only does he work in wire, but is a metalsmith too, 
polishes and cuts stones and basically is a master jeweller! However,
as this is a wire blog, I'm going to concentrate on his wire artistry. 
I can't tell you too much about Putra, because my Indonesian is very rusty 
(yes, I did actually live in Java a long time ago!) and his English is limited, 
however, an air or mystery is no bad thing and in this case, I don't think
words are necessary as Putra's designs speak for themselves.

 




















Are you sitting comfortably? If so, take a visual gallery trip into
some of Putra's stunning wirework designs!

And here's a personal favourite of mine!

Putra, has also kindly agreed to share one of his a ring tutorials with us.
Again, the images speak for themselves!
So watch and learn ...

Putra will also be teaching this Bird design ring in his workshop!

Such a talent!

Terima Kasih, Putra! I hope this blog will spread your fame a little

wider...

Here's the artist himself! I just know you'll be seeing more of his work 

in the future!

Putra's jewellery brand is DEBOU HANDYCRAFTS.

Halloween Bat Project

HELLO!
HALLOW!
HALLOWEEN!
It's that black and orange time of year again! The shops are
filling with all the merchandise relevant to: witches, broomsticks,
black cats, spiders, pumpkins and fake blood and gore! And if
you've got kids, nieces and nephews or grandchildren, you just
can't escape it! But with a few wireworking tools and basic skills,
here's a project that can be adapted for a decoration (to be hung from
black thread) or, as a necklace on a cord or chain, so that you can make
your own piece of halloween merchandise in the form of a BAT!

There's nothing too scary about this tutorial!
I used 0.8mm black iron wire to create the frame.

1. To make a pendant, cut about 12" of wire
and starting at the centre of the length, create the
bat shape frame (as shown above).

2.  Secure one end around the other by wrapping (and
cut off any excess) and then, using your round nosed
pliers, create a link with the projecting wire at the base.

3. Working from a spool of 0.3mm black wire, cut off
about 2.5-3 metres of wire and scrunch it up in your
hands!

4. Stretch and flatten the scrunched wire out until it sits at the
centre of your bat frame. Cut an arm's length of 0.3mm wire and
use this to 'stitch' and sew the scrunched wire into the frame,
securing it to the sides.

5.  If you feel there are any gaps within the frame, just add more
wire as required. Once the frame is filled with the scribbled wire,
gently 'stroke' it on a steel block with the steel head of your Whammer
and this will flatten and compress it all together. Then place it over a
rounded object, such as a jar or bottle to dome it slightly.

Next ... you will need 2 x orange/red eye beads, a black bead
for the nose, a pendant drop bead to suspend from the tip of
the frame and a cord or chain to attach it to ...

6. Using a workable length of 0.3mm black wire, attach the
eye and nose beads by 'sewing' them into place within the
scrunched wire frame.

7. Now all that's left, is to connect the drop bead with a jump ring
from the end link of your frame, and attach the cord to each side
of the bat wings.

I'm sure most of you will already know how to create a fish hook
fastener and if not, there are many books and tutorials out there
packed with basic wirework techniques and guidance!

 Have fun making this Bat
called Nora! and I look forward
to seeing you on 10th October
at 3pm on:
CREATE and CRAFT TV
for a Xmas themed project
show!

KUMIHIMO

HAVING a GO 
at KUMIHIMO!

I'm looking forward to a few relaxing weeks ahead
in the sunshine, a break from work and a proverbial
recharging of the human batteries!

In the summer weeks ahead, I thought I would teach
myself a new technique that I can add to my jewellery skills
and so, after admiring many beautiful Kumihimo designs
on the web, I thought it would be fun to give it a go!

Most of you probably already create stunning Kumihimo
works of art, but if you're like me, just starting out, here's
a very brief history:

The term 'Kumihimo' actually means intersected threads
in Japanese, referring to any type of braid created using
the loop-manipulation.  It has a very long history in
Japan, with early examples dating back to 8000-300BC!

Over the centuries, it has become an integral part of 
Japanese culture, used to tie prayer scrolls, lacing devices
for the samurai armour and used as embellished decorations
over Buddhist statues.  Originally it was created on specialised
wooden stands, but more recently, a round disk tool with
bobbins was developed, created out of flexible foam and
this has given the craft a universal following and appeal.

I'm not going to bore you with any more technical or historic
information, as there is plenty you can thumb through on the
internet and in craft books dedicated to the subject.  I just
wanted to share with you, my very first attempts!

Once I got the hang of setting up the disk, I attempted the simplest
of braiding patterns: moving the top right braid to the bottom
right slot and bottom left braid up to the top left, then quarter turn and
repeat ... I was away! The repetitive rhythm of the task was very
soothing and the result was rewarding.  I also found, that having some
wire skills was useful when needing to create fasteners, end caps and
linking systems.

My next attempt was braiding with beads. These gorgeous purple
coloured petal shaped beads (above) hide a multitude of braiding
mistakes! I didn't find it easy to push the beads down into the braiding,
but 'hey ho', where "there's a will, there's a way!".  I'm not going to show
you the next mess I made of a further attempt, using seed beads!
Just to say that the air turned a little 'purple' after all the threading of
100's of tiny beads, then the bobbin attachment and winding,
followed by the bobbin unwinding and the tiny seed beads rolling all
over the kitchen floor ... !!! Arghhhh!

Give me WIRE any day to play with, rather than tiny glass beads!

So back to experimentation with colourful ribbons:

Cotton cords with a bead woven in:

Suede and leather thongs with added plaiting:

With a few errors, I finally created a bangle with
seed beads:

Then with interspersed beads - which I looks like it should
be called a 'Harlequin Bangle'!

Plus, I also had a go with 0.5mm coloured wires!

It didn't work for me, however, I did find an amazing tutorial
on You Tube that could be something to have a go at in the
future!

Anyhow, all in all, I can see that the braiding will look great
for attaching my wire and metal pendants and it will be a lovely
technique to share with my young nieces, who love spending
a day, crafting with 'aunty'!

I'll be back in September for more jewellery inspiration!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!