I can't believe it's already the first day of December ...
The countdown to Christmas now begins! As a maker, I
have to admit that I have been creating wire and bead
decorations, running festive workshops and demonstrating
Xmas themed designs for a couple of months already, so
I'm starting to wear thin on the 'ho, ho, ho' momentum!
With that in mind, I thought I would share some of the
designs I have been teaching and demonstrating and this
year, the most popular and quickest make with first time
wireworkers is the '
Spiral Cone'. They look elegant on the
tree, or hung in a window and can be made in any scale with
any wire and beads.
For the ones I have made, I used 2mm red aluminium wire and
my usual tool kit of round, flat, chain nosed pliers, plus wire
cutters. I love using thicker gauge aluminium wires (1.5mm and
2mm) for a lot of home decor projects, as it's chunky and bold,
yet soft and easy to shape.
STEP ONE
Working from the end of a wire coil, begin creating
a spiral ...
STEP 2
The size of the spiral will determine the width of the
cone. I made mine around 4.5cm across.
STEP 3
Once you've made the large, tight spiral, cut it from the
coil, leaving a projecting tail of about 18cm (7").
STEP 4
Create an OPEN, similar size spiral with the projecting wire,
bringing it in towards and on top of the tight spiral.
STEP 5
Bring the 2 spirals together, so that the central holes
are aligned.
STEP 6
Lift the open spiral and stretch the tight spiral out,
so that it forms a tapered cone.
STEP 7
Measure and cut a length of 0.8mm wire that is
at least 5cm (2") longer than the overall spiral cone.
Create a circular link at one end.
STEP 8
Place a small bead on to the end of the wire (by the link)
and thread through the narrow end of the cone. Continue
to thread the wire with any chosen beads until the central
portion of the cone is filled ...
STEP 9
Feed the wire through the centre of the top (open spiral) and
fold it back down, like a lid. Add another bead (or more) onto
the projecting wire and create a link at the very top of the tapered
cone.
STEP 10
If you would like to suspend a wire dangle - you can create
a small tight spiral as above, and form a point, by placing
your chain nosed pliers near to the spiral ...
STEP 11
Bring the wire around to the top and form a suspension link.
You can place this on a steel block and using the dapping head
of your Whammer, hammer the spiral to form some texture
marks, which will help the unit to catch the light and sparkle!
STEP 12
And there you have it! Attach the dangle to the end and a
ribbon to the top and it's ready to hang!
You can create these with all sorts of dangles, coloured beads
and wires and here are a few more variations:
If you turn this the other way around, it could be suspended
as a spiral Christmas Tree! Or, you could make it as a table
decoration:
On a smaller scale and using the same technique,
take some 0.8mm silver wire to create jewellery pieces!
Have fun creating this design in whichever way you choose!
I hope this helps fuel your festive spirits!
