Creative thought process

I've never been entirely comfortable using gold colours. Gold tones don't tend to suit me, so it's never been something I naturally reach for when making. I decided it was time I gave it a go so I dug out my Warm Gold colour plated copper wire - real gold is not something to try out new ideas with! 

All the different coloured enamels make the copper slightly different to work with. They might be stiffer, dent easily or be very brittle and difficult to work with. Emerald green in particular is a sod to work with, but has such a bright vivid colour the result is alway worth the frustration and work to get to the finished item. This was the first time I had worked with warm gold and it was an absolute joy to shape! The enamel just seamed to flow with every curve and weave I was giving it. I started forming some quite complex swirling patterns. It was as though the wire was alive in my hands and moving into place all by it's self.

The patterns being formed made me want to make a statement ring to really showcase the movement the wire was capable of. Once made I just had to try it id different colours to see how it would look. And yes, the emerald green was the most difficult on to make!

Medusa rings - including a difficult emerald green

Medusa rings

Having made a few rings, I started thinking that if I flattened the ring out it would make a really nice pendant. So, back to the warm gold coloured wire and again the shapes flowed. But what kind of chain to hang it from? A standard bought chain just didn't seam right for this design. It needed to be something both delicate looking and strong enough to support quite a solid pendant. I also wanted it to be in exactly the same colour as the pendant. A tried out a few different link shapes and stiles of hand made chain but none of them looked quite right. Then I gave a Viking Knit chain with a simple hook and eye clasp a go. Perfect!

Gold coloured Medusa pendant

Again, once I had it working in the warm gold I had to try it out in other colours - although I haven't yet done any viking knit with the emerald green as I'm not looking forward to pulling it through the draw plate!

Line up of Medusa pendants

It's taken a few weeks and lots of hours of work, with plenty of discarded trial runs. But I really enjoyed working through each stage and the end product is definitely worth it!

Flower rings

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I have been asked to create a large pink flower ring for a lady I know. It's always difficult to do a commission when the customer is unable to have a look through either examples of past work or a selection of beads to pick the ones they like. As a result of the limited time we had for her to discuss with me what she wanted, I decided to make a selection and give her a choice. So, I now have three large pink flower rings. I wonder which one she'll pick! To give you an idea of scale, the wire daisy has a diameter of 7cm (about 3 inches).

Large pink flower rings

Bird's nest

I love making wire bird's nests. There's something wonderfully creative about forming the shapes out of straight wire, then nestling you bead "eggs" in the centre. Once made they can be hung with jump rings from ear hooks or necklaces. My preference is to mount them on a ring or bracelet shank, a really extravagant option would be to make a bracelet just of bird's nests - each attached to the next with jump rings!

Bird's nest bracelet and ring, using silver plate wire and blue glass "eggs"

Step-by-step: How to make a daisy ring

I'm over a week late in blogging about the wonderful Crafternoon hosted by craftydistraction back on Saturday the 5th, but I do have a good reason for this! Jenny (theotherficklepixie) and Lou challenged me to come up with a better way of attaching their wirework daisies to rings. I had come up with my method that evening, but my wonderful photographer has been injured and was unable to take the step by step photos. As the detail I wanted went beyond my point and shoot ability I decided to wait. He is still in pain, but kindly agreed to help me out, so here's my guide!

Gather your tools.

I used 1mm silver plated copper wire, flush cutters, round nosed and flat nosed pliers and a ring mandrel (yes my mandrel has American sizes, but it does the job and it's easy enough to convert)

The tools

To make a daisy with a 4cm diameter:

Flush cut approximately 60cm of wire.
Measure 10cm in from one end and make a 90 degree bend with the point of your pliers.
I found it easier to measure the next stage before making the petals, but if you prefer to do it by eye, skip this part. From the bend, mark off every 2cm up to 24cm.
Using the base of your round nosed pliers, bend the wire back on itself in a 'U' shape at the first mark.
At the second mark use the tip of the pliers to bend the wire back in a 'V' shape.
Continue along the wire, bending alternately with the tips and the thicker base of your round nosed pliers until you get to your last mark (this will become the base of your sixth petal). At the last mark make a 90 degree bend away from your work.
You should be left with a comb shape with a 10cm tail at one end and a much longer tail at the other end:

 

Wire comb

Use your fingers to pull the comb round into a daisy shape, with the tight bends in the centre:

Daisy

Use the 10cm tail to wrap around the base of the petals, pulling them in together as tight as you can and leaving 2.5cm to 3cm unused.
You should now have a daisy with a short tail sticking out the back, and a long one sticking out the front:

The wrapped daisy.

On the long tail at the front of the daisy, move approximately 7cm up the wire and make a 90 degree bend. Grasp the wire here with your round nosed pliers, holding the bend, pointing up the loose end:

How to hold for the spiral

Use the round nose pliers to start a spiral around this point. This can be a little tricky, but try to make it as tight as you can. You will be left with a spiral with a tail of wire sticking out from the middle.

Starting the spiral

Continue twisting your spiral until you get down to the daisy. Trim the remaining wire (the stuff sticking out the middle of your spiral) to about 3cm and feed through the centre of your daisy. This process will distort your spiral so use your fingers to shape the spiral over the daisy centre. Use flat nosed pliers to make sure you've pulled the tail through tightly.
If, at this point your cat decides to jump up and start rubbing and headbutting your hands, you will get fur in the wirework as I did. Try to distract them with food and toys :)

Pulling the wire tail through to the back of the daisy

Make your ring shank. I used a few wraps of wire around my ring mandrel. You need to make it slightly bigger (about half a size) than you need as the next step will take up room inside the ring:

Making the ring shank

Push the ring shank against the bottom of your daisy between the two tails. Wrap one clockwise around the shank and one anti-clockwise. Remember to trim and squeeze in the ends as needed so they don't scratch your hand!

Attaching the ring

And here's the finished ring!

The finished ring