Memory Lane...

From 2005 to 2008, my mother and I ran a housekeeping service- called 'Out Damn Spot!'- in Ottawa, Ontario.  In the last year of my working with my mother, we developed a Friday night ritual: finish our work, collect my stepfather from his work, eat dinner at my mother's place (or out), and then the two of us would make our way back across town to a scrapbooking workshop that was run out of the basement of one of my mother's friends.  We'd often stay until 10 or 11 o'clock at night, since neither of us worked on the weekend.

I say it was a scrapbooking workshop, but people were generally allowed to bring whatever project they were working on, no matter what kind of craft it was. The only difference was, you could buy things from this lady's store if you were genuinely doing scrapbooking.

I brought my beads and wires, since I am not a scrapbooker (my mother, though, is an awesome scrapbooker and cardmaker!).

On one such friday evening, I didn't bring everything I intended to bring.  I'd loaded into my tote a selection of beads, my favourite copper wire, a pair of wire cutters, and a pair of needle-nosed pliers.  I forgot my bead crimping tools, flat pliers, memory wire, fishing line, nylon thread, not to mention the actual crimping beads I usually use to finish off a piece when I am making a normal necklace or bracelet.

So, what to do, what to do?

I decided to do what I think I do best.... creative problem solving, which- for me- normally leads to figuring out how to do a new technique.

I had spools of 24G copper wire.  Since I was new to wire wrapping, I really didn't know what guage was best to work with. I reasoned that it was best to start with a finer grade of wire, so that I had some margin for error.

I started by making a sort of spine for a necklace out of a bunch of 5 strands of wire. I cut the loops on one end, to prevent uneven buckling in the wires whilst I was working. I shaped the other end into a hook, tied a bead onto the tip, and then wrapped the hook tightly with a single layer of wire. Once I was finished making the hook, I set the wires aside, and rummaged through my bead collection for a variety that was vibrantly coloured and with enough stock to satisfy the clustering idea I had in mind.

I chose ruby red glass daimond shaped beads, lawn green diamond shaped beads, chocolate brown rondelles, and ruby red and forest green silver-lined seed beads.

First, I tied on the larger beads in an asymmetrical 'pattern' down the length of the spine.  Once I got to the end of the necklace, I took the last two inches of wire bundle and formed (but didn't wrap) the loop part of the closure. Next, I went back to the hook end of the necklace, and neatly tied on another strand of wire, being careful to tuck away and discreetly cement down the end of the wire (hidden in one of the bigger beads) before proceeding to tie on the seed beads so that they looked tightly clustered together with the larger beads. This took multiple strands of wire to complete the layer, and the ends and beginnings of each wire were carefully hidden and cemented in place.

I tied the last bead within half an inch of the loop end, but continued using the wire strand I was already working with to wrap the loop.  I was careful not to close the loop until I had wrapped it all- this prevented the wire from buckling within the loop closure. Once I had wrapped the entire loop, I then wrapped both ends of the loop together to form a complete closure, carefully hiding and tightly cementing the end.  The whole thing is approximately 15 inches long, and is meant to just sit on the collarbone.

Happy with the result, I went on to make matching earrings. The only difference was I antiqued copper loop-headed pins and findings (as I couldn't find polished copper pins and findings. The earrings bear french hook ear wires, and dangle about an inch and a half in length.

I am pretty sure I spilled more seed beads on the floor than I actually managed to get onto the necklace and earrings! Every so often, we could hear the distinct "tick, tick, tick" of beads falling onto a wood laminate floor.  Pretty soon, the lady running the workshop started making me sweep up after myself. ;)

The whole set took maybe 3 hours of continuous work, and here are the results:

I was VERY happy with the result of my adventuring, and have gone on to use the same basic technique in another similar type of necklace, and a ladies' ring. The necklace below is made with plum-tinted copper wire (again, 24G), orange glass oval beads, quartz gem chips of varying sizes, and amethyst gem chips of varying sizes.  Again, it's about 15 inches in length, and is meant to sit lightly on the collarbone.

The ring was made to fit a size 5 to 7 finger.  It features two jade spheres, clustered with light blue and red bi-coloured seed beads and foil lined dichroic green seed beads. I've wrapped the ring part once, and then added another layer to form a spiral threading (still very comfortable to wear!). It gives the appearance of having the beads loosely tied on, but they are quite secure!



I love experimenting with new design ideas, multiple types of beading media, and without necessarily having a firm idea of what the end result should look like. I like it when a project evolves as I go along. That being said, I can certainly commit myself to a certain design idea, depending on what a prospective client may want!

All three of the above pieces (and others) may be found here, and are definately for sale.