I am not starting at the beginning of my journey but somewhere in the middle...
This week it was my sister's birthday and I wanted to make her something very special to say 'Happy Birthday and thanks for being you'......so here is her gift...in progress
As you can see I love working with wire and enjoy the intricate and detailed work of wire weaving...next I'm going to make a viking knit chain .....this kind of thing is labour intensive but the bonus is that it is something to do while the TV whines in the background. I am not new to wire work but I am relatively new to weaving.
I didn't invent all this from my imagination - it is an adaptation of a project by Sue Mason Burns published in the February 2014 issue of Bead and Beyond magazine. Although the weaving itself is a tried and tested method - the difference is in what you decide to do with all the spare ends of wire once the weaving is done. Sue turned hers into a couple of attractive loosely woven spirals but I decide to get a bit more fancy with mine.
I made this in silver plated copper wire which I must admit I find a bit 'sticky' to work with and it work hardens very quickly. I admit I am a bit of a snob about my wire - I much prefer to produce something in Sterling silver but of course the expense is a deterrent!
I've tried coloured copper craft wire for a few projects and have great results with viking weave and other wire projects and I think the coating helps the wires to slide more easily.
Recently I've been trying silver filled wire which has a much thicker coating of sterling silver over a brass base and is much cheaper than sterling. This wire is not as available in the UK as it is in the USA but Beadalon is the one that I found......and my project using this wire was fairly satisfactory......but I'm gonna post more about that later!
