Monday 29 August 2011

Yet another book

I've realised that now I am back at work I have ignored my blog - shocking!

But I have been cogitating and planning and thinking about making - again I prevaricate. But I love the planning stages and I have found out so much about the odd bits and pieces I used to do as a kid.

I was avidly reading lots of blogs, just allowing myself to wander through other peoples crafting lives without really looking where I was going. As I wandered I came across wire jewellery and I thought...

... I have some samples from the nice people at Wires, I could make something! Then I started looking further, yes, I have some pliers, I could make a mandrel out of various round things knocking around the house - result!

But did I? No! I carried on reading, plotting and planning and then realised I didn't really understand some of the terms I was reading. As a kid I would twist any old wire I found, hang something pretty off it and sell it at a school fayre! Now I know that I missed a few steps.


This was the result - yet another book!

It is a very pretty book and the basic techniques section is an absolute godsend. Nothing fancy but good pictures and simple instructions. I realised very quickly that I still need one vital piece of kit - a block of metal to temper the wire. But with 30 projects to look at I certainly found a few I can make from my existing stash - I may start with a ribbon bangle as I have some lovely lengths of material and ribbon that would look good caged in silver wire.

The projects are great, useable and, if you start with a bit of confidence, they don't look very hard. She even shows you how to cage your pet rock - a flashback to the 70s that I loved!

8/10 I am greedy, I would have loved 100 projects.

And because of that I found a great website link These lovely people send free patterns to your inbox. Some of this stuff is just wonderful, the spring flower earrings will be made soon, pictures to follow, I promise!