This is the first necklace that I finished. It was a learning piece and I think the clasp should have been a lighter weight wire than what I made. All, in all I'm happy with it and it has that nice combination of wrought-iron looking wire with pearls and faceted gemstone beads.
Once I was comfortable with what the wire did, I bent, twisted and hammered away on the components of this necklace. I'm most happy with the way this one finished up. I had fun rummaging through my collection of beads to combine with the nice blackened wire.I gave you a rundown on most of the wire experiments in Wire Play. I did clean all of the wire with rubbing alcohol and then rubbed it down with paste wax. The wax cleaned more of the coating off. Once it was buffed out the surface color was very stable and no longer left black streaks on my hands. It also left the wire feeling nicer than in it's untreated state. I think these spools of wire will go on my studio shelf and get used from time to time. However, that galvanized steel wire has already been relegated to the garage - not nice stuff to work with.
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Wire work isn't my first, nor even fifth choice for beadwork. However, one of these will be a gift, and I did have fun playing with it as a complete change of pace.
As a wire fanatic, teacher and enthusiast, all I can say is that if I'd started my wire working days with steel, I would have been done in less than a week. Before relegating wirework to the department of too much work to be fun, try some friendly, maleable copper, bronze or sterling.
ReplyDeleteGreat work on the necklace, you did an impressive job using a material I consider almost impossible to deal with!
Judith I love what you created with the wire. The person receiving this will be thrilled. Wish I could have been sitting at your bead table with you while you worked on this.
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