· r e j i q u a r · w o r k s ·
the various and sundry creations of sylvus tarn
Wirewrapping,
Bits leads me through the Side Door.

My earliest “wire wrapping” mostly involved twisting those cut-off ends from head pins into little spirals, coils and the like, which I then attached, like the fuzzy coat of a caterpiller to more wire. This made a rather lumpish, but interestingly textured object that is technically a bead.

After a while I actually started to use good wire to make sort of a cage around large, ugly beads, which then served as an armature for more elaborate decorations. I combined a freeform wire-wrapping (though it was a couple of years before I realized this was what I was doing) with beads on wire and some needlelace techniques.

Thus the wire-woven beaded bead was born. This is a great technique for jazzing up boring beads and using badly drilled chips, which obligingly lay in interesting ways when tightly strung on wire.

Unfortunately, they were time consuming and never really sold all that well, and about the time I really starting making some beautiful things with them, like the Peggy piece (see below) I'd gotten sucked into making glass beads, which accounted for a lot of my energy for the next 10 years or so. But lately, I've been using beads to make art, as opposed to merely making them, and my interest in this particular craft was awakened by the serendipitous acquisition by a friend's husband of thousands—indeed likely thousands and thousands—of feet of wire. Now what could I make with that...?

Why, french beaded flowers, of course. The traditional form was very portable, and straightfoward enough that I could chat and work easily at the same time. This is basically my third go-round trying to teach myself this admittedly easy technique, but simple as it is, some basics do still need to be mastered (or mistressed) and finally, I've managed that. Now with this foundation I've finally started going somewhere.

It remains to be seen whether third time's the charm, of the effort will flare, flower briefly and sink back into the abandoned projects category, like spring bulbs that pop up briefly before the trees leaf out, only to disappear for most of the growing season.

But though their season may be short, spring bulbs are still glorious.

20220921

In 2018 I attempted a Maria Richards style wirewrap. 21sep2022

 
20220918

Joy Munshower and Maria Richmond's beautiful work, combined. 18sep2022

 
20190918

Maria Richmond's fantastic wirewrap ``doodle'' 18sep2019

 
20211130

Chickadee rosary. 30nov2021

 
20200401

2004 floral exchange makes up a bracelet...sort of 01apr2020

 
20201211

Glassact's 2003 blue, gold and white holiday bead exchange bracelet 11dec2020

 
20201210

guild xmas bracelet redux 10dec2020

 
20201206

wirewraped silver and white xmas ornament by Dawn C. 06dec2020

 
20211114

Page's triple strand art deco fringed collar. 14nov2021

 
20181003

Hook, Line & Sinker: glassact takes a class with Maria Richmond 03oct2018

 
20181001

Phoenix Pendant, a project in Maria Richmond's wirewrapping class. 01oct2018

 
20180501

purple rosary with val cox frit

 
20160309

2016 heart charm bracelet includes many gifts &/or scavenged items. 09mar2016

 
20160122

Purple rosary. 22jan2016

 
20160121

Orange rosary 21jan2016

 
20160120

Rosary made with green beads 20jan2016

 
20160307

Wirewrapped shell, with powder-cast glass beads from Africa. 07mar2016

 
20170927

my exchange bracelet 27sep2017

 
20120222

Sara Sally LaGrand's corsages are great fun to make. 22feb2012

 
20120120

I'm not certain when I made this bracelet: I could very well have done it after I started lampworking, sometime in 1996. Or before. I'm guessing it's somewhere between 5 and 15 years old, but I don't really know, honestly. I was inspired by a couple of pieces, one, a pin that I purchased that...

 
20140326

Make a match neck for J! (finally completed 25nov13) 26mar2014

 
20230928

blue example of our guild's round robin bracelet. 28sep2023

 
20150921

First wirewrapped/french-beaded leaf incorporating fine red wire . Includes images of 4 other green leaves. 21sep2015

 
20140424

I made an index page for french-beaded flower pages on 8apr2008...finally got around to posting it some 6 years later... 24apr2014

 
20040522

Heavily encrusted lampwork bead 22may2004

 
20040522

A Necklace decorated with beaded shells. (Updated 15sep02) 22may2004

 
20040522

Amber necklaces with wirewrapped pendants 22may2004

 
20020915

Idiosyncratic wirewrapping , made during the 1990s; last update: 15sep02.

 


tags:

[adornment]