Wire bangle

I'm sorry I didn't post for the past couple of weeks, it wasn't for lack of inspiration, I have been very busy making things, from a knitted wrapover cardigan to plenty of sample rings... But I've not been very good at photographing them and time has been in short supply to write all about it.

A few weeks ago, I ordered a Gold Plated Spiral Cuff kit from Magpie Jewellery after spotting it in a magazine. I thought it looked like a lovely easy project that I could make in a couple of hours or less...

I couldn't have been more wrong! First of all, the "kit" was a bit disappointing, consisting of a length of gold plated copper wire, a length of enamelled colour wire and a couple of A4 photocopied sheets for instructions. Not a single image with the instructions! I'm quite crafty and found it difficult to understand what I was meant to do without any illustrations, I can't imagine what it would be like for a complete beginner!

Once I'd finally figured out how to manipulate the wire so the spirals would look more or less smooth, I made a start on the whole thing, still thinking it would take a couple of hours to complete. I ended up spending a whole day on it! The gold spirals didn't take so long to make but attaching each with the enamelled wire just took forever. Admittedly, I seem to have made a whole lot more spirals than the picture on the website suggests... But having finished the thing, I can't help but think it would have been really flimsy with less spirals. It still feels quite fragile to me as it is now. It is really pretty however...

I'd love to make more, I'm sure I could sell these. But I'd really need to find a way to work faster if I want to make it profitable. And I need to find a way to protect my poor little fingers, because after a whole day working with wire, they were in shreds!

Whilst I'm here anyway, here's a little preview of more polymer clay rose rings I've been working on :-)