You will need:

• pliers
• a mandrel or thick marker
• wire (copper is the easiest to work with)

You will need:

Wire

A fat marker

Pliers

*optional* beads and other decorations

My ring, as of today!

"What's up?"

"The sky."

I get that answer every time I ask that question.

Today I am giving you one of those super-duper wrap-up posts. Don't worry. Awesome craft posts coming soon. As in, tomorrow.

___________________________

It's really disheartening to lose hard work.

This circlet is made from thick braided copper wire. I nearly killed my fingers making it-- I forgot to order dead soft wire and instead got half hard, which is not easy to bend when you are wrangling six three-foot strands around a vise!

There are around twenty five or so Czech glass leaf beads in sundry shades of green and iridescent periodot. I also used a few Swavroski pearls.


The pinecone flowers are Laura's idea, and the pinecones are from her yard! I'd never heard of this technique before, and they were so easy to make. All you need are pinecone "leaves" ripped off the cone, hot glue, lots of time, and shellac (I didn't have shellac so I used potter's glaze). I added a few touches of my own, namely the beads. I should do a tutorial...


You can't tell from these pictures, but the structure of the circlet's back is very complicated. Laura made yarn dreadlocks for her costume, so I used elastic cording to attach the biggest pinecone centerpiece to the edges of the circlet in the hopes that it would stretch to the right size. (It did!).

There are also several strands of chain dangling in the back. The center one has some beading in there.


Since M. clearly does not have on thick faux dreadlocks, the circlet hangs low on her head.




This is a torc necklace, also made of raw copper and glass beads. Someday I want to learn to solder and to get a torch for melting copper (our propane one is too weak)... I think that this turned out very well and extremely sturdy with wirewrapping, but it would be neat to experiment.

Sidetrack over. :) This is made with thick wire recycled from remnants of one of my dad's old electrical projects. I shaped it and then hammered all the wire to make the necklace very sturdy. A bit in the back was left unhammered and soft so that it can stretch a little bit so that it can be slid around the neck. It's not like the torc necklaces that Wikipedia talks about:

A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large, usually rigid, neck ring [pennannular, forming almost a complete ring with a hole in it] typically made from strands of metal twisted together. The great majority are open-ended at the front, although many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove. [...] The Celtic torc disappears in the Migration Period, but during the Viking Age, torc-style metal necklaces came back into fashion.

An upper-arm cuff with thick raw copper hammered to be sturdy. It's adjustable, and quite small because Laura is very slender.






I'm not sure what to call this (although a friend recommended that I name it "Awesome," heehee!) It is a swirly bracelet cuff that attached to a ring with a strand of beading. Kind of sort of like a handflower or slave bracelet, but not really...


The beading is attached with a removable hook, so the cuff can be worn on its own.

The cuff can be worn on the wrist (as shown to the left) and is long enough that is can be caught up in one of the adjustable rings and wrap around the fingers like a vine. Or, the bracelet cuff can be worn higher up the arm (above). Laura removed the green wirewrapped leaf and wore the cuff on her wrist without it wrapping over other fingers. (I hope that this makes sense and that I am not just rambling!)



This vine-like necklace was so fun. It's made with reversible beads and a ton of wire! The entire back just has strings of wirewrapped beading-- it was designed to go with the choker-length torc necklace and having leaves around the back of the neck would overwhelm it.



Fairy sandals, also known as foot thongs or barefoot sandals! These are so fun, but it was hard to size things properly so that the ankle width and length were right. I used a bit of elastic cord on the toe, but I tend to avoid that stuff as much as I can and the rest is beading wire and jump rings! I've got it all figured out now, and look forward to having the time to sit down and make some more.

A necklace for modern steampunk fans. This necklace will blend into everyday outfits, only revealing its awesome steampunkyness upon closer glance. Who can resist watch parts and brown beads?

• An old cheap watch
• Thick fabric (I used two layers of this faux leather stuff left over from a costume)
• Long, tubular beads
• Circular beads
• Strong glue (I used decopauge)
• Needle
• Thread
• 1 jump ring

Step One: Take the watch apart. You will be using the movement, aka the little thing in the middle that makes the watch work.

Keep the rest of the watch for other projects!
 

I used the watch face { HERE }

And the watch case { HERE }

NOTE: Unless you have specialty tools, it is very difficult to take the watch apart. I lucked into a watch whose back came off very easily.

Right now, however, I have three watches sitting on my desk whose backs I can't remove. I actually broke my miniature flat-back screwdriver trying to take them apart. You may need to have special watch wrenches to get to the movement.


Step Two: Cut out a circle of the fabric. (I used two layers and glued them back-to-back.) 

Glue the movement on. (If the movement has holes in the plastic backing, sew it onto the fabric.)  

Thread the needle and begin to sew on the long, tubular beads.


Step Three: Continue to sew the long beads on. I thread three beads on before stitching into the fabric. If you sew tightly, this works wonderfully. Otherwise, stitch after each bead.


Step Four: Sew the circular beads onto the outside. Use a simple loop stitch. The beads will be very messy and will not line up. That is OK.


Step Five: Thread the needle through the holes of the circular beads. This fixes the messy outside beads problem.

Step Six: Sew a jumpring on. Your chain will go through here.