Woven Wire Cluster Ring

[Lothruin]

This is something I was playing with.  I've been working with silver wire for years now, but for some reason hadn't experimented with weaving.  And I don't have a workshop set up now, so I my torch and gas tanks are gathering dust in the garage until there's room, which means I can't do any soldering.  I played with the weaving a little with some scrap copper and after a few tries got comfy with the process of weaving, with a five-way braid done with two strands of wire each.  Well, that left 10 bits of wire on each end and an indeterimate way to bring the ends together.  This is what I came up with.  What do you think?

(The beads are actually lavender matte finish with some iridescence, but for some reason they show up kindof brownish in the pictures...)

[something_wierd]

Ooh. . . Pretty!  I love it!  If only I had the money to buy silver wire. . . 

[tinab363]

That is so cool.  Looks like you did an awesome job with the weaving.  Beautiful!

[Lothruin]

Thanks guys!

Something_weird, that's what copper is for!  It looks lovely in copper, and a spool of copper wire from the hardware store is around $3.  Plus, that way by the time you get some silver wire (which actually isn't all that much more expensive, maybe about three times the same length and gauge of copper or possibly less) you'll be really good at it.

Tinab, I found that the weaving, which in this case was just a fancy braid, came quite easily.  The above is my third "experiment" with the weaving.  I think that my friend, whom I'm teaching to weave, but who is a guy, and therefore didn't spend half his childhood braiding barbie doll hair, ribbons, his own hair, his friends' hair or countless bits of embroidery floss, is having a little more trouble with it.  He's a mail-maker, so familiar with wire, but the braiding will take a little while to get used to, I think.

[alohamom2three]

Incredible!!!
I have some copper wire screaming for my attention.
Many questions:
1.  what guage copper wire did you use
2. how did you hold one end of the weaving while braiding?
3.  I assume you did the weaving then the bending?

I totally, TOTALLY love this.

[MsChilePepper]

Dude ... I think that is totally SWANK and I *WANT* ONE!

What sort of price tag would you put on a ring like that?  What if I supplied the beads to you, since I have oodles and oodles?

[Lothruin]

You guys are so nice!

First off, I might have said something misleading.  To clarify, the ring in the picture is silver.  It's some of the 28 (or 30, I don't remember) gauge pure silver wire I got to play with knitting wire.  The copper I was using (I actually made a bangle bracelet out of it that turned out well) is 28 gauge, and you buy it by 150 feet, I think, at Ace Hardware.

Alohamom, if I had a vice, that's what I would have used, because that's just better all around.  But I don't, and I wouldn't have had anywhere to attach it whilst sitting on the living room floor watching TV, so I improvised.  I cut each of my lengths of wire to double the length I wanted.  In the case of the ring, I believe I cut 12" lengths.  Then, you bend them in half until there is a small loop at the bent end.  Don't twist them, though!  After I have all 5 pieces bent double, I take a piece of scrap wire (You could use string or ribbon, anything...) and feed it through the little loops, then tie or twist it so you have a sturdy loop to hang from something.  Now, you can loop that over something (I used the peg on my dog's kennel door) and start braiding.  I just finagle it so the braid starts about 1" away from the bend bits.  It takes a little doing to get it to stay and be able to push the next row snug up against it without getting too close to the end, but it's wire, and it will do what you tell it to do if you have a firm hand with it.  Then, just braid along. Once you've got a length that will come in a tiny bit under the size requirements of your ring, stop weaving, and then shape the ring.

[Lothruin]

Oh, I forgot to ask the price question...  I have NO idea.  I know I tend to undervalue my work.  Does anyone have advice? 

[MissMeshell]

That is absolutely gorgeous Lothruin, the weaving looks fantastic I luurrrve cluster rings

[tomatedepingles]

that is fantastic
its a great idea!