Wednesday 22 September 2010

Sunburst


I've been experimenting recently with lots of different ways to make strong enough 3D crochet vessels and I thought I'd give the most obvious method - wire - a try this time. I found some wires too inflexible and difficult to mould as well as being too skinny in diameter once crocheted,  so I decided to try wire with its plastic coating still on - like the ones you find in electric cables. In the UK that will be brown and blue colours:)  (the earth wire doesn't have a plastic coating inside the big grey tubing which I stripped off,  just the bare copper - which is very nice in its own right and I will keep for later!)


Ok, so I have my plastic coated wire, and now I can see how it moulds - yummy! Perfectly easily. I thought I'd have to use long nosed pliers but in fact they made little awkward bends rather than smooth curves so I just went with moulding it with my fingers.


Then I started to crochet around the wire with some of my stripey dyed sock yarn - this one is 'mango' ;) Oooh, I'm liking this! Lets get onto another shape and see how it looks......


Oh yes, I think this will work! I will still have to attach the units together like the flowers in the green vessel but that's ok. I'll have to work out a solution to the wire ends though. If I fold them, there will be an unsightly lump in the spiral - not ideal at all - and I have to make sure the end crochet stitches don't slip off either. I'm thinking a little spot of glue but I run the risk of sticky mess on the yarn.....

Aha! Maybe I crochet a little end cap thingy - picturing knitted i-cords here, only in crochet:) A little tube end before crocheting around the wire..... off to see how that works. Back soon!


18 comments:

  1. This is way cool. Perhaps if you put a tiny bit of wool fleece or cotton into the end of your proposed end cap, it will keep the wire from poking through.

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  2. Thats a really good idea, thank you! I'll try that out:)

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  3. I am so excited by this particular creative journey Elaine. I look forward to seeing where it leads you. Knowing you, it will far away from your start point!

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  4. *laughs* I think you are right john! I'll just follow where it takes me - wherever and whatever that will be. You never know, maybe 20ft tall towering vessels like trees!!

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  5. try using different size dowels for making your turns...check out how it's done with wire crafting (-_^)

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    1. The more I play with wire the more intriguing it gets - I think wire and metal techniques could well play a larger part in my experimenting, thank you!

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  6. So Clever! I tried tatting with the wire, and then over wire, but rings were a killer with wire as a core thread. ** hand to forehead** why didn't I think of that.

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    1. I've only got into tatting recently so just a basic slip st in crochet was used for this. Some wires work better than others though - it can kill your hands!

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  7. Your crocheting over wire reminds me of when I was a young girl, my mom taught me how to cover wire clothes hangers, so they were less damaging to delicate things. I can't remember how to do it. Do you think a slip st would work?

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    1. Hi Lynda, This is just a crocheted slip st over wire.I just push them close together to get a dense covering over the wire. Sorry for the very late reply. Since I stopped writing the blog, I hadn't realised there were comments waiting for me to answer. Hope this helps even though its late:)

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  8. A bead glued on to the ends would look good and hold the stitches. You could use a transparent one if you didn't want it to show up too much!

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    1. A beaded end is a great idea, thank you. I like the idea of personalising each one possibly, lots of scope for variation there:)

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  9. Also what will you use these for?

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    1. These are just small samples towards construction of a much larger piece. Since this post I have made a few 3D vessels and one larger suspended piece which you can see on the gallery page. The blog page link is here - http://la-belle-helene-journal.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/sun-and-shadow.html

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  10. Brilliant! What about pipe cleaners? I want to try that too. Flexible...

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    1. Pipe cleaners would be a great idea Linda. Anything with a wire core that was flexible enough to hold a shape:)

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