Copper swirls

Creative day 3!

Today's project is all about the simplicity of repetitive shapes and colour - and shinyness:) I found this beautiful copper armlet pattern on Pinterest, and I've been just waiting for the chance to experiment with wire again.  Looks like a day project to me!

If you're familiar with working with wire, then you may feel quite happy working this out by eye. If not, don't worry! There is a tutorial you can buy for £2.63/$4 on Etsy so you can work through this step by step. The designer sends you the tutorial so this isn't an instant download but she will get it to you within 24 hours. Mine was super quick. I went for a quick food break and when I came back it was there in my inbox. The pattern itself is very well written and with easy step by step instructions and the attention to the little things is great - like good finishing so there are no sharp edges so the wire won't scratch you arms.

This is quite a simple construction  - one spiral shape repeated, then interlocked and wrapped into place. Oh it sounds easy doesn't it? In theory! Trying to get all the spirally shapes exactly the same so they would fit together perfectly did have its moments, lol! Sometimes the attention is in the detail. For this design the balance of the regular shape with equal spacing of even wrapping makes this so effective.

I did spend a bit of extra time trying to learn how to create even spirals. In fact, that part took the longest. When you aren't covering the wire with crochet, the spiral evenness suddenly matters a lot more. So I took time and experimented till I got the hang of it. Still not perfect but getting there. The wrapping was surprisingly quick though. Again I took a little time to make sure the wraps were even and tight. Mine got better as I went along but the first one looks a little dodgy now. But then I can be a bit of a perfectionist sometimes. I'm looking at it now and can't find the slightly less well wrapped part so - bonus!

I do love this bracelet. Copper, wrapping and spirals, it could have been designed just for me:)) I'm going to try another one with smaller spiral units soon. I'd love to see this with lots of little copper spirals - wouldn't that be lovely too?

So it's been mostly a gentle creative day today. I love the fact that now I feel comfortable with the basics of wrapping strands and know how to get a quality finish to the joins, I can start adapting this technique to my own work and see how that goes.

I've been intending to expose the copper core in my crochet vessels and add more complexity to the form with lots more strands. This wire wrapping technique would be an ideal solution to bind them together and stengthen the 3D form so I can achieve larger and more organic shapes. My brain is busy, busy,  thinking about all the ways to integrate this and it wants to start sampling straight away. So who am I to say no? I've got a pretty full day tomorrow with less time for a full day project so this would be a perfect time to see where the creative muse takes me, don't you think?

See you all tomorrow!