the spun wire bracelet
A few weeks ago, I saw a very lovely bracelet in one of the fiber/spinning communities on facebook. I loved it and thought that surely I could replicate it. I watched a couple of videos on youtube about spinning fiber onto a wire core. That was my project for the last Second Saturday Spin-In. Spinning onto a wire core isn’t really as tough as I thought. The only snag is getting the fiber to catch as you start spinning. But once it’s started, it goes pretty easily. I used a “demented batt” from my local yarn seller/dyer, Lunabud Knits. It has lots of colors and sparkles in it so it makes for a crazy yarn.
Then, I went to my local bead shop, Dandelion Bead Connection, and asked the owner of the shop for some help on what to use as a core and how to attach my hardware. He helped me out immensely. I sat down on Sunday and attacked the project. It was surprisingly simple!
For starters, I created my “core”. The guy at the bead shop had given me a giant black rubber o-ring, like 8 mm diameter and 4 feet long. I cut off enough to go around my wrist. Then, I used the dremel to drill some tiny holes though the rubber about 1/4 inch from each end. I secured my wire into these holes and created small rings on each end. it didn’t matter that they were ugly, the fiber wire covers them up! Once each end had a loop, I started wrapping the bracelet with the fiber covered wire. This process is a bit tedious and gives me a cramp in my hand but isn’t difficult. I just had to be sure to wrap it tightly. As you can probably see, my “yarn” was a bit thicker in some spots than others. That just adds to the beauty, I think. Once the bracelet was wrapped, I put a wee bit of glue on each end just to keep it from unraveling. Then I used split rings to attach a clasp. I like the toggle clasps best for bracelets. I find them easier to connect one handed than the others.
My only regret(?) about this bracelet is that the o-ring is a bit more rigid than I would like. It is kind of stiff feeling on my wrist. I think that once I’ve used up all of my o-ring supply (I have enough to make a half dozen or so bracelets) then I will try flexible tubing.
I enjoyed this project so much that I may make a handful of these in the coming weeks.
June 14th, 2014 at 9:15 pm
Hey there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok.
I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new posts.