Saturday, July 11, 2009

Tutorial - Beaded Shawl Pins

That's right kids, time for another Tutorial! Strap yourself in and hold on tight, we're making hardware today! You will need beads (the note on the box dates back to my time in the craft shed and people digging into my stash of supplies), pliers, something round to wrap the wire around for spirals, other shapes would make for more variety, and wire. My wire is just aluminum from the hardware store, but copper or silver would be classy.
First we pick out some colors. I'm making two pins today, for two recently finish projects. Why am I knitting shawls in the summer? Because here in Colorado it can be shawl weather year-round. Make sure your beads fit on the wire...

First I cut a length of wire, and make a double fold in it. The first bend on the tip is crimped down tight so it won't snag on the yarn, then a loop is made where the other end of the wire will catch. Think safety -pin style. You can perfect it later, just make sure you have enough on the end for it.

Start stringing beads. You can twist and bend the wire all over the place to your taste. I was putting a loop in between each bead to keep them put. One could of course draw out a design first, but why mess with spontinaity.?

Arrange your shape and make a loop in the wire. Looks just like a safety-pin remember? This is a good use for the chopstick. Trim the end to length, a little long is better than your brooch popping open and getting lost. File the end smooth and buff out any snags on the wire. Ooops, forgot to say you needed a file, an emery board will do, go run to the bathroom and find one...

Now one could just string beads all in a row, but how boring would that be? Now you can have lovely jeweled shawl closures for all your handmade projects! Plus, you will be hard pressed to break it, if you pit on it just push it back into place!


Ahhhh, like a proper old lady-->




The second one is a little wilder, and it has a rounded top to take up lots of shawl, this one is thicker.














Both of these shawls BTW are Mohair in a bramble stitch, the yellow and green is a ball I bought in Japan, the blue and purple a skein from Grand Junction. When I travel my souviners come from the LYS...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool, thanks for sharing;)

Live, Love, Laugh, Write! said...

Those look fantastic :)

Alejandra Alejandro said...

Thank you for sharing I do have aluminum and Im going to do the same....well similar.

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