Sea Glass - The Reprise

I mentioned on an earlier post about receiving several pieces of sea glass from juliet. She is an inveterate sea glass collector and regularly writes about her walks, books and all manner of interesting things on her blog 'Musings from a Muddy Island'. You can find a link in my 'Links to the Outside World'.

Despite being in the middle of an artglass commission I did manage to find time to wrap two of the pieces she sent me and I thought I would explain what I'm looking for / thinking when I approach wirewrapping a piece for jewellery.

Sea Glass Selection

After receiving juliet's generous gift of sea glass, I received another pound of Isle of Wight sea glass from 'Melton Mowbray'. I also received some from a work colleague who did a bit of beach combing in Kent so I had quite a lot to sift through!

Two pieces of 'Muddy Island' sea glass stood out as good candidates for wirewrapping. The front row centre piece is vaguely dart shape which lends itself nicely to a simple technique I call 'belting'.

Trial run

Working with sterling silver wire is getting more and more expensive as the price of silver escalates and I might have a few ideas about how to wrap a piece. Sometimes this is a bad thing because I can get caught between the two routes and end up making a mess.

I'm planning on wrapping this piece with soft sterling silver wire that is .8mm. This is roughly equivalent to 20gauge wire. However, to play around and test my wrapping route I'm using copper art wire in a lovely lurid green colour.

You can see how I tried out one route and ended up doing the other route which is typical. The problem with this first route was getting the wrap to stay securely on the end points and provide a means to attach it to a necklace. I could have achieved it eventually but with a lot of wire which would have obscured the glass more than I wanted so I went the belted route.

Belted Technique

The method is fairly simple. Take a length of wire - in this case about 10 inches and leave about a quarter to a third of the length sticking up with the wire on the front of the piece and begin wrapping around the end point on the right twice around and then switch to the other side and wrap twice more with the second tail of wire sticking up. Make sure it is nice a secure and then wrap one wire around the other as closely to the piece as you can. I favour 'fat wraps' so tend to go over what I have wrapped already. Then do a standard wrapped loop to make the 'bail' that will slide onto the stringing. I've used leather for this pic but a sterling silver necklace would do nicely or perhaps cotton thong depending on the 'look' you are after.

You can see the results here. The second pendant was wrapped using the same technique but as the piece was curved and rhomboid I kept the belt near the centre point. The white glass looks better with the black leather. I would be inclined to display the green dart on a simple sterling snake chain.

Naming jewellery

The green one has been christened 'Muddy Island Sea Dart' and the white one is 'Muddy Island Sea Spray'. I name all of my jewellery pieces. This leads me on to. . .

Designing to verse

If you visit my favourite bloggers blog (doggerels bollocks) you will know that verse is a bit of a passion for him. I used to write truly awful lyrics as a teen and haven't bothered since. However, the commenters on the DB responded very generously to my request for phrases in verse that might be suitable for a jewellery (or other) design challenge. I have a good half dozen excellent phrases to work with over the coming months. But right now I'd like to share a short verse (badly written but sincerely inspired) by the 'Muddy Island' Sea glass and the verse that was shared on the DB blog at the time of my request.

The Power of the Sea (& Time)

Overboard, the cherished scent
Broken and busted on the violent descent
Tumbling, tumbling, tumbling infinite time
Caressed by the waves until sometime
To be stumbled upon glistening
in pools of northern green
Muddy island – polished to perfection –
Testament to the power of the sea.

Now then (allowing the poetry lovers recover) rest assured I will only put pen to paper again if I am moved so you are probably safe for a little while at least.

Ah you are wondering what will become of the rest of that lovely selection of sea glass? Fear not several of the pieces have already been sized up for a sterling silver bezel. The piece with the writing I may well set properly. And the tiny blue pieces I'll probably bezel set and use them in a pair of earrings.

I do hope I haven't upset too many poets with my attempts at verse. Until next time when I might share some more adventures with glass (what sort I'll keep a secret for now).

Reprise of the Reprise - Basic wrapped loop instructions

OK you can find illustrated tutorials on doing the 'wrapped loop' on the web so if you don't get on with my written instructions - just google away and there are loads that are free.

After you've wrapped the first tail around the base of the second tail close to the glass . . . Use a pair of round nosed pliers or a philips head screw driver to help you create the space under the loop.

You do this by placing the screwdriver (choose one that is .25 inches diameter) level with the top of the glass, place it behind the wire at the bottom (nearest the glass), bend it back 90 degrees (make a right angle).

Now switch the position of the screw driver to the top of the corner created by the angle, hold it firmly in place (trap the wire under the screw driver with your finger) and bend the wire over the screwdriver to make the loop shape.

This is important (believe me I've done it!) - you need to make sure it is a philips head (star shape) otherwise when you wrap the loop you won't be able to get the darn thing off the screwdriver without cutting it.

Where were we . . . Ah yes - The wire should be pointing down with the screwdriver shaft holding it up. Basically you just wrap the wire around itself on the relatively straight gap between the curve of the loop bottom and the top of the other wrapped tail.

With soft wire you can manage this with you fingers for the most part. Remember to file the ends. You can cheat and use hardware store pliers if you wrap them in masking tape (a goodly layer) so that the serrations don't mark the wire. Gently squeeze a little bit, a little bit. You will get the feel for the wire the more you practice.

And so ends the basic loop tut.