Simple Memory Wire Bracelet

These are really simple bracelets that can be worn by a wide range of ages.  I bought my memory wire and the memory wire pliers together off Amazon.  I've heard that trying to cut memory wire with regular pliers will damage the pliers so I bought specific ones designed for memory wire.  The wire comes in loops already so there is memory wire designed for bracelets and some for other size projects (rings, necklaces, etc).

Materials:

• Memory Wire
• Memory Wire pliers
• Beads (seed beads or a little bigger work well)
• Needle Nose Pliers

Steps:

1. Using the Memory Wire pliers, cut off a section of memory wire. I do about a round and a half. You can certainly do more loops, but I wanted to maximize the number of bracelets I could make.
2. Use the Needle Nose pliers to add a small loop at the one end.
3. Add the beads until there's a little under a centimeter of wire left
4. Use the Needle Nose pliers to add a small loop at the end.

Iron Craft 11: Easy Bein' Green

Iron Craft Challenge #11 is to create something green. The problem with this challenge is that green is one of my favorite colors!  In fact, it was the color I used for my wedding.  I had a little bit of trouble figuring out one thing that I wanted to make.  And with St Patrick's day coming up and my list of cool crafts I'd like to do for it, I had an even harder time picking just one item. 

So, I made these shamrock earrings for my daughter:


This headband out of left over fabric from my IC#10 project.



The reverse of this headband is a scrap of dark green fabric I had leftover from another project.

Then I created a shamrock hair clip using these instructions.


Check out the Iron Craft Flickr pool for more great green projects!

My Time Turner

In Harry Potter, Hermione used a time turner to go back in time and take twice the number of classes as everyone else. Ever since I read about her Time Turner, I've wanted one.  Just think, I could craft what I want, craft with the kids AND work full time.  Almost as good as cloning myself (maybe even better since *I* would be the one experiencing it all).  And working in the software industry, where we're always struggling to meet deadlines, it would definitely be useful!

So, when Iron Craft announced challenge number nine, "And the Oscar goes to..." where we're to craft something that reflects a movie that is special to you.  The Harry Potter movies immediately came to mind, but I tried to think of something else (since they used that as an example).  Is it really a "craft" to paint my stapler red like the one in Office Space? How can I create an entire planet on a giant holodeck like in Star Trek Insurrection?  The first movies my husband and I ever saw together were the Indiana Jones movies, could I do something from those?  No matter how much I thought about it, I kept coming back to Harry Potter.  I thought about Mrs Weasley's clock and some day, I might make one, but I couldn't find a cheap clock to cannibalize on short notice.  So I ended up back at the Time Turner.

The book doesn't say much about what this Time Turner looks like, other than it has a small hour glass and was gold.  I envisioned something smaller than what's in the movie figuring she had to hide it all semester under her robes.  But I could not come up with a way to make an hour glass that was small.  I was going to try glueing two clear glass beads together, but I couldn't find any that were clear, shaped the right way and hollow.  So I ended up having to make a faux hour glass by wiring two pony beads together.  Originally I was going to put glitter in them so it would move back and forth, but the glue wouldn't hold them together tight.

So, here's what I did:
I took two clear pony beads, ran an eye pin through them.  both ends of the eye pin were fastened to a small gold ring.  Then, I took a piece of 20 gauge wire wrapped it around the center (between the two pony beads) and then around the small gold ring as well, leaving the ends and fastening on a small bead at both ends.  These ends need to be long enough that they'll extend past the sides of the larger circle.  So, I have something looking like this.



Then, I took the piece with the pony beads and placed it so that one end is in front of the larger circle and one end is behind the larger circle (with the beads outside the circle) and I wired it with 32 gauge wire.  To do that, I took a segment of wire (about 8 inches or so) found the middle, placed it at the joint and repeatedly made an X over the front of the joint, then I did the same for the other side.  The idea here is that the smaller circle will be able to pivot inside the larger circle.



Next, I took some seed beads and strung them on one of the tails that was left and used the other tail to wire that string of beads around the outer circle.  I ended up having to do this with both sides to get the full circle covered.  Here's how it looked when I finished.



I don't have a gold chain to put it on right now.  I'm kind of hoping that someone else makes one for this challenge so I can see what they do for the hour glass.  Now if someone can tell me the proper enchantments that I need to get it working, I'd appreciate it!

Wire Angels

I've been contemplating this idea for years (litterally), but never took the time to do it.  Ever since I first tried crocheting with wire.  Priscilla has these really neat angels that are granny squares,  I made them one year for Christmas gifts (out of yarn).   But I got to thinking that they might look really neat if they were crocheted out of wire and as a bonus, you wouldn't need the pipe cleaner to help with the shaping.

Then, over at Iron Craft, they have a weekly challenge (announced on Thursdays) and I've been wanting to participate for a while but haven't been inspired, until now.  This week's challenge is to make something gold.  Ah Hah!  I've got gold wire and a bit of time.  So I present to you my first ever Iron Craft challenge project. I'm hoping to be able to keep doing these this year, I love the idea.

I didn't actually follow Priscilla's pattern, just used the basic idea.

I made two grannies with 32 gauge gold beading wire (I got this at the craft store a while ago).

Then, I took one of them and made it into a cone (so I took the top side and the right side) by wiring them together (I just used the tail that was hanging there).  The other one, I folded in half to make a triangle and ran the wire down through the holes in the middle to help it stay folded in half.  For the head, I crocheted a circle with three rounds of dc and then wove the wire through the stitches in the last round to gather it. And for the arms I chained the length I needed and then went back and did a sc in each stitch.

Then, I used  the tails to fasten them all together.

Again, I need to work on my pictures, sorry they're so blurry, but my camera battery died so I need to charge it.