Sunday 31 July 2011

Branching Out Into Rings

I love rings.  I do make them occasionally, but I must be honest, it doesn't come easy.  I think part of the problem is that I struggle with how to impart my own style to them, as well as the actual mechanics of making them.  I've been trying for ages to come up with a way of making a tree of life ring, and just couldn't work out how to make the frame.  Eventually, I gave in and bought a tutorial for making dreamcatcher rings by the fabulous Gailavira on Etsy.  Thank goodness I did!  I used her very easy-to-follow instructions and adapted them to add my own little trees.  Here is the first (not very special) attempt, using my new bronze wire:


I made a couple more, including this oxidised copper one for me (named The One Tree in homage to a series of books by one of my favourite writers, Stephen Donaldson):




And now, I've started to add beads (naturally) - because a world without beads is a boring one!



So, this week's theme is 'Yay for rings!'  And maybe an additional one 'Yay for tutorials!'  While I make the vast majority of it up as I go along (I know, you can tell), sometimes access to another's knowledge is invaluable.  Not to mention that it helps other artists if you buy their tutorials. :)


3 comments:

Jennifer Rose said...

those look really cool :D

JulieJ said...

I read that series of books when I was at Uni. I admire your patience making those rings. Glad you've cracked it and accomplished something new.

Louise said...

Thank you, Jennifer and Julie! (Loved those books, and loved the Gap series even more.) x