The Ever Growing Wire Stash ...

Well, this is novel.  A blog post from me that's actually about wire.  I gathered all my wire together to try and photograph it yesterday - and my word, I have a lot!  I had to stand on a box to photograph it, and even then, it wouldn't fit on the A2 mountboard I was using as my photography backdrop.

Seen here are four small drawers of wire, a plastic box containing all the loose coils, my bag of precious wire (in the middle - see what a tiny proportion of my stash that comprises) and the larger rogue reels of wire that are too big to fit in the drawers.  Ideally, I'd like to upgrade all my wire colours and gauges to this size, but firstly, I can't afford it and secondly, it would be a nightmare to store and transport.  Some of my wire goes holidaying with me, and a certain husband would balk if we couldn't actually lift the wire receptacle into the car (it's been close sometimes, already - and yes, I would happily leave food/clothes behind if it was a choice between those and the wire!).

All the smaller reels live in this recently purchased drawer unit.  I like to have them accessible, so it's on the left-hand side of my desk. 

I haven't got room to show you all my wireworking tools too, but trust me, there are many!  What I love so much about wire, is that you can go from one or several of those little reels to this:

this:

or this:

To me, wire has so much potential, in the same way that seed beads do for those enviably talented sculptural seed bead artists who can create beauty from tiny glass beads and thread.  Sometimes I look at a mundane reel of wire, and I see sunsets, or meadows, or cobwebs.  What mundane materials transform in your imagination into something quite different?