The Agony and The Ecstasy

Well, perhaps not quite.  But I'm referring to the absolute tedium of the groundwork when making a wire piece compared to the thrill of making all the little twiddly bits.  It's a real chore for me to spend hours wire-wrapping - especially if no beads are involved! - so I often save it until I have something to watch on the telly.  I can then concentrate on the good bit when the telly is off!

To me it's very much like decorating - you have to spend hours (sometimes days) preparing the walls and paintwork - rubbing down, filling, sanding etc. and it's only after all this hard graft has been done that you can get on with the fun bit - slapping the paint on.  Yes, I know that I can't have instant gratification, and I do understand that the finished result will only be acceptable if the groundwork was well-executed, but it still bores me! ;)

Case in point my latest piece below - wrapping that trellis took a lot longer than you'd think, and in my head I was already working on the vine, but you have to get the basic stuff right!  The trellis is in fact not perfectly shaped (I like to think of it as rustic) but I did spend hours wrapping the wretched thing.  And I'm quite pleased with the result.  After a lot of false starts and failed pieces this week, this one at least looks like it did in my head!

Back from a lovely holiday

I'm back (at work - boo hoo) from a wonderful week's holiday on the Norfolk coast - very relaxing, breakfast outside looking out at the sea, lots of beach walks and then later cups of tea and glasses of wine looking out at the sea again.  We had fabulous weather, with only a couple of rain showers during the week.

And naturally, I still found time to do some beading and wirework in the evenings!  The size 8 seed beads - a pressie from my Dad and Stepmum received the day before we left - were perfect for making bunches of grapes (perhaps inspired by the imbibing of one or two glasses of grape juice ...) 

And I also made a few wrapped bracelets with different beads and wires.

My dear hubby failed completely to assist me when I threw a whole bag of carnelian chips into the patio pebbles, and instead took photos of my misery (as usual).  He's never a whit surprised by my accident-prone carryings on, and yet it still seems to amuse him.  (I suppose I'm just lucky he didn't video it this time ...)

Escaping the noise ...

Yes, I know I'm crazy to be indoors on an unusually glorious day like today.  I took my book outside and my cup of tea, and I tried.  Really I did.  But it's a little difficult to relax when there's a funfair at the end of your road, complete with very loud music, miked-up organisers and lots of screaming.  And we have had this for the entire Bank Holiday weekend... >:(

Enough moaning, because on the positive side, I've had an excuse to play indoors! :)  I'm still playing with wire pictures (stop that yawning at the back there - I can hear you!).  Here's one I made earlier:

And as it's a little early to be thinking of Autumn (I can't help it, I'll be muttering about Christmas before you know it!) here's a summery little gold tree of life, too:

And I have a little idea for a wire Rapunzel picture that's been rattling around my otherwise vacant brain, inspired by this fantastic blog I've just started following: http://www.untoldtales.co.uk/ - showing new fairy-tale themed work by talented lampworkers Emma Mackintosh and Sabine Little.  I love the whole idea of it, and I immediately (as you do) thought 'Rapunzel!  In wire!'  So watch this space - it may work, it may not!

Dreaming of Summer ...

As I'm now a member of the Wire Goddess team on Etsy, I thought I'd better spend my spare time updating my Etsy shop.  So until this weekend I hadn't had any time to create, but at last the dry spell has ended!  Inspired by dreams of lazy summer days, I made this pendant:

I can just imagine some beautifully-gowned Southern Belle swinging in the sunshine (with her skin adequately protected, of course) with a mint julep in her hand.  I know, I get carried away, but let me tell you, that scenario is only slightly more likely for me this summer than travelling to the moon, so I can dream!

I love making these Picture Pendants - it's almost like drawing with wire.  I get an idea and create it in wire, sometimes with preliminary sketches, sometimes without.  Maybe I'll have a go at a larger piece of artwork one day, if I ever get tired of making these! :)

Shiny new blog!

Well, kind of.  The design's pretty basic, but the barbed wire appealed to the obsessive wireworker in me (even my doodles have started to morph into designs that could be made with a single piece of wire!) and I do already have a blog on my website.  But I thought let's give this a go anyway, because it seemed like a good idea at the time!

The plan was to make this primarily a blog about wireworking - the process, the design aspect, the finished article, but I expect I'll digress and ramble on about any old thing while I'm at it!  For a start, I haven't got a clue how to add a link, so I might be shinning my way up the learning curve for a while.  Please bear with my arduous progress, or feel free to help me out with any tips!  And if anyone has any questions about my work, or wireworking in general, don't be afraid to ask - I'm really not scary at all! ;D