I have been in the mood to create a piece with copper wire, so when I received these beautiful lampwork beads from Corina of Corina Beads inspiration struck. The golden and brown tones match well with copper. I also decided to include stone beads that would also match well such as tiger-eye, amber, black onyx, and goldstone.
approx. 70 inches of 24 gauge copper wire
4 lampwork beads in black/brown/gold from Corina Beads
15 - 8mm goldstone beads
16 - 4mm black onyx beads
4 - 4mm tiger-eye beads
24 amber chips
wire cutters
round nosed pliers
bent/flat nosed pliers
ruler
bead board
1. Cut four inches of wire, and bend it over about 1 ½ inches down.
8. Now create another beaded wire section as you did for the lampwork beads only this time thread on two amber chip beads, one 4mm onyx bead, one 8mm goldstone bead, one 4mm onyx bead, and two more amber chip beads.
10. At this point, it’s a good idea to place these pieces on your bead board and decided how you want to arrange your bead sections. I decided to put 8mm goldstone beads in between each section.
11. Now, cut about 3 inches of copper wire, and bend it over about 1 ½ inches down.
12. Wrap the bent part around the nose of your round nosed pliers.
13. Slip the loop (before you wrap it closed) around the loop of one of your bead sections.
14. Then slip the nose back into the loop, and wrap it closed.
15. Slip on an 8mm goldstone bead, and bend and wrap your wire again.
16. Slip this loop onto another bead section, and wrap closed.
17. Continue to connect each bead section together by connecting them with your goldstone bead sections. Your finished piece will be about 21 inches long.
All graphics created by Tammy Powley.