I recently saw an episode of the Carol Duval Show on HGTV where Chris Gluck form Wire Art, Inc. showed how to coil wire and add beads to the wire. In her demonstration, she then wrapped the wire around candles. However, she also displayed some barrettes which she used the same technique to decorate. This looked fun, so I had to give it a try and created my own version of the Wire & Bead Barrette.
You’ll need:
metal barrette
a variety of glass beads
wire (I used 34 gage craft wire)
dowel or knitting needles
wire cutters
flat/bent or round nosed pliers
E6000 glue
ultra suede
scissors
1. Keep your wire coiled, and start by slipping on lots of glass beads onto your wire. I made mine about 1 ½ feet long. However, there’s no required length. The longer your string of beads the more there will be on your barrette. It’s your choice.
2. When you get the length you like, use wire cutters and cut the wire from your spool of wire making sure to leave a little wire exposed (with no beads on it), so the beads slide back and forth a little. This is important because when you coil the wire, you’ll need a little room in between the beads on the wire.
3. Use pliers to bend the ends of the wire so the beads don’t slip off.
4. Take your wire of beads and coil it around a dowel or knitting needle, and gently slide if off when you’ve coiled the entire piece.
6. Next, measure the length of your barrette against the wire beads and bend the wire at this point. Bend so that the wire and beads meet each other.
9. Use pliers to tuck wire ends inside your bead jumble so they are hidden.
10. Now, take your ultra suede and cut it to be the same size as the back of the barrette.
12. Set your bead and wire jumble on top of your ultra sued.
14. Squeeze glue onto the back of your barrette and attach the other side of the suede onto the metal barrette back.
15. Again, this should completely dry so wait a day before wearing the barrette.
Here's a printer friendly copy of this file.
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