Tutorial: Wired Love

Love. It's a word we use to express emotions- both deep and light. I love my sweetie husband and super cute little boy. I love the smell of varnish and oilbars. I love the Pogues. I love places like the Yosemite Valley in winter and standing next to the waterfalls in Glacier National Park in the summers. I love coffee nights with friends and of course, I love art.

At this time of year, with Valentine's Day right around the corner, I think of the word "love". Love is an emotion, it's also descriptive of a feeling of great like or enthusiasm. It's also a promise. What do you love? How do you use the word throughout your week? Who do you love?

In honor of the word," love", I've a short little tutorial for you. So take a look and give it a try. Then give it away to a good friend or sweetheart that you love!
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Wired Love Tutorial

Tools and Materials
16-gauge steel wire
19-gauge steel wire (optional)
Heavy Duty wire cutter
Needle nose pliers- jewelry sized



1. Start by pulling a length of wire from you spool, wiping it with a rag as you pull to clean off the oil residue. Then using your needle nose pliers, bend the end of your wire in.






2. Using your hands, create a loop to form the letter "l".








3. Continue to shape with hands to form letters, "o", and "v".








4.Next shape another loop to create "e".








7. Leave 8-10" for a tail and then cut. Make a smaller decorative loop if desired, and then using your needle nose, bend the cut end of your wire around until it is flush to itself. If desired, you can use the 19-gauge wire to secure the wire where it overlaps by wrapping it around the juncture. Use the needle nose to shape or smooth your wire to finish.

Etsy Front Page- YAY!!!

Etsy Front Page 7/13/09 thefuzzymonkey
Originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers

"Love" this! Love that they included me as well! Thanks to TheFuzzyMonkey for creating this treasury!

More Wire Words: Glued, Stitched, and Tied On

Today I worked on a couple of projects using my new Wire Word Embellishments. The idea is to have some basic examples of how they can be used to show with the individual words when I list them on Etsy.

The tag was my first idea. I thought it might look kind of cool to use a wire word as a package add-on. All I did was cut out the tag shape from a piece of scrapbooking paper, roughed it up a bit, and then added a bit of page I'd torn out of a book. Then I tied the tag and the word together with the purple ribbon.

The next project is an example of a 8" x 8" scrapbook page embellished with the wire word "sweet". I thought it turned out rather sweet as well. Here I attatched the word with glue dots. It's going under a page protector so I know it will be supported and protected when I'm flipping through the scrapbook.

The last example is a picture frame. The idea of the altered book base I found in Kelly Rae Roberts book, Taking Flight. It's been a while since I saw it so I don't know how much mine resembled hers, but the basic cut-out was something I found in her oh so fabulous book. So first thing I did was draw out my box. Then using a metal straight edge and a sheetrock knife I made repeated cuts through the cover. I actually kept cutting through the paper until I had a 1/4" depth to my square. I wanted a different text than was actually in the book so I tore out a page from my french-english dictionary. I circled the word famille and then I used a glue stick to adhere the page down. Next, I drilled my holes. I used a hand drill and actually Jasper helped with this part. One hole in each corner going all the way through the book, and then three more holes through the cover only, to attach the wire word below the frame. To determine the placement of these holes I laid the "sweet" where I wanted it and then marked the spots where I planned on stitching the word down. After the drilling I went ahead and stitched the word down with embroidery floss. To reinforce the stitching I taped over the knots on the backside of the cover. I added the stitched ribbon around the frame next, and then did a little doodle and added some bling to the bottom of the cover. To finish, I threaded wire through the top holes and created a simple hanger. This also secured the book together so it can't be opened. This was VERY fun to make. I want to make lots and lots more! Tomorrow I'll add a photo of Jasper looking oh so cute and give it to my grandmother for a birthday gift!

Wire Embellishments- Coming SOON!

I stayed up late the other night writing with wire. It was fun and I liked the look so I just kept going... and going...and going. In fact I bent the night away! I was watching Cold Comfort Farm while doing it and the time just flew.

On occasion people have purchased items from me to use in their own artwork. Birds, flowers, words, little bits of this or that. I love the idea that they are combining my work with theirs. So for a while now I've had it in mind to try selling some of my wire work as "supplies" on my Etsy site. I thought I'd start with words. I've used them stitched into mini art quilts, and my canvas paintings, as well as on scrapbook pages. They just seem to add a really nice dimensional layer and I really like the look of the wire combined with fabric and paper. These are sized just right for use in any of those mediums. I also thought that maybe using the words in their mixed media work would maybe encourage more people to pick up the wire for themselves and bend a little of their own. A girl can dream, right?

In the meantime.. for all those mixed media artists out there- Wire Words Embellishments- Coming Soon!