| I first made this design using some cheap wire,
then I made it with 9ct gold wire for a commission. It is beginner/intermediate
level I would guess, but the directions that follow assume you
can all wire wrap a bead onto a headpin and you can make loops. |
Here is the equipment you will need:
- A cyclops or centaur wig jig if you have one, but you
can probably make this with round nosed pliers. The wig
jig just makes it simpler to get the loops placed regularly.
- Round nosed pliers wire cutting snips
- Chain nose pliers
- Nylon flat nosed pliers (non-essential but useful for
straightening wire at the start)
- 20cm sterling silver wire 0.8mm or something similar,
but cheaper to start with! Copper would be nice.
- 1 pair earring fittings
- 6 headpins
- 2 headpins with eye (or more wire)
- 8 x 4mm beads or some long ones for the 6 dangles
I cut a piece of 10cm wire to do the photos, but personally
I prefer to work with the whole coil of wire as a) it keeps
waste to a minimum and b) when you finish the daisy circle,
it is easier to keep the wire pulled tight, rather than working
with the tiny end bit. The choice is yours. |
|
Take the wire and using the round nosed pliers, make a
small loop in the end. I placed three pegs in the wig jig
in the top holes which are drilled in concentric circles.
Place the loop on the left hand peg and wind around the bottom
of the next peg, taking the wire up and around until you have
three loops. |
|
|
Take the wire off the pegs and replace the
third loop that you just made onto the first peg on the left.
|
|
| Wind two more loops |
|
| Lift the wire off again and replace the last loop you made
on the first peg on the left, just as you did before. Wind two
more loops (the last). You should have a total of 7 loops. |
|
| Now you want to snip the long end of the wire on the inside
of the last loop so that it sits flush. |
|
| You now want to push the two loops past each other, then ease
them back, so that the two loops at either end sit nicely on
top of each other. The right loop should lie on top of the left
(i.e. NOT as you see in the picture) to continue the correct
pattern of the wire. Look to see that this is so. (I sound like
Commander Picard on the Enterprise!) |
|
| Here is the daisy as I start to make it up. The connector
bead that lies above the daisy needs a larger loop at the bottom
as it has to take the double wire of the two daisy "ends".
It is also important to note, that it will hang better if the
"eyes" on each side of the connector bead are at 90
degrees to one another. |
|
| and finally you should have something like this. *sigh* I've
just realised I have put the overlapping eyes the wrong way
on top of each other! Anyway, the variations are endless of
course, so show me yours! |
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| If you make some of these, please send me a photo. If anything
is unclear, just let me know. I hope you will try this out as
they are great fun to do. |
