Sarah Thompson's Holding Wire for Weaving

Holding Wire for Weaving

by Sarah Thompson

In following along with some of our previous posts about wire weaving, our contributor Sarah Thompson gives us a few great tips today on how to hold your wire when beginning to weave!

Instructions

Our natural tendency is to pinch the small gauged wire between our thumb and forefinger to guide it as you weave. This is fine, but you will find that your hand will cramp up over time. This can make weaving unpleasant. I use an alternative method inspired from crocheting.

Start your weave to anchor your weaving wire to the base wires. Hold your woven form to the inside of your palm with your weaving wire between your thumb and forefinger and resting on the back of your hand. Pull the form across your palm underneath the pinky and across your ring and middle finger, let the weaving wire follow the same path as it is pulled along with the form. You are now set up to start weaving.

Sarah Thompson's Holding Wire for Weaving - , Wire Weaving, Wire Wrapping, Wrapping, Wire Wrapping Jewelry, Weaving, Wire Weaving, Weaving Wire, Beginning wire weaving

The idea is to allow the wire to run through your fingers while you guide it with your middle finger. Your hand can be open or loosely closed in a fist, but the most important thing is that we are not clenching the muscles in our hand.

Sarah Thompson's Holding Wire for Weaving - , Wire Weaving, Wire Wrapping, Wrapping, Wire Wrapping Jewelry, Weaving, Wire Weaving, Weaving Wire, Guiding a weaving wire

The other benefit to holding the wires this way is that I can use my fingers to tap the small gauged wire as I am weaving. This gives the right amount of tension to wrap the wire tightly around the base wires as you weave. When my wire is in the back I tap with my thumb, then as I move to the front I can use my forefinger to tap. We normally pull the wire to tighten; this uses your arm muscles which are more difficult to control, using more force than needed to tighten the wire which can lead to your wire breaking. By tapping with your fingers you are using a minimal amount of force. This dramatically cuts back on your wire breaking.

Sarah Thompson's Holding Wire for Weaving - , Wire Weaving, Wire Wrapping, Wrapping, Wire Wrapping Jewelry, Weaving, Wire Weaving, Weaving Wire, Tapping wires in place

In the beginning holding the wire this way may feel awkward, so I want you to first focus on learning the weave and getting it right. Hold the wire in a way that is natural to you. Then once you are comfortable with the weave come back and work on how you hold your wire. This will make it more manageable to learn, and soon you will find that it has become second nature.

Materials

Wire

Shop Now

Add All Items to Cart

Tools

C.H.P Milano Italian Flush Cutter, 5 1/2 Inches

PLR-487.00

PLR-487.00
Lesson Quantity: 1.00 pieces
Purchase Quantity: 1.00 each
Price: $14.97
Gold Club Price: $11.23

Add to Bag

Add All Items to Cart

Category: Weaving
Technique(s): Wrapping, Weaving

Reviews

Sarah Thompson

My fascination with jewelry started at a very young age. I still remember my first necklace given to me as a gift from my grandmother when I was 4. It had tiny little teddy bear beads in an alternating pattern of pink, blue, and white. I loved the feel of it when worn, and was mesmerized by the textures I felt as I ran it through my fingers. As I grew that fascination stayed with me, and by the time I was 14 I became fixated with beads. I spent hours in the library and the local bead store learning what I could from books and magazines.

My resources were limited and I learned to find creative solutions with what I had on hand. As my skills grew I found the most enjoyment in doing off loom bead work. I loved the diversity and dimensions that I could achieve by building layer upon layer of beads onto a beaded foundation. But I still felt like something was missing. As much as I enjoyed working with the beads I found it overwhelming having so many options in bead size, colors, and textures. I yearned to make more elegant flowing designs, while keeping the pieces delicate and wearable. I dabbled in traditional wire work, but found it too simple and limiting for what I was envisioning. During my initial attempts at wire work the tools felt awkward and it frustrated me how easily the wire became mangled as I tried to shape the wire, and I the more I forced the wire the worst it would become.

Everything changed in 2005. I was visiting Seattle during the Bellevue Art festival; it was at this festival that I was introduced to Marilyn Moore's work. I instantly fell in love with her beautiful vases made from recycled copper wire. I was drawn in by the movement, texture, and sculptural qualities that could be achieved when using wire as a means to weave with. I walked away filled with ideas of taking weaving techniques and transforming it into jewelry with my own style. I could see that this was what I had always envisioned my jewelry to be like. I became obsessed and scoured the internet and library trying to find anything that would teach me how to weave with wire. I came away disappointed, finding nothing that could help me apply my ideas to the wire. I wanted precise, intricate, and refined details, the few ideas I did find was very freeform, organic, rustic, and random in the styling; and was bulkier than I wanted. Over the next 5 years I experimented off and on as I tried to make my vision a reality. Everything I tried was met with disappointing results. I got to the point that I was convinced that wire work in any form was not for me, and was ready to throw in the towel.

My success came when I began melding the same concepts I learned from years of beadwork into wire work. The weave became the peyote stitch, once I realized this it was an easy transition into manipulating the weave in a similar manner as I would if I was beading. I discovered that adding depth and details in wire weaving was better done by layering the wire together one step at a time, instead of trying to do it all at once. I pulled ideas from crocheting to help me handle the wire better, and sketching to help me plan out my ideas; giving it more structural stability. I experimented with the sculptural abilities of the wire and how even subtle 3D shaping added to the design. I loved the simplicity in working with just wire and a single focal piece, yet my design options were limitless. The more I worked the more I fell in love with the wire.

I learned through trial and error. I had no background in wire wrapping or metal smithing. I had no preconceived notions of what not to do or even the preferable way to work with the wire. I developed my own techniques that worked for me. My hope is that I can give you a new way of looking at the wire, and a deeper appreciation of what can be done with it. In 2010 I started teaching my wire weaving techniques. My goal as a teacher has always been to give the students a strong foundation from which they can then begin creating their own original designs. Each of my classes was created with this goal in mind; breaking down the techniques and specific design elements so that they can be learned in a manageable manner.