December 1, 2008

Hardware Star



This is the hardware version of a more traditional wire star I blogged about on Craftydaisies.com last year. If you missed that tutorial, here it is again:

Materials


  • 20 gauge or slightly thicker wire. I used copper wire from the hardware store
  • wire cutter, pliers
  • decorations
For this star I used copper beads I got as a freebie from a friendly Etsy seller, rubber rings, beads made out of fused plastic from a black plastic bag, wire coils, and black glass beads. Check your stash and your basement and I'm sure you'll find unusual decorations you can use.

Step 1

For a six point star cut three 12 inch lengths of wire and one 6 inch length to tie the wire together.

Step 2

Lay out the 12 inch wires in a star shape. Then take the opposite ends of the bottom wire and cross them over the middle of the wires and begin securing the star. Repeat with the remaining 2 wires. This may require some fiddling. Basically you want to kind of wrap the wires around each other to make a star shape.

Step 3

Further secure the wires by using the 6 inch length of wire and basket weaving around the center of the star. Go over one wire and under the next, and so forth. Once you get to the beginning, you have to wrap the wire under the first "ray" so the securing wire can go the opposite way on the second round. In other words, if the wire went over the first "ray" the first time, it should go under the first "ray" the second time. Do this until you feel that the ends of the wire are fairly secure and the whole contraption looks like a star.

Step 4

Start decorating your star. At the end of the wire make a basic loop to prevent everything from sliding off. For this star I looped the ends into spirals. Repeat with the remaining wires.



If you want to you can stop here, or you can make a second six point star and overlay the two and wire them together. For this star I added a second star and instead of decorating it, I just bent the wires into shape.


Step 5




Tie a ribbon, string, or wire off one point to hang up your star and you're done.

2 comments:

MaryAnne LoVerme said...

so cool!

Turtle said...

cool snowflake. I also like the idea of using natural stones or pieces of sea glass