Crocheting with Wire

Good morning folks. Can't believe it is Friday already. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Since I have started crocheting with wire, I have wanted to see what other wires are like and yesterday I visited a local bead shop to see what wire and beads they had. Beads, beads and more beads, and everything related to working with them. I was greeted by a nice sales lady and she asked if I needed help. I told her that I wanted to see their wire and also said I was interested in buying some beads. She showed me where the wire was, different types, colors, etc. Suggested I put my purse in a locker, so I did. Got a key to put around my wrist. Interesting, as I've never had to do that before, but I can certainly understand it with the merchandise they had, semi-precious stones, crystals, gold, silver. She gave me a little basket, with a magic marker, and some little plastic zip-lock bags.

Then she left me to do my browsing and figuring out what I wanted. I went into the shop with a certain amount of $ I wanted to spend, and only went over that amount by $3. I got three spools of wire, three different gauges, 26, 28, and 30. Then I checked out beads. I wanted a variety. I found a basket of 3" tubes which said buy one, get one free. Yippee, I thought, this is right up my ally, so I began looking through the basket and came up with four I liked and wanted to work with. Then I found another little basket of tiny zip lock bags of beads and bought two of them. I was happy with my purchases and could hardly wait to get back home.

Crocheting with wire is definitely NOT the same as crocheting with thread. It's stiffer, and harder on your hands, plus it's really hard to get the tension right. I read in a book on crocheting with wire, that part of the beauty of working with it is the uneveness of the stitches.

My nickel wire is very fine, gauge 34, and from 1928. Crocheted pieces with it are gossamer looking. When DH first saw me crocheting with it, he said "What are you crocheting with, hair?" He had given me this spool out of his workshop, as he didn't think he would be doing anything with it.

The 26 gauge wire was the hardest to work with and was really rough on my fingers. I'm not sure I'll be working with that size all that much.

Another thing, crocheting with beads is new for me also and I enjoy it. But stringing these tiny holed beads is time consuming and hard on the eyes, so I wear my stronger glasses for this work.

Anyway, yesterday was a productive day in creating pieces with wire.

Here are some pictures, which you can click on for a larger viewing.

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My workspace is in our little library, where my computer also is.

Here is a picture of my wire and 'some' of the beads.

Nickel wire pieces, 34 gauge size wire.

These I made last week or the week before.

This is made with the heavier wire which is 26 gauge.

This one is made with 30 gauge.

This last one is with 28 gauge.

The tiny baskets are about 1 1/2 inches tall.

That's it for now. I have got to do a few things before I head off to work this morning. I work part-time managing an antique shop. Today my fingers will get a rest from working with wire.

Forgive the quality of the pictures of my pieces, I've still got to get the knack of taking pictures of them.

Thanks for looking. I will have these pieces for sale in my Etsy Shop, which is also called Plum Cottage Creations.