More of Jenn's wire work

Last Friday I showed you two mini wire trees with crystals that my friend Jenn made.  If you missed it, you can catch up here.  I also told you about some of the other things that she makes, but I didn't have pictures of them.  I didn't know if I could just take them from her website, and she wasn't able to get back to me before I blogged.  She has now given me permission to show you pictures from her website, so I'm going to do that.  Easy blog for me, more exposure for Jenn.  We both win!  :)

Here is a larger tree that's for the wall:

It's called a Bleeding Heart tree, and I think it's really pretty.

Here are a bunch of evergreen trees in different colors:

Here's a tree ornament:

Now let's move on to non-tree pieces.  Here is a Christmas spider that you could hide in the tree or put on a shelf or wherever:

I hate spiders, but this one is pretty.

Here are two wreaths - "Harvest" and "Spring Butterflies":

Here are a number of leaf roses with wire stems:

And, finally... my friend Kate is going to love this.  Here is a "Floral Garden Fairie":

These are just examples of her work - I don't know which are available for purchase.  Visit her this weekend in Kohler at the Wisconsin Holiday Market, or contact her through the All-Hallond Designs Facebook page.

Jenn's amazing wire creations

I first met Jenn from All-Hallond Designs through a wire wreath that my friend Cindy has hanging in her kitchen.  It's technically a holiday wreath, but it doesn't scream "Christmas," so Cindy has it up all the time.

A few months later, I met the actual Jenn.  She was so nice and has the neatest glasses.  I've watched her work a number of times, and one day she made a very small tree (about 3" tall) with crystals in the branches.  I fell in love with it and asked her to hold it for me because I wanted to give it to my mother for her birthday.  I also ordered a copper one with topaz crystals for Steve's mother's birthday.

Here is the tree I gave to my mother:

It's so CUTE!  Here's the tree I got for my mother-in-law:

That gives you some size perspective.  It's a little bigger than the other tree, but it's still small and cute.  Let's look at it close up:

Along with the tiny trees, she also makes larger ones, wreaths, pumpkins, Christmas spiders, evergreen trees in many different sizes, and much more!  To see pictures of her work, visit her website and click on each of the tiles - more pictures will pop up.

If you'd like to see Jenn and her pieces in person, she will be at the three day Wisconsin Holiday Market, which runs from November 21 through November 23 in Kohler, Wisconsin.  Click the link for more information.

She posts other shows she does throughout the year on the All-Hallond Designs Facebook page.  If you'd like to contact Jenn, you can do so at allhallonddesigns@yahoo.com.

Thanks, Jenn, for a pair of lovely little trees!  They're so adorable!

Wire doodle bracelet

Last night at the Loose Bead Society program we did a hands-on "wire doodle bracelet" project.  We were each given a leather bracelet blank and brightly colored wire.  The instructions showed how to make a clasp out of wire (which is great for those of us with larger wrists), how to make a number of "doodles", and how to attach them to the bracelet without making more holes.  Basically, we bent the wire into different shapes using pliers and our hands then wrapped the wire around the leather.

After doing the clasp, I made a purple flower (because purple) and put a red swirl on top for the center.  I made a lot of swirls - they were easy - but I also made a few balls, which also were easy and gave this abstract piece some dimension.  I made a few leaves for the flower, and before I knew it, I had practically the whole bracelet covered:

I could still add a little something over there on the right by the clasp.  I had left it open because I didn't want to mess with the clasp mechanism, but another swirl or two wouldn't interfere.

Yes, it looks like a jumble, but I kinda like it.  It's more comfortable to wear than I thought it would be, and there's so much to look at.

The part I liked best about making it was figuring out how to anchor things so they wouldn't stick up.  For the leaves I took a piece of red wire and went through the spiral then diagonally across one of the leaves to hold it down.  In a few places, such as the center of the flower, I threaded the wire through a few of the spirals then wrapped it around the bracelet again.  Here is the non-clasp end of the bracelet with two examples of that:

It was tricky to not kink the wire while threading it through a spiral, but I managed.  The doodle on the right has a black ball in the center of the purple spiral, and it sticks up about a quarter of an inch.

Here's my favorite part of the bracelet:

It's a little ball with the wire wrapped around one and a half times with little spirals on each end.  If I were to do another of these bracelets, I'd like to just have a number of this kind of doodle in different colors.

This was fun, even though my fingers were sore afterward.  I rely on them too much when working with wire.

I think this would be a great project for kids.  A number of people wrote their name in wire, so that would be fun for kids to figure out how to do it and how to attach it to the bracelet.