I wanted to make some bicone beads to match these feathers, but as soon as I got back from Bead Fest I started working my other job again, and quite honestly have not wanted to even look at my torch right now. I had these pretty round swirl beads that matched perfectly, so I went with them!
I knew I was going to make earrings, and wanted to figure out a wire wrap, instead of punching a hole in the feather. It took me a few tries, but this is what I came up with. If this is a technique that's already out there, please just bear with me! Here's what I came up with:
I folded over the tip of the feather, and made a wrapped loop. Here's how I did it. First, I took about a 7" piece of 20 gauge copper wire, and bent it in half.
I formed a loop, and kept both ends of the wire horizontal.
I then inserted the tip of the feather into the loop, and folded it over. I held it in place with my chain nose pliers.
I began wrapping one end of the wire around the front of the feather. I wrapped it several times.
When I was comfortable with the number of wraps, I cut the excess wire off in the back and used the chain nose pliers to push the end down so it would lie flat and out of the way.
Then I took the other end and did the same thing - please excuse the gnarly wire - I had to unwrap at one point, and that's why it looks this way!
When I was done wrapping, I cut the wire in the back the same way and made sure the wire held tight by gently tugging on it. After that, I just make my lampwork bead dangle by starting a wrapped loop, inserting the feather segment and finishing the wrapped loop. Then I added a copper wavy chip bead (don't know what to call these!) my lampwork bead, another chip bead and made a wrapped loop at the top. Add ear wire and you're done!
Please check out what everyone else made with Rebekah's feathers by following these links!
Guest Artists
Karin Grosset Grange - http://ginkgoetcoquelicot.blogspot.com/
Ann Schroeder - http://beadlove.wordpress.com/
Claire Lockwood - http://www.somethingtodowithyourhands.com/
Toltec Jewels - http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/
Toltec Jewels - http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/
The AJE Team
Jen Cameron - http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog
Diana Ptaszynski - http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com
Kristen Stevens - http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/
Lesley Watt - http://www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com/
Jenny Davies-Reazor - http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog
Francesca Watson - http://francescawatson.com/
Linda Landig - http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/
Melissa Meman - http://melissameman.blogspot.com/
Sue Kennedy - http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com/
Rebekah Payne - http://www.treewingsstudio.com/
Caroline Dewison - http://blueberribeads.blogspot.co.uk/