Inspired by Alice in Wonderland

It's been a little time sense my last post, so breaking out of tradition here I am.:-)

This piece is one of my newer pieces and it was created after see the movie Alice in Wonderland. I absolutely love Tim Burton’s style!
The chain was inspired by Nancy L. T. Hamilton she is an awesome jewelry artist who has some really great video tutorials on her website. The center pendant is a design I created. It definitely was not easy using the 28 gauge wire on the sides, took me three times on each side to get it right. The center is created using the basic pendant wrap setting, with a couple of different twist here and there. After finding couple of really good free wire wrap pendent tutorials online (listed below) and reading through them a couple of times and making a few changes to the way I like aesthetically. I was ready to take it to the next level.

• http://www.rockhounds.com/rockgem/articles/wirewrap.shtml

• http://www.tumbleweedglass.com/cab.html



In the basic wire wrap pendant you would bind together 3 or more square wire, 21 gauge square, to create what is called a sheet. The number of 21 gauge square wire depends on the width of your cab. Usually you would have one sheet of “so many” wires that is bound by half round 20 gauge wire four times along the sheet and you would wrap and form this whole sheet (on piece) around your cab. But in the case of the piece above I took two sheets, both bound twice with the half round wire and then bound them together on each end (just under the spirals in the picture above) again using half round wire. The rest of the wire extended out past were the two sheets were bound, I did a basket weave using the 28 gauge then secured it against the main frame.

The clasp is pretty much a story in itself… to be honest it was a pain in the butt. I didn’t want to use a store bought clasp, it definitely had to be handmade. So being handmade my main concern was security. I didn’t want it to come undone to easily, naturally. On top of all that, the clasp had to be the widths of the bracelet. I figured a hook clasp would be best, but not very secure. So in final thought I did a double hook clasp, or at least that is what I’m calling it. :-) After do about four or five of them I ended up sticking with the first one I did. It was the most symmetrical. Once I hooked the bracelet together with this clasp, I knew it was the best clasp for this bracelet. It won’t go anywhere, yet easy to do and undo.