Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Coiled Wire Heart for Valentines





Last week a blogger buddy, Tuula @Thrifty Rebel Vintage, who does a series on her "Finds of the Week," featured a coiled heart she found at a thrift store.



I made a comment that I had just gotten into coiling and thought I could make one - just a smaller version.  Needless to say, she didn't see my comment - sometimes her new domain doesn't recognize me for whatever reason although we thought it had been corrected. It wasn't until I asked for her permission to post her picture and discovered my comment wasn't there.

 Anyway,  I was in Dollar Tree a few days later and found red wire! I knew immediately what I would do with it - make a coiled heart!  It was so easy to do  and it only took about 15 minutes.


To begin, I coiled the wire  (it doesn't say what the gauge of the wire is but I guess it to be 16 or 18) around a skewer stick.  I didn't think I had enough wire to make a bigger coil that would require using a larger stick like a dowel rod.

Gaps in the coiling wire can be tighten by pressing the coils together.

Once finish coiling the length of wire needed, remove coiled wire from stick.


Usually, the ends are cut off evenly but I left them on to secure together when making the heart shape. Next, cut a piece of straight wire several inches longer than the coiled wire.


Then use a plastic cup or something else round to help shape the wire into curves of the heart.

Grab each end of the coiled wire with pliers and stretched the entire length - evenly separating the coils and inserting the straight wire into the extended coil, forming a heart shape.

Bring the two end wires together, wrapping one around the other.
Finish the longer end by cutting off excess and using a round nose plier to make a loop at the top to close the wire. 


To make a matching jump ring, coil wire four or five times around a skewer or slightly larger stick and cut off excess ends, removing coiled wire from the stick .  .  .



Use wire cutters to trim ends of coils and cut out each coil at the same spot releasing the jump rings.


Open the gap of the jump ring by moving each end sideways to open. Close gap of jump ring in the same manner once attached to the top loop of heart. 


Surprise your sweetie for Valentines with this extra touch .  .  .





Thanks for the inspiration, Tuula!





Take a little time to enjoy

and

Happy Crafting!




6 comments:

  1. How cute Gail! I'm imagining that just about everywhere you go you study things and think about how to make stuff all the time! I know that people who use aol or yahoo email don't show up in my gmail box but their comment will show up on my blog. Does this person have comment moderation in place? Perhaps that's why it's not going through properly. Just a thought.

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  2. how totally neat! what a fun idea! is the wire easy to coil up? yours looks so perfect! I would love a few wire coiled hearts at my home!

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  3. Que buena idea y que bonito te ha quedado. Felicidades, si quieres te espero en mi blog y seguir en contacto.
    Saludos

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  4. That turned out great Gail! I really love it! It could hang anywhere, and all year round too. I'm not quite sure why but some days WP and blogger don't play nice together. I thought not putting in the blog name had solved the issue, but I guess not. Funny thing is I've only heard this from one other blogger friend and no one else. Not sure what's up, but hopefully in the future it will work more often then not because I'm at a loss at to the problem. Thanks so much for the shout out my friend. :)

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  5. Your projects are simply the best! I love this wire wreath. It's simple but gorgeous.

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  6. Read on to discover the different types of wire cutters available, how they differ in quality, and how to choose the best wire cutters for your next job or project. Resistor Color Codes

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