Tag: wire

Vintage linen calendars

On By CarynIn Craft

My sister brought me some linen towels from the 70s. I liked the prints on them, so decided to use them as decoration. They all had a narrow sleeve at the top, so I cut down wire hangers to make hanging rods.

Photo description: white wire hangers cut with lineman’s pliers and the ends looped with needle nose pliers

I took leather cordage and tied it to the wire loops.

Photo description: calendar towel from 1974 with wire and leather hanging hardware

I didn’t like how the wire sagged, so I tacked the linen to the leather about a third of the way in with cotton thread.

Photo description: closeup of tacked section
Photo description: same towel hanging on the wall, but with thread tacks and no sagging, towel has drawings of kitchen implements
Photo description: linen calendar towel from 1973 with birds hanging on the wall with new hardware along with chickadee art, and photos of a barn owl and field mouse by Oliver Hellowell

The production of calendar towels began in the 1950s and was an invention of Stevens Linen Works in Dudley, Massachusetts.

Throwback Thursday: the process

On By CarynIn Craft, throwback

I found a picture from December 2014 that shows how the creative process sometimes works, or doesn’t. I was trying to develop a simple, repeatable wire dragonfly shape and went through many, many iterations.

Photo description: twelve partially formed brass wire dragonfly shapes on a green table

I still wasn’t entirely pleased with the end result, although I did make a few more like the shape in the bottom left.

Sometimes my ideas work right off the bat, but more often they go through a series of trials, with mostly errors. If we aren’t willing to have a few gnarls in the thread, it is hard to achieve much of anything.

Throwback Thursday: first ghost

On By CarynIn Craft

In October 2014 I made my first poultry wire ghost.

Photo description: shape of a young girl in a pioneer style dress shape with bonnet sculpted from poultry wire and standing in grass in a backyard

I had seen photos of wire ghosts and loved how the mesh looked etherial, especially at first glance in the dark.

Photo description: same wire sculpture installed in a front flower bed

One ghost led to two, as I wanted to make one larger.

Photo description: woman shaped sculpture made from poultry wire with the hands over her face

The idea to put the ghost’s hands over her face came from watching Dr Who and the weeping angels. It also solved the awkwardness of sculpting hands.

Photo description: weeping woman ghost in the front garden bed with a crown of leaves.

I had many requests for these ghosts, so I wrote instructions with tips and tricks, which has become my best selling item on Etsy.

Throwback Thursday: viking knit

On By CarynIn Craft, throwback

In July of 2014 I was experimenting with making “viking knit” wire chains. I did a number of trials with different metals and gauges of wire. I stumbled across this picture that also showed the time it took to get a small section of work done.

Photo description: wood dowel with looped brass wire, a spool of wire, side cutters, needle nose pliers, awl, book, and ID card

I like viking knit chains, they have a nice feel and drape. The technique is looping, which years later I learned to do with yarn in a method called nälbinding. I still love nälbinding too. Neither are fast crafts, but they are satisfying.

Throwback Thursday: tree ornament

On By CarynIn Craft, throwback

I love trees. I have made many wire trees, and I feel I have a flare for them. In December of 2013 I made an ornament with copper wire and a brass loop with “2013” done in wire along a branch of the tree.

Photo description: copper wire tree in a circle ornament with “2013” on a lower branch

I like this style of tree. Larger versions do well as wall hangings, which, for me, is preferable to sculptures that take up horizontal space. The market for wire trees fluctuates, for while every craft fair and mall had a wire tree booth. So anymore I mostly make these when I want one, rather than to sell.