Social Crafting

A friend of mine came over on Saturday so we could wire wrap briolette beads together.  She hasn't done any wire wrapping.  I haven't done a lot, though I do obviously have the metalworking experience.  She brought lots of different ear wires, briolettes and wire supplies.  I supplied the pliers, a touch more wire, and the supplies for my own project- the silver wire and the ruby briolettes.

I enjoy social crafting- a few people getting together to do some sort of creative activity.  It could be knitting, crochet, scrapbooking- anything casual and suitable for a small group with mixed experience.  I don't want to join a club, pay dues, or do any fundraising.  I just want to get together for casual arting/crafting every now and then. 

It's hard to get schedules to work when most women are juggling work, studies, family and household duties.  This time, two of us got together, Mona (of White Pup Vintage on etsy) and myself.  Mona, with her vintage stash, had all sorts of goodies to work with.      






Mona brought extra supplies, memory wire and colorful beads, that my daughter could work with at the same time. My daughter took most of the pictures for the blog, and made a few memory wire bracelets too.




By the end of our afternoon, Mona finished up several pairs of earrings, including this great dangly pair for me


I focused on getting some ruby briolettes wrapped.  They have tiny irregular holes, so I used 26 gauge silver wire.  I doubled the wire at the hanging point, for strength.  I have them pictured here with some turquoise chip beads. They seem perfect together, though I don't yet have any plans firmed up for them. 


Mona brought the white pup, but the white pup was bored. 


If you want to have your own wire wrapping social gathering, take a look at Contrariwise's blog entry on wire-wrapping briolettes.  You should also be able to find other tutorials in crafting books at a local library.  It would be a good idea to have one person in the group who has done some wire wrapping.  I forgot how confusing pliers and wire can be when you first start out. 

If you participate in some form of social crafting and blog about it, please post links back to those entries in the comments here.  I'd love to see them.