Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Crowns With A Twist

I was playing around with wire today and had to try a princess crown!  These crowns were made using 16 gauge aluminum wire.

I made the crowns using this template I made with a scrap of wood and some head-less nails.  Not all of the nails were headless, I just used my wire cutters to pop off the heads on the rouge nails.  Obviously, the nails were just whatever I dug up from the bottom of my nail drawer...
Yes, I have a nail drawer and it is not full of polish :0}

Here is a close up of how I wrapped the wire.  I started my end piece of wire on the bottom nail at the far right.  The free end is on the top of the nail.  I held that loose end on the nail, wrapped the wire under the bottom nail on the far left, then across the bottom and up the far right nail.  From here, I wrapped the wire a little differently on the top row of nails vs. the row of nails that runs through the middle. 

BTW, I am sure this all sounds like a jumble of words, but if you look in the picture you can make out how the crown was formed.  I wrapped the wire up the left side of the top nails, around the nail, and crossing over the wire that was just taken up.  When running the wire around the middle nails, I went down the right side of the nail, up the left and did NOT cross the wire.  Again, see the loops above.  The crown was finished off by taking the wire straight down and cutting it just below the bottom of the crown.

I took the wire off the nail former, then used my pliers to make the loops tight.  As you can see above, I pinched closed, then turned slightly each tip of the crown.   

Sorry for the WAY BLURRY pic.  It is kinda tricky doing this and taking a picture at the same time ;0}
Once the tips were formed, I went back through the valley points of the crown and tightened the "U" looking valleys into "V" looking valleys.

Much better, right?  Now I need to go buy myself a soldering iron and attach those ends...but that will be another day.

When I set about embellishing the crown, I thought it looked like it needed a middle band below the valleys.  I added two more nails to the side so I could wrap around those as well.

I wanted to give you an idea of how I take the wire off the form.  It IS going to get a little screwy.  I just start at one side, loosening each loop until the whole thing is off.

This is what it looked like when I took it off the form.

Here it is again after pinching the tips and valleys.  Still not looking much like a crown.

Better, but it kinda makes me thing either of a Jester, or the Statue of Liberty.  Hmmmm...I ended up twisting the valleys 2 or 3 times to make them shorter.  By doing that it made more space between the valley and that top band.  

Looks much better!  And how about a little bling?  A crown HAS TO have BLING!

I added a little lace here and there.  With a little hot glue and some fun little embellishments the crowns really turned out fabulous.


I also made a flower form.  There ended up a lot of wire in the middle, but it still turned out cute.  I plan to try another flower a little more like the crown with more nails in the center, but it will have to wait for another day.

Same flower, different center.

Still working out the kinks with the "LOVE" for the wedding favors, but they turned out pretty well to!

If the kids are bored, send them outside with a hammer, nails, and a roll of wire.  I am sure they will amaze you with all that they can create!




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