Seaglassing & Wire Wrapping

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Posts Tagged ‘seaglass pendants’

TUTORIAL – wire wrapped sea glass pendant

September 26th 2013 Posted at Wire Wrapping
2 Comments

Hi Beach and seaglass fans! It is time to wire wrap your own pendant if you haven’t already.
 If you have and you are stopping by for a visit for the first time to Scrap’N Wrap, then welcome – pull up a chair.  

 

Today on my tutorial I’m going to pick a piece of seaglass out of the treasure chest that we keep in the ISLAND MADE gift shop.  I recently picked some lovely rounded pieces off the shores of Prince Edward Island and I offer a few wire wrapped pieces on my Etsy Shop at ScrapNWrap and we sell bags of sea glass in the gift shop and on Etsy. I’m working on a pendant today so lets get started.

Supplies Needed to Make The Pendant:


 
Pick your piece of seaglass you want to wire wrap
 
Flat nose pliers, round nose pliers, and cutter pliers

About 12″ of wire, I use a copper coated non tarnishing wire  and 20 gauge wire to wrap.

At this point you want to make a loop to hang your pendant.
To do this:
Use your flat nose pliers and bend the wire at about 45 degrees.

Next make your loop by using the round nose pliers and wrap the wire around the pliers then around the wire a couple of times.

My photo didn’t turn out as the battery was low so I included a link here to how to wrap around the pliers.

After you wrap underneath the loop and around  making sure to have one end about 3″ long and the other end with all the length.


Now you are ready to position your seaglass on top of the wire with the loop at the top and the long wire at the bottom of the seaglass. 

Taking the wire from the bottom of your pendant you want to start wire wrapping it around the seaglass so make a cage to hold it in.  Be creative and wrap anywhere around the bottom.
 
 

Continue making spirals holding the wire down with your thumb and using your free hand bend the wire slowly until it loops around. I call this free hand wrapping.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After making a spiral return your wire back to the top of the pendant and wrap the wire around the bail once more.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Still working with the longest piece of wire start a spiral on the opposite side holding in the right side of the seaglass pendant.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Again being creative and wrapping the wire and looping it as you go, then pass the wire around the back and back up to the top and wrap around the bail once more.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Taking the end of the short piece of wire and the round nose pliers make a coil in the end.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Then using your flat nose pliers grab the end of the loop and coil the loop up towards the bail.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
At this point I cut myself another short length of wire approximately 8″ in length and attach it by wrapping it around the bail a couple of times over the already wrapped wire.

 
I cut off one end as it is too long and I’d like the coils to be different sizes.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I then start with the short wire and use the round nose pliers and bend a loop, then coil it up with the flat nose pliers.
I continue doing this until all the wire ends are coiled up to the bail.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sometimes I’ll need to turn the piece of seaglass over and over to get it into the position I can work with it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I press the rounded coils against the seaglass making it appear as though there is a flower at the top, while it hides the wire I wrapped around the bail.
 
 
Well that’s it, another piece wire wrapped! Let me tell you it can be addictive. You get one piece finished and look for the next piece of seaglass to start wrapping.  I’ve been wire wrapping for years now and I love it! I started wire wrapping with beads then a few years ago started with the seaglass.  I’ve made a number of pieces and some of them are for sale in my Etsy Shop, ScrapNWrap.
 
I hope this tutorial was a little helpful and has inspired you to visit my  ScrapNWrap Etsy shop to purchase some beautiful seaglass!
 Thank you Prince Edward Island, shipwrecks and for the seaglass.
 
Happy wire wrapping,
Cindy
 
 

Sea Glass Festival PEI

July 28th 2013 Posted at Wire Wrapping
4 Comments

It was amazing to see everyone again this year, no I didn’t have a table or a booth and others try to encourage me every year to attend and plan to be in the PEI Seaglass festival. I don’t know what holds me back, “next year” yes I say that every year and I now have help with the table and I can go on line and book the Bed and Breakfast off line so we can make plans to be there the full weekend.

First I need to thank Matthew for getting up early and coming over to the B&B and making breakfast for everyone so early. He did a terrific job, did way more than I expected of him. He phoned me and said he had to get to work and I thanked him, he said he didn’t have time to clean up and so he was leaving all the dishes on the table and such. I told him we would do it when we got home. We were tired from the night before, wine, cards, line dancing you know the usual weekend getaway. Anyway, I wasn’t looking forward to 8 hour dirty dishes and all and when I walked into the kitchen and had a look everything was put away, dishes done, table cleaned off…it was amazing a big sigh of relief came over me. Now I’m wondering if it was Matthew who cleaned up (my son is a chef and doesn’t have to clean up his mess) or did our B&B guests do the clean up when he left for work. I’m almost afraid to ask. It has happened before, I’ve had to run to work and came home to find our guests cutting the grass.

The Sea Glass Festival, sorry I wander,

There was a guest speaker on Friday night named Richard LaMotte, he wrote the book called Pure Seaglass and he was there for a book signing. He was also there to be presented with unique finds so he could identify time and place. I had a small tupperware of finds and he went through each one with amazement. I showed off my pipe and he you could see his eyes getting bigger as he was describing this hand forged clay pipe.

“It is definitely from the 1700’s” he said. So I handed him my bottle I’d just found hours before on the beach at Souris.

He rolled it over and over, and said….”nice find, where did you find this again.” I told him it was just an early morning beachcombing on the Souris Beach and he started to explain the age by describing the seam welds.

“Do you see this seam? it runs along side but not all the way up to the top of the bottle it stops?” Yes, I replied. He continued with in the year 1890 this bottle was hand made, rolling it over he showed me how irregular the bottom was and how off centre the spout was placed on. Funny over breakfast this morning Blair had said some of the same words to me, I could almost hear his voice. Later I found out from Blair I’d fallen asleep at the seminar. Funny everyone thinks I had too much wine, if they only knew…. Oh well I’m sure glad to have friends that pay attention.

So hear is my bottle seam

I was also told that the bottle was made with manganese dioxide the year it was made and that is to clarify the glass and make it white because all glass is a light blue/green colour. Now when my bottle is left in the sun for so long the sun reacts with the manganese dioxide turning it purple.

Another early morning find is this amazing grey piece of seaglass

Well I’d better get breakfast started for my guests, it is back to the chopping block for me… the fun is over for another year.

Have a wonderful day, Cindy

The Sea Glass Lady

June 11th 2012 Posted at Wire Wrapping
2 Comments

Oh its true, I do, I love sea glass.  I love its colours, I love the hunt, I love the mystery of where it might have come from, I love journey it traveled to get to me, and I love transforming it into what it can be, I love working and wire wrapping it and I love that Sea Glass symbolizes me.

I also love to get mail, especially when it is addressed to

“The Sea Glass Lady”

So what is sea glass? Well it is broken pieces of glass that has been washed over time by mother nature up onto the shores. Don’t be fooled because not any old piece of broken glass can be given the title “sea glass.”  It has to be over 30 years old rolling back and forth with the waves over salt, sand, and stone tumbling in the ocean for years making it smooth on all sides, until it is a nugget size just right for Jewel-quality.

Textures will tell sometimes how old, or rare a piece of sea glass really is

 

I ask the same question each time I reach on the beach for the sea glass nugget while beachcombing; What was your history…Come on tell me your story.  Were you a bottle, a vase, a dish, or a jar that held penny candy in a 5 & dime?  Who’s your owner? How far did you travel? How old are you? Or how did you end up on my little Island, Prince Edward Island?  How did you get to the ocean in the first place?  

Cobalt blue sea glass identifies with a Noxzema jar, Milk of Magnesia, and Vick’s Vap-o-Rub bottles from early to mid 1900’s

 

Oh so many questions and often no answers but sometimes Sea Glass can be identified by the markings, its colour, and sometimes shape.  I’ll have to settle with not having the full complete story on each piece of sea glass and leave some of the mystery to continue the story.

Frosted white sea glass caged in silver wire wrapped for a pendent and ready for sale in

“The Island Made Gift Shop”

Sea Glass Bracelets $25 in the gift shop

Sea Glass Rings are $7.95 in the Gift Shop

The Island Made Gift Shop, 545 Malpeque Rd, (Route 2) Winsloe, PEI

 Thank you for stopping by my “Sea Glass Lady” blog post today. Remember if you are visiting Prince Edward Island make stopping by the Island Made Gift Shop (open hours) a thing to do while here on PEI. Guaranteed to be eye and purse pleasing as we have a lot of  Blissful sea glass jewelery, scrapbooking memorabilia all genuinely made in PEI and unique to Prince Edward Island. 

Sea Glass Cindy

 

Mermaid’s (Tear) Wrapped Seaglass Pendant

January 1st 2012 Posted at Wire Wrapping
5 Comments

 

Just for a Tear

North Shore beachcombingThe shores of Prince Edward Island were a little frozen when we beachcombed yesterday. However, I had to have that first piece of seaglass to wire wrap for a New Year’s Pendant.

December 31, 2011, our way to bring in the New Year.

This is our beachcombing beach on the north shore of PEI, notice the ice on the tops of the rocks? Ya! no kidding the North Shore was fabulous and the winds were about 10 knots, gorgeous day if you were dressed for it.

 

 

 

One tear cried onto the shore.

Winter sea glass findsAs I’m walking the beach this rolled up in front of me. I felt like I was serving as a valet parking attendant at the Ritz and a Rolls-Royce had just pulled up for me to pick up. One Mermaid’s Tear, a beautiful piece of seaglass – was there a subliminal message here? I think so, “quick pick it up” I heard yelling from the back of my head.

 

 

 

 

Lots of colour found today.

Rare orange seaglass

 These seaglass shards complete my collection of finds for the day.  Notice the orange piece of seaglass?  I looked up West Coast Sea Glass, they have a poster marking the rarest of all pieces.  What a journey a piece of sea glass makes until it arrives in hand.  

 

 

 

Sea Glass 2012

seaglass for New Year's Day

 For a closer look 

Sea glass wire wrapped

 I incorporated a twisted square wire

wire wrapped seaglass with beads

 A few Swarovski crystals are added to the top of the bail 

the bail to hang from a chain

 Excited about Sea Glass

The seaglass bail to hang from a chain

 A picture from the top

Finished sea glass pendant

 The End!

Thank you for stopping by my post on Mermaid’s (Tear) Wrapped Seaglass Pendant.  I hope you enjoyed the walk / glass / wrap. Wishing you all the best as we start the New Year, happy wrapping.

~ seaglass cindy

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