Sunday Funday #4: Wire Flowers
- Jaime Eray
- Apr 30, 2016
- 2 min read
Cat on my shoulder, all snug with a blankey in a comfy armchair, and I get the urge to do something with my hands. So I ventured out into the cold to find crafty things around the house that I could do. I found this great Instructables project a while ago, and decided it was the perfect thing to try out! (Also because it meant I could return to my nest of warmth to do it).
Check out the instructions here. I kind of skimmed over them in my excitement to try for myself, but I did pretty much the same thing.
I used pencils as my make-shift wire jig. At first I tried some fancy loops to make the flower petals more symmetrical, which ironically made them less so. It was also really difficult because my long-nose pliers were still too stubby to properly bend the delicate wire the way I wanted. So instead I did as the instructions say, and did infinity loop-shapes for the petals.
What is this lovely stained glass effect, you ask? Why, it's simply nail polish! As the article says, it is best to try out different viscosities of polish to see which works better for you. I preferred a runnier, thinner polish as it spread over the wire so much easier, but I played around with all of my nail polish. The blue flower was made with polish that was so old it didn't want to leave the brush, which is why it looks a lot thicker on the wire than the others.
I love this clear nail polish with glitter in it! I painted the wire edges with a pink polish to cover up the ugly grey of the wire, and it works so well.
I loved the pink outline so much that I added similar details to the others as well.
This was my first attempt and I'm excited to try again to get better shaped petals. Also keen to try some other shapes, like leaves or butterflies. Maybe on a day when my fingers aren't so stiff from the cold...
This is super easy to do, and all you need is very thin-gauge wire (I think mine was 16 gauge), nail polish and preferably pliers and some kind of jig to get consistently-shaped petals. If you don't have pliers don't worry, such thin wire can be cut using a sturdy pair of kitchen scissors. I took me about half an hour to complete, not including the time it took for the polish to dry (which wasn't very long). Just remember that the bigger the petals, the harder it will be to spread the nail polish.
If you do this project please share it with me here or on my Facebook page - I'm keen to see all the different colours!
