I made this design up about a year ago using some cheap wire at first, then making it with 9ct gold wire for a commission. It is beginner/intermediate level I would guess, but the directions that follow assume you can all wire wrap a bead onto a headpin and you can make loops.
Here is the equipment you will need:
A cyclops or centaur wig jig if you have one, but you can probably do this with round nosed pliers. The wig jig just makes it simpler to get the loops placed regularly.
Round nosed pliers
wire cutting snips
chain nose pliers
nylon flat nosed pliers (non-essential but useful for straightening wire at the start)
20cm sterling silver wire 0.8mm or something similar, but cheaper to start with! Copper would be nice.
1 pair earring fittings
6 headpins
2 headpins with eye (or more wire)
8 x 4mm beads or some long ones for the 6 dangles
I cut a piece of 10mm wire to do the photos, but personally I prefer to work with the whole coil of wire as a) it keeps waste to a minimum and b) when you finish the daisy circle, it is easier to keep the wire pulled tight, rather than working with the tiny end bit. The choice is yours.
Take the wire and using the round nosed pliers, make a small loop in the end. I placed three pegs in the wig jig in the top holes which are drilled in concentric circles.
Place the loop on the left hand peg and wind around the bottom of the next peg, taking the wire up and around until you have three loops.
Take the wire off the pegs and replace the third loop that you just made onto the first peg on the left.
Wind two more loops
Lift the wire off again and replace the last loop you made on the first peg on the left, just as you did before. Wind two more loops (the last). You should have a total of 7 loops.
Now you want to snip the long end of the wire on the inside of the last loop so that it sits flush.
You now want to push the two loops past each other, then ease them back, so that the two loops at either end sit nicely on top of each other. The right loop should lie on top of the left (i.e. NOT as you see in the picture!)to continue the correct pattern of the wire. Look to see that this is so. (I sound like Commander Picard on the Enterprise!)
Here is the daisy as I start to make it up. The connector bead that lies above the daisy needs a larger loop at the bottom as it has to take the double wire of the two daisy "ends". It is also important to note, that it will hang better if the "eyes" on each side of the connector bead are at 90 degrees to one another.
.and finally you should have something like this. *sigh* I've just realised I have put the overlapping eyes the wrong way on top of each other! Anyway, the variations are endless of course, so show me yours!
If you make some of these please post photos here. If anything is unclear, just let me know here. I hope you will try this out as they are great fun to do
Hilary
