[ The view to the west: the sun has just set behind the mountains. There’s just a small spot of glow at the horizon, shining through the trees; it’s also reflecting off of the metal roof of the cabin. ]
I realized the day before I hadda ship presents off that I had, err, NOT gotten enough presents for my mom & aunt. WELP, only one thing to do, & that’s rush out just before sunset to whip up a couple copper wire ornaments.
See, I can’t do much wire stuff inside, cos it requires a lotta hammering, & Morgyn is EXTREMELY sensitive to loud noises, which, yeah, banging on wire with a hammer is. Loud.
Hence, Woods Day, & when I can’t Woods Day, the back porch, & when I can’t the back porch, welp.
Fortunately there was enough light (& JUST enough warms) to at least get through the hammering part.
I knew what I was making, at least, so it went quick. Step the first, whonk off a hunk of copper, & curve the ends around.
[ It’s about eight inches of nice thick copper wire, with each end bent into a loop maybe a quarter-inch across. ]
Bend THAT into a rough circle. Sometimes extremely rough.
[ It’s … lumpy. But it’s vaguely round, at least. One loop sticks out the top of the circle, and the other sticks in towards the center. ]
After which I spend a bunch of time with the round-nose pliers tweaking & bending until the circle is actually more-or-less a circle. Then hammer it flat, then texture it with the round hammer face. The tweaking takes the longest, but the texturing makes my hand achey pretty quick.
[ It’s MUCH closer to a circle now; close enough that the fact that it’s still slightly flattish on the bottom looks deliberate. Really. ]
Can’t hang an ornament without an ornament hanger! Which I used to make out of paperclips. I’ve gotten classy since then. Or something.
[ A shorter length of wire, maybe three inches long, sits next to another piece bent into an elongated S that would fit nicely over a branch on a tree. ]
Bang THAT flat & make it pretty & it’s time for beads!
[ There are now two similar S-shapes. Both have been hammered flat, and they’re wider at the curves of the S. ]
By this point I’d decided that 1) I was gonna hafta finish the non-hammering parts inside, but also that 2) I was gonna make two more, for my roommates, neither of whom has many ornaments. So I hauled everything inside & warned the roommates to stay away from the workroom. Which was festive, cos that’s ALSO the only way to get to the bathroom, but they gave me plenty of warning when they hadda pee so I could hide stuff.
Anyway Morgyn likes red & black so I dug through my beads, by which I mean ‘the beads they brought along when they moved out here & gave me’ cos I don’t tend to have a lot of black or red around.
[ A big round coral bead sits inside the wire circle; a black lampwork cube is next to it. There’s also some slightly thinner wire, maybe two inches long with a spiral on the end. ]
& put it together like thus!
[ The beads have been strung onto the shorter wire, with the spiral at the bottom. The top is wrapped around the inside loop of the big wire circle. Thinner copper wire has been wrapped around the circle, too, holding small red beads to it at intervals. The wire S is fastened to the outside loop to hang the whole thing from. ]
& here’s the one I made Aunt Ann. I really love the cat bead!
[ This one’s constructed similarly to the first, but with green beads wired to the loop and an off-white cat bead an inch tall dangling in the center. ]
& now everyone’s opened their presents, so no spoilers!
