Bird with a wire...

It's been all about the wire this week. One of the things I've been doing with my students has been Picasso inspired self portraits in wire. I showed them a series of Picasso's such as this one, Dora Maar au Chat (that's Dora Maar with Cat in case your French isn't that good). I love the little cat on the back of the chair, kinda reminds me of Pippin moving in to snatch a tidbit from my mouth!!  

 

 

This is the wire portrait that I created quickly to show them how to do it (sorry it's just a phone photo, I forgot to take my camera with me, but you get the idea). I'll try and get some photos of the ones the students created. We're doing projects based on identity this term, individual identity and cultural identity.

So what else have I been doing with wire then? Well, I created this ring from scrap copper wire. Did you know that if you strip telephone cable down, not only do you get the pretty coloured fine wire and the fibre optic stuff, but you also get this lovely copper wire that's a pretty decent gauge. It's covered in plastic, but you can strip the plastic off pretty easily. I love this ring, it's about as long as my finger from the knuckle to the first joint and I made sure to curve some of the swirls so they sit closely to the shape of my finger and don't stick out too much. There's nothing worse than jewellery that catches on things. It cost me in blood too. I sliced my finger on the craft knife I was using to split the plastic coating and wow, did it bleed! I've never been a bleeder (one benefit of the Lupus), but since they put me on Warfarin I bleed profusely at the drop of a hat. Yep, I'm a right bleeder now! My gums bleed when I brush my teeth (yuck), I have the occasional nosebleeds (that's new too) and the bruises! I've never bruised so easily and such black bruises!  But hey, you didn't come here to listen to me moaning, did you.

 

 

This is my other bit of wire craft this week; a swirly pendant which I tempered (made it hard) by hammering. I need to give it a bit of a polish still. 

 

 

The weather here's been gorgeous today. Look at that sky! The trees are starting to turn lovely autumnal colours too; shades of gold, red and copper. We popped over to Milton Keynes today where I got hit on, always good for the ego, and where I bought some coloured card and some cookie cutters, a sun and a butterfly, obviously for crafting purposes! I'm thinking of using them to make needle felted brooches with.

I took this photo with my phone on the way home. The sky was never that blue during the summer, and just look at how empty that road is!!

It's my birthday in about a month, so look for a Birthday Giveaway very shortly!