The Call of the Wire (and Beads)

Trumpet beads, seed beads, large or small, whatever the shape, size and color, beads are irresistible aren’t they? Like tiny treasures just waiting to be discovered, a container of beads will call your name relentlessly until you give in and when you combine them with wire art it becomes too much for the average scrapbooker to resist!

If you’re ready to give in to the call, I’ve got some tips & techniques that’ll have you scrappin’ with beads & wire in no time!

About Wire
The two attributes of wire that will be most important to you as a scrapbooker are the type of metal it's made from and it's thickness, usually described as the gauge.

Although wire is available in a variety of metals, copper wire is a good choice for scrapbooking because it is resistant to corrosion and extremely pliable. I find that Artistic Wire carries the best selection of colors and gauges for scrapbookers.

You can tell the thickness of the wire by the number assigned to it, called the gauge, as mentioned above. The higher the number of the gauge, the thinner the wire. For instance, 26-gauge wire is much thinner than 18-gauge wire.

I prefer working with 24-gauge wire for most of the designs, borders and lettering that I do. For beadwork, I’ve found that a higher gauge is better, 26 or even 32. Experiment with several sizes and decide for yourself which size you like to work with best.

About Beads
Oh my, the choices are dizzying! There are dozens and dozens of beads to choose from. My favorites are the beautiful mixes of seed and trumpet beads. You can find a wide assortment of these mixes from JewelCraft.

Helpful Tools
While there are dozens of tools you can use to create beautiful page embellishments with beads & wire, these are some of the basics you’ll need to get started:

Beads
Bead Tray
Piece of felt
Good Lighting
Wire
Wire Cutters
Round Nose Pliers
Nylon Jaw Flattener
Paper Crimper
Twisting Tool

Attaching Wire & Beads
To attach wire and beads to your page you can try the options below and see which works best for you:

Glue Dots -
These little sticky dots of adhesive are fantastic for holding you wire and beads to the page. Try rolling them up so they are a thin line of adhesive before placing them behind your wire.

Sewing -
You can sew both beads and wire to your page with embroidery floss. To make the job easier, pre-poke your holes for sewing with a piercing tool or needle before you start.

Wire -
To attach an intricate wire design to the page, punch a tiny hole on either side of the wire with a piercing tool or your needle, cut a small piece of matching wire and bend it into a "U" shape then push it into the holes you created and twist on the back.

Creating with Wire & Beads

WIRE

Wrapping
One of my favorite things to do with wire these days is to wrap it around embellishments. In this example I first wrapped small pieces of wire around square mirrors from JewelCraft and then using a mini-glue dot I attached them to a long strand of wire that I had curled. Though it’s hard to tell from a scanned image, the mirrors reflect the wire creating an elegant look. You can also wrap jewels, die cuts, large beads and even paper borders with wire.

Crimping
Did you know that wire can be run through the paper crimper? The crimped wire is much easier to work with and can be used to form letters and shapes. Here I’ve slipped sequins from JewelCraft onto the wire after crimping it and then wrapped it around some crumpled vellum to create a patriotic border.

*Tip*
If you wet the vellum lightly with a spray bottle on both sides it is much easier to crumple and shape without tearing it.

Hanging, Curling & Flattening
You can curl your wire with the Wire Worker twisting tool from Artistic Wire to create spirals. For a flatter look as in the example, you can flatten your spirals with the Nylon Jaw pliers to create whimsical loops and swirls. Here I’ve used a flattened spiral as a “hanger” for my embellishment. The wire is hanging from a silver nailhead from JewelCraft and is inserted through silver eyelets from JewelCraft also.

Shaping
Wire can be shaped into countless patterns and designs. Here I've formed a star shape several times and then wrapped the inner points of the star with a contrasting wire color to hold the pieces together.

BEADS

Stringing
In this card I’ve strung beads from the “Treasure Mix” by JewelCraft onto copper wire and then attached it to the back of my window with glue dots. I covered the inside of the card with a contrasting piece of cardstock to hide my glue and frame the beads in the window.

Writing
You can “write” with beads to create gorgeous titles by simply stringing them on your wire and then shaping the wire to form your word.

In this example I used clear seed beads from JewelCraft and red wire. Once my beads were strung on the wire, I wrote my word on scratch paper and then used that as a guide to shape the wire into the word. I attached it to the crumpled paper using mini-glue dots.

Tag Shaker
Here I created a shaker “box” out of a tag. I first tore a hole in the tag and rolled the edges outward. I punched the hearts out with a hand punch, then chalked the edges with pink and red chalks. Then I filled a tiny ziploc bag with beads and attached it to the back with glue dots. I finished it off by removing the white string that came with the tag and replacing it with red and pink fibers from Adornments.