We’ve been having a blast with the Coiling Gizmo and Thing-A-Ma-Jig wire tools featured in the April 13 Craft Corner column. If you missed the column that week, we showed readers a couple of gadgets used to create wire coils and shapes for making jewelry and embellishments for other projects.
As promised, this week we’ll tell you how to put the coils and wire shapes to good use.
For our first project, we mended a little sheep mobile we’ve had for years. For some reason this inexpensive little trinket is one of our favorite things — go figure — but it’s spent the past few years in pieces in a drawer since the nylon cord holding it together broke.
We decided that small coils made from lightweight jewelry wire would make a good substitute for the nylon cord, so we whipped up four black coils on the Coiling Gizmo.
The lightweight wire is flexible enough to let the little sheep bob in the breeze, yet sturdy enough to hold the mobile at the same time.
If you try a project such as this, make your coils using the smallest rod in the Coiling Gizmo kit (or, if you don’t have the gizmo, use a small dowel or long nail to wrap the wire around) and pull them gently when finished to make them a little more flexible.
Trim the end of the wire and, using small needle-nosed pliers, curve the end around so that it forms a ring.
The little sheep in our mobile had small wire loops already attached, so we hooked the ring on the end of the coil to the loop and closed it. We took the other end of the coil and stretched it out, then wrapped it through the hole in the mobile hanger and twisted it to secure.
To make the top hanger, we formed a large loop at one end of the coil as above, then stretched out the other end and ran the wire through the three holes and back around itself to secure.
Be sure to pinch the ends of the wire tight at all closures to avoid sharp points and punctured pinkies.
Another use for wire coils is jewelry.
Again using the smallest rod in the gizmo kit, we made coils of different colors, then slipped them over some choker necklaces we found in the jewelry department at Michael’s.
We’ve seen the chokers at most area craft stores in the same department, and they sell for a couple dollars each. They’re super easy to use, as all you do is unscrew the little ball on one end, add your embellishments and replace the ball.
The chokers give the wire coils a little extra support, but you can use the coils alone if you choose and attach closure findings to form a necklace. The coils make a nice serpentine look.
We used the Thing-A-Ma-Jig to make a wire pendant for the magenta choker in our photo, adding some short coils made from wire we trimmed from the initial coil. (Be sure to save your wire scraps, unless they are really short, since you can use them in lots of different ways when making jewelry.)
To make the green choker, we combined a freeform wire piece with some Thing-A-Ma-Jig embellishments to form a pendant.
Our colorful coil choker has a bundle of short coils gathered together, the ends wrapped with wire to secure, and we added a purchased pendant to our fourth choker.
Note: If you missed the April 13 column, you can find the Coiling Gizmo and Thing-A-Ma-Jig at local craft stores (we found ours at Craft Star in Lake Stevens and JoAnn Fabrics in Marysville, respectively), but be sure to call first and check stock.
You can also check online sources. Both items sell for less than $10.
There is a more expensive Thing-A-Ma-Jig (which is larger and has aluminum rather than plastic pegs), and we recommend that you give it a look if you plan to use it a lot or work with heavier wire. It sells for between $15 and $20.
In next week’s column — if all goes as planned — we’ll focus on uses for wire and wire tools, including a way to make some Thing-A-Ma-Jig-like tools of your own.
Contact Jonetta Coffin at jonnirose@netzero.net or c/o Herald Features, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
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