Crafting with wool

I made a pair of earrings last year. Now I got a request to make a necklace in the same style to go with them. So time for our weekly craft it seems.

What you need is: scissors, some wool/yarn or any other string (important is that it is soft and soaks up fluids), wire, pliers, glue (I use a standard wood/school glue, I believe you name it Elmers glue), watercolors (optional), plastic sheet and a brush.

You start off with making a loop with the wire (look picture above) and cut some strings. You knot the string around the wire. You do not need to make any elaborate knots. If you know how to tie your shoe - that is it. You just make the first step of lacing and repeat with another string, and repeat and repeat until you cover most of the wire.

Cut off the excess wire and bend the tip of it upwards.

Now you need some water and glue. I also used watercolors because I needed the thing to be blue. I used a plastic sheet for protection and soaked the strings in water/glue/watercolor mix with a help of a brush. I placed it in the desired position and let it dry a bit for a few hours. I also cut off some strings to get the shape of a feather.

When the thing is a bit drier I add more glue to it (so at the end it is all white), with a brush, from both sides and let it rest for a day. The glue makes it really stiff and unmovable.

You can do this with your kids. We actually make them in school too - for class decoration. We just use a thicker wire and wool, making it on a much larger scale. It is also quite useful as the first learning step in tying their shoes.

If you want to make it even more feather-like, don't cut off so much wire off and make the stem longer. You can also make fall leafs the same way.