beachbabe
off to a rocking start
My little girl,Abbie, the other beachbabe!
Member since August 2009
Posts: 21
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Post by beachbabe on Aug 13, 2009 12:57:06 GMT -5
Hello Everyone, I thought I would post a photo of the 1st beach pebble that started me on this wonderfull hobby of ours and ask the same question to all of you..."How did you start"? I found this pretty pink pebble on a beach in Norfolk, UK , 2 years ago and was thinking how I would love to make it into a necklace but didn't know how. I just put "wire wrapping" or something like that into Google, on the computer and all sorts of sfuff popped up. I was amazed by what you could do with some wire and a beach pebble and so here I am today. ;D I would love to wrap it in Gold to make it even more special but I am very nervous about spending a lot of money on gold wire as I am very new to wrapping. I think I will wait for quite a while untill I am more confident. Can anyone suggest which gold wire would be the easiest to use for a first timer? I would also love to know what the pebble is, any ideas? Mary
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Post by moondragon on Aug 13, 2009 13:14:56 GMT -5
I will send you some artistic gold wire. If you will pm me and tell me what gauge. Its not high dollar gold wire but its tarnish free and I use it in a lot of my bracelets. If you want you can give it a shot and see if you like it. www.artisticwire.com/
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aunuts
fully equipped rock polisher
Some days are gold, some are rocks. Either is cool.
Member since March 2006
Posts: 1,110
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Post by aunuts on Aug 13, 2009 16:42:54 GMT -5
beachbabe, beautiful little pebble. looks like agate to me. re: wire wrapping. it depends on the style of wrapping you do. if you're making a "cage", then round will work just fine. if you're doing a border wrap, square works MUCH better because it won't roll around in the bundle. i do the border wrap style, and find that i like 22 gauge, square, dead soft. for the wraps themselves, i like 22 guage, 1/2 round, 1/2 hard. i use either sterling silver or 14 carat gold filled wire. if you're nervous about using those at first, brass wire gives the effect of gold, but the price is better. hope this helps, jo
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Post by NatureNut on Aug 13, 2009 16:58:46 GMT -5
That beautiful little pebble looks like carnelian to me (not that I'm an expert). It would look beautiful in gold. If you like, you could practice with it using gold colored copper wire, which does not cost an arm and a leg, and can be found at any decent craft store. You could wrap, unwrap, rewrap as many times as you like until you are happy with it and then, if you still want gold-- order some from any of the suppliers that are mentioned on this board.
I started because of my dog. She's a nut and we love to hike. Well, we found a great place to hike and the rocks were intriguing. Upon researching, I found out there was a reason for it. As I worked out my skills to polish them and make jewelry, I found this site! Been my online home ever since because these are the best rock nuts on Earth. Jo
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kjohn0102
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since April 2006
Posts: 774
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Post by kjohn0102 on Aug 13, 2009 19:11:39 GMT -5
Hi Mary and welcome! I honestly cannot remember what got me started wire wrapping. I was beading and looking for something different. I wrapped a piece of quartz I picked up somewhere. Then I stumbled on this place and was sucked into the world of rocks! Definitely start with copper and brass to get a feel for it. Randy's tutorial is a great place to start.
Have fun and post pics!
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Post by sitnwrap on Aug 13, 2009 20:06:04 GMT -5
The ocean and sand sure did a nice job of tumbling that little beauty. Looks like you got some great advice so I'll say "ditto".
I also started as a beader. My supplier was selling inexpensive 24g silver plated copper wire so with that, a pair of round nose pliers, kitchen scissors, tumbles that I had bought and no instructions, I had at it. Then I found RTH and learned good and proper. lol
Welcome to the board.
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Post by MyNewHobby on Aug 13, 2009 20:07:55 GMT -5
Hmmmmmm ....
Let's see .... I started rock tumbling in January and found that once I got the tumbling down I could focus on trying to learn the wrapping.
Am still working on learning to wrap ... but .... love it.
Maybe now that I am (hopefully) getting the vibe tumbling down and the fact that I have become (almost) one with my saw I can really focus on the wrapping.
Looks like a carnelian to me as well ... but it is a bit more peachy colored.
Julie
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Larry
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2008
Posts: 267
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Post by Larry on Aug 13, 2009 22:29:45 GMT -5
I like the stone and agree that it would look great in gold. I'm a beach comber myself, so I love beach rocks. It's cool to hear the story of it all too. My start was because of my wonderful little 2-year-old. She loved rocks ever since she was 1 and my wife said that we should get her a tumbler. Granted, she meant a toy store one, but after researching I ended up with a lortone 33b oops. When learning to tumble, I found this place. Tumbling led to cabbing and cabbing led to wrapping and now carving and who knows what's next. I started with the tumbler last July, so all of this took place in the last year. Unfortunately, the tumbler has been stopped for 6 months now but it will come back at some point.
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bwcachick
having dreams about rocks
Member since December 2008
Posts: 63
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Post by bwcachick on Aug 14, 2009 19:51:12 GMT -5
Hi Mary! I get some of my wire from www.firemountaingems.com . The square that I got came in 5 feet per roll...you know just in case you want to take it slow at first. So far I've wrapped 4 rocks and still have wire left over from the first roll. I have been rockhounding and polishing with my dad for a few years now and was trying to figure out what to do with the polished rocks, and just Like kjohn0102 I was beading for quite some time, but then I saw a few wraps on here and was like "WOW!"...I really liked what they were doing, and I had some polished rocks, so I went to Michael's craft store (for a bead trip) and asked my mom if I could get some cheap craft wire to start off with. Once I got home I attempted, and my first wrap ain't so pretty. Today my wraps are much better, and I still got a long way to go before I'm as good as our fellow members, but Randy's tutorial really helped. ;D
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