With the days beginning to draw a tiny bit closer now and the imminent return to school and work or simply slightly more structured days, this craft cosy craft uses similar materials to the summer craft (with a view to making resources go a bit further) and can be used as either a beautiful desk-tidy for trinkets or a small, inspiring lantern for your desk or (using safety-tea light) or even a meditation corner.
Loopy wire bending can be quite relaxing and as it’s not essential to worry about getting anything perfect, good for settling into a creative state of flow. It’s possible to let the wire itself lead the way by following its natural direction and bending around all the other loops and swirls you have made, as you go along. You could work with just the wire, or you could choose to embellish with beads to add colour/adapt it into a child-friendly version, by threading the beads on as you go along.
You could use a piece of recycled ribbon to weave in & out of your sculpted basket, perhaps saved from something significant that turns your project into a keepsake (the ribbon I have used for this is from our wedding! It’s so lovely bringing it out of the cupboard and giving it a new purpose on my desk!).
Different members of the family might enjoy different aspects of this craft, so it could be something to sit and do together of an afternoon – for example, my son always loved wire-bending when he was young, whilst my daughter always loved cutting things up! We all loved playing around with watercolour paints, often filling whole pages. Again, filling a page full of watercolour with no need to worry about details, can be very soothing and good for finding flow and not worrying too much about perfection.
Depending on how much wire you have to hand, you could play around with sizes – you could make smaller tea-light holders as in the tutorial below, or bigger ‘baskets’ for holding random desk or kitchen items, stationary or even fruit! You can make the baskets as loosely or tightly woven as you like, and just keep adding until you feel it is done.
The paper embellishments are optional, and you could make different designs – butterflies perhaps or stars, or something else meaningful, or just playful.
Wishing you plenty of calm and cosy days this autumn, and…
Happy Crafting!
Note: if you do make a lantern, and it is quite small with potentially flammable parts (ribbon, paper), please use a safety candle/ask for adult guidance as required.
© 2022 Abigail Cole
For more creative ideas visit PowerWood’s creative corner by Abigail and Abigail’s own creative website: www.forgetfulfairyartstudio.com
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