Beaded Heart

I recently attended a workshop locally to try out something completely new to me.  We received tuition to create a wire and bead heart and was run by Helene at Craft Works @ The Yard.

Helene had already made the heart bases for us from 2mm aluminium wire so the first step was to select some beads in our preferred colour scheme.

We were issued with 0.4mm wire for the first stage, which was securing the beads onto the frame.  The aim was to avoid being too symmetrical!  The beads didn’t feel that secure at this stage but we were assured that they would be after the next step.

The next stage was the decorative wire work, which was done using 1mm wire.  It was attached to the frame by wrapping and then it was just a case of winding and creating collars around the beads, which held them in place.

This process was repeated until the entire heart was decorated and all the beads were collared.

The tail on the heart was for making the heart into a plant stake but I wanted mine to be a sun-catcher so instead, it was trimmed and bent into a loop to attach the dangly element.

Finally, a length of ribbon was attached to the centre loop for hanging.