So, I had this scrap of wire in my wire working box (cutters, pliers, cup burs, etc) and it was… 20cm long or so. What had I originally cut it for? What had I cut it off of? Dunno, but is it long enough to do anything with? Often when I’ve got some cord scrap in my hands they will do what they so frequently do: flower knots, button knots, double connection, double coin, etc. So, this little bit of wire, could I tie a flower knot in it with some beads? How would it look with such a small gauge of wire?

As a general rule, to a certain extent to duplicate the fibre knots I tie, I try to tie wire knots in higher gauges. Almost cord sized wire (I’ve got some wire that is close to 3mm in diameter. Expensive though and I’m expecting it to be brutally difficult to work. Someday…) is kind of self-explanatory. Smaller gauges though (I think it’s 24ga)… let’s see!

I free-handed this knot (no template, no pliers until the end), and not only that, but didn’t like the loop sizes the first time around untied the first knot and in the same wire tied it again. I was completely surprised that there was no kinking or work hardening effects.

I added a few extra beads the second time around, used pliers to align the structural loops and adjust the ear sizes, then just curled the ends to finish. It’s not perfect, but for what it is, I like it.

Lesson learned: fearlessness is one the keys to achievement.

Then I got cocky. Since this flower knot had gone so amazingly well, I decided to try a mystic knot freehand. It did not go well. Plus I ran out of wire. I’m almost always too conservative with wire and end up wasting a lot by running out. sigh The effect that I was going for, I later tied in cord, but decided that there were too many beads in the design (the beads with big enough holes for 2 passes of wire overwhelm the wire, so then what’s the point?).

Back to the idea of working wire that is similar in size to fibre cord. We’ve all seen works using coiled wire. If you thread coiled wire on a fine gauge armature/core how will that affect how easy or difficult the elements are to work? Stay tuned… 8)