Shiny Little Nothings
I was always fascinated by beautiful shiny things. When I was a little girl I would go through my mom’s jewelry boxes and pretend to put everything on in front of a mirror. For my 9th birthday, I got my ears pierced and a pair of silver stud earrings. Since then I began my journey of collecting all kinds of jewelry. While most of my money went into this little hobby, I later learned that I could make my own shiny things as well. For a while, I made chunky silver rings and chains through soldering and welding like a blacksmith.
That is until I came to Michigan and no longer had access to my home studio. Trying to find a new hobby, I stumbled upon metal wires: they are malleable and sturdy and do not require soldering. Even though not optimal, I bought a shit ton of wire and started experimenting with them.
My first thought was to crotchet with wire. And there began my first challenge: I did not know how to crochet. While it looked easy when others were doing it, it was not. I started crocheting with regular yarn and a simple tiny granny square would take me hours to finish. Trying to crochet with wire was even tougher. For a few weeks, I was just sweaty and tired all the time trying to loop through wire that was not supposed to be looped through in the first place. After a month or two, I finally had some success and made my first piece of the year: a wire-crocheted necklace that hurts to wear.
For economic reasons, I chose aluminum-wrapped copper wire which means none of the pieces I make will be wearable as they would stain and make your skin green. Yet I was so happy with my creation that I wore the piece to a dinner party and looked like a total gremlin the next day.
After that, I worked on a few more other very simple pieces. While none of them was actually wearable I gained more confidence in the process and decided to take on something more intricate.
While these pieces do take longer, I also gained more skills and was able to finish making these rather quickly. During the showcase, many people seemed to like my work and some said they’d want to buy it. I do hope to at some point get actual silver wire and remake these so that people can wear them.
