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Copper Time

by: Dwyn Tomlinson

I can't take all the credit for this quite fabulous colour combo. I was poking around the store - looking for something to make an Inspiration with, and I saw that we are NOT out of these wonderful copper beads that look like random stones and pebbles. I adore these, so I scooped some up, and I spotted the big copper watch. "I should do a watch," I said, to no one in particular, "I haven't done a watch in a while."

"Oo, yes," said Rosemary, stopping by and peering over my shoulder, "And you should put this with that," and led me over to the Swarovskis - like I need leading there! She pulled out the new Silver Night. "This will look fabulous with that." Silver and Copper? I thought - ehhh, I dunno. But when I looked at the two together- wow! What a combo! They look amazing together! So thank Rosemary for this colour combination!

These watch faces are a bit of a challenge. For one thing - they are freakin' huge, to put not too fine a point on it. The watch and case pretty much spans my entire wrist from side to side - so, while the dial is big enough to read without my glasses, or from space, it's not for the faint of heart or the light of bone.

The other consideration is that the connector is for a strap, and is a solid bar, and not too attractive. And rather awkward to attach things too without having them slide back and forth.

After some consideration - I solved this by wrapping copper wire in a tight coil around the bar. This hides it, and makes it part of the design. On the side that I attached the two lines of Softflex to in order to start stringing, the coil also served to hold the Softflex in place and prevent it sliding together.

The band is done with two wires simultaneously - like double needle ladder stitch. If you aren't familiar with that, here's what to do:

• string 3 beads on each strand
• take the large copper bead and feed the left strand through the bead
• then feed the right strand through the bead in the opposite direction, going in the same side you just came out of. The wires will cross inside the bead.
• now your left strand is on the right side, and vice versa
• repeat as above, 3 beads on each strand, and the big bead on both.

To attach the bar end of the toggle, I crimped both wires onto a jumpring, and added the half of the clasp.

On the bottom bar of the watch, I again wrapped the bar with a copper wire coil, and then wrapped back to the center, adding a bead and a wrapped loop in the middle, and then wrapping on again to the far side. I attached the ring end of the clasp with a small jump ring, and added a dangley bead for fun.

I liked the dangley bead so much, I did some more "rapid loops" and hung three on a jumpring, and put one each of these on either side of the clasp, on the bar of the watch, and two more on the other side.

I probably would have added more, but I ran out of crystals. :-P

As I made it, the watch and band is about 8.5 inches, so it fits fairly loosely, but turned out more attractive than I had hoped for in the early stages of construction. These watches are so large - you really need a commanding design to work well with them. It occurs to me that those micro-macrame with lots of beads that some of you took as a class would look very good with one of these. And chain mail too would look awesome. Could even be a man's watch with a nice dragonscale chain maille band.

And, on a final note, I thought that the Softflex would wind up showing in some places (and I was right) and I really wanted to use copper coloured Softflex. But I had a tiny little piece in a baggy - hardly enough. So I managed to make it work, poking the final end through the crimp with tweezers.

And when I got to my desk to write this up - there was the nearly full spool of it - sitting next to my keyboard. Pthhpt.

          
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Components Clicking on components links will open a new window so that you don't lose this page.
		74701012-06 Artistic Wire - 24ga Round Wire - Natural Copper (Spool) (about 16 inches to wrap each side)	Price: $ 9.45 per	In Stock
	Qty: 4	heltcb316c Crimp Tubes - Seamless - 2mm - Copper (50)	Price: $ 3.55 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
	Qty: 1	22801046 Jump Rings Open - 3mm - Bright Copper (100) (to attach the clasp - the big jumpring added too much length)	Price: $ 0.99 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
	Qty: 4	22801035 Jump Rings Open - 9mm - Bright Copper (100) (for the clusters of dangles)	Price: $ 4.85 per	In Stock
	Qty: 9	s16690 Metal Beads - Random Rocks - Bright Copper (1)	Price: $ 1.50 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
	Qty: 1	helcp10005 Metal Beads - 5mm Seamless Round - Bright Copper (25) (Or something - where the wrapped loop is on the bar - to make it look nice)	Price: $ 4.75 per	In Stock
		25001015 Softflex (tm) Beading Wire - 30ft .024 (Heavy) - Copper Colour (Spool) (about 2 x 12 inches - it gets shorter because of the crossing-over)	Price: $ 24.95 per	In Stock
	Qty: 13	27750002579501 Swarovski Bead - 10mm Faceted Round (5000) - Crystal Silver Night (If I had more - I would have kept on adding jumprings and dangles all the way along the band.)	Price: $ 1.70 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
	Qty: 58	27753011260005 Swarovski Bead - 4mm Faceted Bicone (5301/5328) - Crystal Silver Night (36) (plus a couple extra in the dangles)	Price: $ 7.25 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.
		s19870 Toggle Clasp - Plain and Simple - Bright Copper (Or similar)	Price: $ 0.99 per	In Stock
		23400977-03 Toggle Clasp - Shot throught the Heart - Bright Copper (or this one)	Price: $ 0.95 per	In Stock
		s25090 Watchface - Massive Rectangle w Solid Bar - Copper Copper	Price: $ 11.75 per	Sorry - this item is unavailable.