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Moon Madnessby: Dwyn Tomlinson
Tonight's full moon is the "Wolf Moon" - named for the frequent January wolf howls heard by Native North Americans. Wear this and have many, shiny moons in orbit about you!
This long necklace - 32 inches - didn't really need a clasp - but I could not figure out how to join the strands with out one, so it got one anyway.
It consists of 4 different types of strands. I think you could also make a really handsome necklace using multiple strands of any one of these 4 styles. All of them sport the same "moons" - 8 mm round silvertone beads. In all cases, they are spaced approximately 3.5 - 4 inches apart - I just use the width of my hand to measure.
- Silversilk - I just knotted the silversilk around the bead. The holes in these beads are enormous. You could drive a truck through them.The Silversilk knots easily around the beads.
- Leather - I actually just let friction hold the beads in place on the soft suede leather lacing. I tried using knots on either side of the bead, but didn't like the look, and tying a knot and sliding the bead over the knot to keep it in one place proved to be a rather hit or miss approach. They can be slid up and down on the lacing - but if you don't move them, they stay put. Use a piece of wire folded in half or a wire needle to thread the lacing through the beads.
- Floating - one strand appears to just be floating moons, I mean, beads - these are tied onto Fireline - which is fine enough to disappear under most circumstances.
- Wire Lace - I wanted the wire lace to stay smooth for this necklace - so the beads for this are first tied onto a strand of Fireline, exactly like the floating strand above, and then that is threaded through the wire lace tube. Threading that involved some ingenuity - you can't thread something pointy through the wire lace - it would just snag - I used a creatively bent piece of wire - folded so that it was all smooth in the direction I was threading, and hooked through a bead - because the thread was too fine to do otherwise.
Securing the ends. I used leather crimps to secure all the strands. When using leather crimps, don't try and fit the end of the cord or strand into the crimp - make sure some is sticking out the end so that you have someway to hold it all secure while you are crushing the crimp into position. You can use pliers to hold everything in place, holding the crimp by it's loop, or you can put the crimp across your finger, and use your thumb and next finger to hold the strands in place under tension (see photos.) Fold one side of the crimp down, then the other side. The traditional tube crimp pliers are good for getting the fold started, because of the curve in the jaw - stops them from slipping away. The metal in the leather crimps is quite stiff - you need to really squeeze it shut.
I was worried that the thread - the fireline - was so fine that it would pull out of the crimp - so I wound it around the crimp, top and bottom, and tied it off, and then secured it with a few drops of glue. I was going to hide all this in a cone anyway.
If you are not familiar with putting cones on, see this page
here. The round beads after the cones prevent the wires from pulling back through the cones, and the extra large spiral wrap at the base of the wrapped loop, prevents the loop from disappearing inside the huge hole in the round bead.
Finally - the clasp - I actually recycled from an old, damaged necklace, but we have all the components available.
Oh, and one other thing - do NOT let the Wire Lace get anywhere near the hook portion of a Velcro(tm) closure. It will stick to it, and get distorted and mangled getting it off.
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