Zingala's Workshop: knitted wire

Today is the day that we get to see what everyone who participated in Michelle Mach's button swap. I've been really excited about this, since it's always so inspiring to see what everyone comes up with in a swap. The pieces are all so different, but so inspiring!

Anyway, the idea behind the button swap was the usual formula, Michelle took all the names of the people who signed up and paired them with other people. You had to send your partner 3 buttons from your stash, so much the better if one or more were vintage or handmade. Well, I was paired up with Hope of Craftyhope.blogspot.com. Well, I was overwhelmed when Hope's package arrived! It was amazing! She not only sent the 3 required buttons, which were fabulous, but she sent a whole stash of other buttons! And, to make it better she made adorable tins and a card to go along with the buttons!!!

Isn't that fantastic?!! Well, I love the 3 buttons, especially the carved ivory flowers. And the were all so vintage looking, that I decided I had to do something that played on the vintage feel of the buttons. So, I went back to my idea of using knitted wire in a mixed media design. At a bead show I had gotten a new color of art wire, Rose Gold. It's a lovely old-timey pink with a golden glow. So, I thought this would be the perfect project to use it. I knitted a cuff and decided a linen base would keep to the vintage look. I was going to sew the wire to the linen and then the buttons on top of the wire, fringe the edges of the linen and sew snaps on as a closure. That was the original plan. But, as you can see below, that's not exactly how it ended up.

When I laid it all out, I thought the piece looked very flat and uninteresting. Just layered, linen, wire, buttons, was terribly boring. So, I took the wire and scrunched it up. In doing so I creating a ridge which I then maniputlated some more to create little 'cups' to nestle the buttons into. I loved the dimensional feel of the piece, and an added benefit was the wavy edge that resulted from scrunching the wire. I knew I had something I liked a lot. So, I proceeded as I had planned and sewed the wire to the linen and the buttons nestled in the wire. Of course, my favorite button, the carved flowers, figured prominently, and another of the original 3, a fantastically shabby chic glass button. But, I also used one from the extra stash Hope sent, the little pink with the flower and rhinestone center. A pearl button that I had in my stash finished off the set.

I'm really pleased with the cuff. I wore it yesterday and received compliments on it.   That was nice!

This was a fun swap. I love buttons and it allowed me to try another idea for knitted wire. This cuff has generated another idea for a cuff with a summery seaside theme.   The swap also introduced me to Hope and her great work. So, a win, win all around!

Michelle is sponsoring a contest to coordinate with the Button Swap Reveal. If you comment on all the participants blogs you'll be entered to win a button collection. So, below you'll find the list of participants in the button swap.   Go check out what everyone did with their buttons and you may win some buttons, and everyone can use more buttons, can't they? I don't think you can ever have too many!

1. Cat- http://boobeads.blogspot.com/

2. Cindy- http://www.sweetbeadstudio.com/

3. Cory- http://art-with-moxie.blogspot.com/

4. Cyndi- http://www.beading-arts.com/

5. Dita- http://www.alankarshilpa.blogspot.com/

6. Donna, Marti, and Michelle- http://www.michellemach.com/blog/

7. Erin- http://treasures-found.blogspot.com/

8. Hope- http://craftyhope.blogspot.com/

9. Inca- http://zerenitydesign.blogspot.com/

10.Katrina- http://armyofsockmonsters.blogspot.com/

11. Krista- http://frenchelegantjewelry.blogspot.com/

12.Kristie- http://www.artisanclay.blogspot.com/