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Wire Jewelry Lessons needed

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From: Judy Decker (jdecker_at_TeacherArtExchange)
Date: Sun May 04 2003 - 12:32:17 PDT

Dear Art Educators,

I just got a "call" for information on wire jewelry (especially woven wire).
Does anyone have images - lesson plans - or book titles to share? I am
looking for all grade levels (especially with recycled wire - like telephone
wire).

I will post what I found for another list member - so you don't go to the
trouble of posting those links again. I will also post links for wire
baskets. Soon I will have some instructions fro Christa-Maria onlline
showing you how to make a wire basket.

Here are some lesson plans I found online:
http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/isu/art/wovenwire.html
http://www.hawaii.edu/hga/Lessons/jewelry.html (this one uses uninsulated
wire - but you could experiment with the telephone wire).
Here is a plan by Getty list member Kimberly Hutts:
http://www.artsonia.com/teachers/projects/plan.asp?id={D4CA25C6-AF94-4245-B7
5D-0F402EB22A61} or http://tinyurl.com/a9al
You could combine the telephone wire with scraps of tooling foil.
Combine with clay beads or paper beads - Sculpy clay (or Fimo)
http://www.vmfa.state.va.us/gmuvava/html/lesson_plans_fifeteen.htm
Maybe you could go to a local craft stroe and leaf through the book Making
Wire Jewelry to get some ideas.

The Zulu and other South African groups make beautiful coil baskets from
telephone wire:
http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/tourism/museums/imadethat/calderdale/basket.htm
l (from Redi People - be sure to include the l - copy and paste).
http://www.indigoarts.com/store1_telephone_1.html (six pages of examples and
more in the archive)
http://www.eziba.com/StoreFront/shop/product/1011222?contentTitle=zuluBasket
s (be sure to include the s - cut and paste)
eBay has lots of examples too.

Here is an example of a simple Hopi Indian coil basket (lots more images
available online):
http://www.collectoronline.com/Col/Item/XBid.asp?ItemNo=163810

This page has a couple of more losely woven telephone wire baskets:
http://pineneedlegroup.tripod.com/bb/nancy1.html

You could make some small baskets using rope as a core. I could not find an
easy to follow plan online for you - but I am sure you could find
instructions at the library if you have never made coil baskets. You
probably wouldn't need to use needles (the wire itself might be stiff
enought to thread through the coil below it - you could use the figure eight
stitch or lazy squaw stitch). If you decide to go this route - their might
be a list member who wuld have a lesson with diagrams for you. Maybe use
thicker electrical wire for the spokes and the telephone wire for a
traditional over/under weave - or try twining.

Judy 

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