Thursday, April 16, 2009

Wine Charms


  • Don't buy wine charms at the store when you can make your own! I've made these for myself and I've also made "sets" for people and given them as gifts. There are so many different varieties as to what your charms will look like. You can mix and match colors, you can do solids, you can stick with a consistent "filler" color and then just throw in a repeating colored bead to make a "set". You can make them specific to any occasion you'd like!

    What you need:

  • Any variety of beads; seed beads, glass beads, acrylic beads, etc.
  • Wire- the higher the gauge, the thinner the wire. You want a gauge that will bend and hold it's shape, but something that is also pliable. I think I used about 20 gauge.
  • Needle nosed pliers

    What you do:

    Cut your wire to be the length you want. I cut mine to be about 10 inches.

    Use the pliers to fold over the end of one side of the wire.

    Slide your beads onto the wire in any order you want.

    Leave about 1/2 inch of unbeaded wire at the end. Use the pliers to fold that end over, securing all of the beads.



Be sure to not secure the beads too tightly or it won't wrap nicely around the stem of the wine glass. You need to leave a little "give" for the beads to bend without popping off an end. Also, be sure the folded ends of the wire do not have any sharp edges exposed.

Wrap around the stem of a glass as a way to identify whose glass is whose. Remove from stem before washing glasses.





2 comments:

Emily said...

This is such a neat idea! I love the idea of wine charms and these are so artsy and still inexpensive. My younger sisters enjoy working with beads and would have a great time helping to make these, too.

Sara C. said...

oooh, I think I have my Christmas gift idea...at least for my side of the family...time to pull my beading stuff out of the basement