Discovering the ways of the fibula

I just made my first wire wrapping project, and it was soooo fun!! I really loved being able to whack something with a hammer. I don't have anything like this up in my store, but plan on doing more after the holidays. In the meantime you can check out the rest of my store here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RandomWish

It's a fibula for my mom for Christmas. I think it turned out pretty good for my first try :) 

For those of you who don't know a fibula is like a shawl or scarf pin. From what I've seen, they are usually made of wire. The pointy bit can either be connected or loose. I chose to let mine be loose this time. 

I've read that the two best wires to use when doing wire projects are copper or silver. I chose to use silver filled wire because it's a lot cheaper. Here's a link to my supplier: https://www.etsy.com/shop/silverschells

There are also different tempers, gauges, and all kids of things you need to know about wire. For the temper I use dead soft wire. It starts off relatively easy to use, and gets harder the more you work with it. Be careful because if you mess with it too much it can get brittle. To make the frame I used 16 gauge wire. The smaller the number the bigger the wire is. I think I used a 24 gauge wire for the bead threading. Wire also comes in different shapes I guess you'd call it. I don't know how it matters if your going to hammer it, but I used round wire. 

If you'd like more wire tips let me know, but there are lots of books and helpful tips on the internet :)