Catching Up

How come winter seems to last forever and summer goes so fast?  It's after 11 p.m. but tomorrow is a typical day - open the store at 7 a.m., work until 3:30 and then make two deliveries of ice, back in the store from 9 til 10, probably 11 before everything is done, counted and closed.  About this time every summer, I'm almost wishing it was over and life could be a little slower...almost.  After Labour Day, sales go back to a normal level, there's no ice to deliver and all of my summer friends have gone back to their own province or state, and the letdown is so sudden.  So, yeah, I'm tired, but I have to try to enjoy each day as it speeds by or I'll be shivering in the middle of winter and wishing it was summer again.

Before things got so crazy, a piece of sea glass had been calling and I finally got around to wrapping it.  Dana, on the About.com forum, had suggested wrapping it with the narrow end at the bottom and that's exactly what it needed.
The challenge with this piece was to wrap it without covering up or taking away from the lovely ripples. 
It was an interesting challenge but I was pleased with the way it turned out.  I laid three pieces of 21 gauge square wire out, with lots of extra length and the centre wire about an inch longer than the outside two.  Using a pair of round-nosed pliers, I formed a loop at the exact centre of the middle wire and then taped the wires together about a half inch from the loop.  My first wraps were about an eighth of an inch above either side of the loop and that left enough wire to bend up over the point of the glass and hold it from the bottom.
Just above the second wrap, I bent the inside wire across the front of the glass and used an X-acto knife holder to twist just enough wire to reach the other side, work hardening it and making it stronger.  I made a 90 degree bend, took the outside wire from the other side and did the same thing on the back.  The tricky part was wrapping the wires in with the glass set in the wire frame, because crossing the wires made the frame tight enough that the sea glass couldn't be removed.

 What isn't obvious, is that when I bent the wires across the top of the sea glass, I got too cocky and wove the three wires around each other.  Once they were bent again to make the bail, you couldn't see the weaving and it actually made a looser fit to the top of the wire.  It was a dumb move, but luckily, didn't really show. 

I took my flat-nosed pliers, grasped the loop at the bottom and twisted it around 180 degrees.  That gave stability to the loop and then I added three labradorite briolettes to the loop.  They were a perfect complement to the glass, with their beautiful aqua fire.  This piece is sold.