I love working with wire.

Sometimes, I also hate working with wire.

Several years ago, I took a wire-wrapping class (more on that tomorrow). I leared a few basic techniques that I still use today. I’ve created ornaments that friends and strangers have loved, but that I don’t think I will ever make again.

The cool thing about making a piece with wire is that all you need to make it on the go are a clasp, a spool of wire, a set of wire cutters (bonus if they’re tucked nicely inside a set of pliers), and a strand of two of beads. You don’t have to worry about crimps or covers or anything else… and if you make a piece like this one, you only have to fiddle with one link at a time if you need to rework it (no need to take it all apart).

But wire is also finicky. It has a mind of its own, and does whatever it wants. More than one spool of wire has unspooled out of nowhere on me – once, memorably, in public, while I was making a custom order during a craft show. Sometimes it doesn’t cooperate with wire cutters, and I need to get out my handy dandy tool that dulls the sharp edges. Every once in a while it decides to have a mind of its own and configure into shapes I don’t want it to.

But working with wire is a true adventure… where will it take me next?