a first attempt on wirework with a whisk giveaway

My first attempt on classic Swedish "luffarslöjd" (vagabond craft) at the unpretentious workshop the other day was great fun. About 20 keen and more or less talented crafters got to try this old style traditional wirework craft first introduced by vagabonds in early 20th century Sweden when job was scarce and they walked the countryside selling their useful craft.

I've been wanting to take a course in this for many years so I thought this workshop for a very (ridiculously) modest fee would be a perfect opportunity to see if it really was something for me. The answer reached during those hours of great fun was that

A) yes, the work made with thinner wires certainly made me want to learn and practice more.

B) The thicker wire stuff, not really my thing since I apparantely am a weak little person (oh the irony when a little fragile elf of a girl managed to easy peasy cut the wire I had been working on for five minutes), it was just too hard to bend and twist into something useful. Hence, another prooof of my knack for craft pottering definitely not leaning towards the more heavy metal part of the scale.

Behold my generously sharing the perfect example of my non-talent for a simple Wednesday evening amusement; this is what was suppose to be a stainless steel latte/cocoa whisk, turned olive spoon, but does look like an incomplete candle extinguisher. It took ages to finish, and a whole lot of muscle strength. Which obviously is not my cup of wirework tea.

A cute wirework bike that I'm not at all anti in trying to recreate one day when I've hopefully learnt to master the tools and the wires properly.

The simple ornament flower, that might not look like it was intended to look, but at least it's all my doing, not to difficult and a rare piece of... wire.

But what I most of all loved working with was the miniature whisks and the thin wire, there's just something completely irresistably charming and enchanting with miniscule stuff and even if they still need a bit of tweaking (as well as my smaller jewellery pliers) I think these delicate little things turned out rather sweet looking. I'm thinking earrings, but they can certainly be used in a doll's house or as a simple miniature installment.

As I'm in a generous mood I'm having a little blog give away, the purple, the red and the orange whisks will be sent to three lucky (I hope so) recipients that leave a comment on this post. The recievers will be announced on Monday 21st (after an exciting draw with the help of some furry inspectors and the non wirecrafty loafer of this house). Leave a comment no later than Sunday the 20th and a pair of miniature whisks may be heading your way.