Here in the UK, we are rapidly approaching the end of the school summer term and 6 whole weeks off school! What am I going to do with the children for 6 weeks?! Unfortunately, we are still in the midst of the Covid pandemic, with various restrictions in place in England. One requirement is the need to isolate the entire class bubble, if one of the children tests positive for Covid. So this week, I’ve had my 8-year-old, home learning! Needless to say, we both needed a break and so we set about trying to make a teacher’s gift.
I had a quick look on the internet for any kind of easy wire wrap project that my 8-year-old might be able to handle and came across this one on Pandahall’s website: How to Make Easy Wire Wrapped Snail Bookmarks
There were quite a few wire wrap projects, ranging from rings and pendants, through to keyrings and bookmarks. We chose the bookmark as my daughter actually had 3 teachers that she’d like to make a gift for, male and female, and it seemed like a nice thing for them to be able to use. Here’s our video for how we got on with the tutorial:
Getting Started
The tutorial looked relatively straightforward and had lots of pictures to help guide us. We didn’t have all the materials that were suggested on the website, so we improvised. In our video we used:
- 1.6mm copper wire
- 0.5mm copper wire
- 3mm white agate beads
- 4mm jade beads
What We Liked
My daughter and I loved doing this project together. In a busy household, it can be tricky to find time to do things together, just the 2 of us. I think she liked being able to see what it is that I spend my time doing in the workshop! It’s a great bonding activity! We both found it quite therapeutic to add the beads onto the shell. She loved the creativity of being able to choose the beads for her project.
What We Found Hard
Although there are lots of pictures in the tutorial, my personal view is that the instructions are not clear enough. For example, the tutorial says to “add the 2mm red seed beads”. However, I couldn’t see anywhere that explained how to secure them on! Luckily, it is relatively intuitive, particularly if you’ve done wire wrapping before. My daughter coped admirably – there are some tricky moments when you need to secure the threading wire to the frame at the point that the snail shell meets the snail’s tail, where your child might need some help.
The snail’s antennae are a bit tricky to secure. Again, there’s not much in the way of instruction about how to secure them on. I resorted to trying to splice the wire onto the frame, similar to the methods that I’d be learning from the book “Wire Jewelry Masterclass” (check out my posts on making my Sakura Ring for some descriptions). For my daughter’s bookmark, we simply folded a piece of copper wire in half, threaded on the bead and twisted the ends together. However, I had a go at making a bookmark for my son’s teacher (he’s only 4, I wasn’t about to let him play with wire!), and I decided to wrap the wire instead of twisting it.
The Perfect Teacher’s Gift
At this time of year, parents all around the world are thinking about what gifts to get their children’s teachers. It’s something I struggle with each year. I know it’s not a requirement, but I’d like the children to show their teachers some appreciation. When I was a child, we mostly bought the teacher a box of chocolates. Well, since reaching adulthood, my sister and my sister-in-law are both teachers, and frankly, they receive more chocolate than they could eat in a lifetime!
So, I try to make personal gifts – usually, it’s a box of cookies. However, Covid has made me more wary about sending in homemade food gifts. I thought the bookmark was a great gift for my children’s teachers, as it was something that my daughter could make herself (with a little help… honestly, I’m probably just impatient!). It’s also something practical and useful.
Conclusions
So here are our finished bookmarks! In the original tutorial, the snail’s head and tail are just wrapped with a sort of zig zag wire wrap pattern. It’s quite simple, and that’s what my daughter did. I found that it slipped around a bit, so I tweaked mine to do a more difficult pattern and fill the head and body in. I suspect how you choose to do it would very much depend on how much time you have, and your own preferences.
Looking at the tutorial, I don’t think it was written with children in mind. If you are planning to do this with children, adult supervision is definitely needed! My daughter struggled with the wire cutters and pliers (mine are not the easiest to use, but still), and quite often was distracted and not looking where the wire end was going! So, please do take care if you are making this bookmark with your children!
My daughter decided that this was a medium difficulty project. I tend to agree. I don’t think she would have managed it completely by herself.
As I mentioned earlier in the post, the instructions are not very detailed, but you can work out what you need to do from looking at the pictures. I think it helps if you’ve got a bit of wire wrapping experience. But, if you’re looking to spend some time with your children on a rainy afternoon and have some wire and beads lying around, you can’t go too wrong with this tutorial.
So, overall, we give this tutorial a solid 7 out of 10!
Do you have a tutorial you’d like me to review?
Feel free to leave me a comment, if you have any suggestions for tutorials / books you’d like me to review. I’m always learning and always experimenting and more than happy to give something a go.
