Wearable Art Jewelry – Wire Wrapped Fabric Necklaces and Earrings

Fabric Art Jewelry Check out my new line of fabric or fiber wearable art jewelry on Etsy!  I make these using scrap fabric, ribbon, lace and even pipe cleaners then wrap with wire and sparkly glass beads!  So colorful and loaded with texture, also lightweight and fun to wear!

Fiber art jewelry heart pendant

Fuzzy blue earrings

Mint green fabric necklace with buttons

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 I would love to see your comments on my new line of jewelry below!

Wire Wrapped Fabric Beads - DIY Jewelry Tutorial

These beautiful wired wrapped fabric and ribbon beads are so fun and simple to make and look like expensive art or glass beads!  They are just made from scraps of fabric, ribbon, yarn  and wire with seed bead assortments I got from Auntie's Beads:

Miyuki seed beads mixes in assorted sizes from Auntie's Beads

Scrap fabric, ribbon and yarn

Supplies:

1) Assorted scrap fabric, ribbon and yarn; look for cool textures with shimmer!
2) Assorted wire in all colors ( I like Artistic wire from Auntie's Beads) from 20 gauge to 28 gauge.
3) Seed Beads, I like Miyuki seed beads mixes in mixed sizes from Auntie's beads.
4) Tacky glue

Tools:

1) Wire cutter
2) Bamboo skewers


Step one:

Start wrapping your ribbon or fabric strips around a bamboo skewer.  Here I used sheer 2" wide ribbon that has wire in it and is about 9" long. The wired ribbon is very easy to work with because you can mold it to shape.  For fabric,  I use 1" by 6 to 9" strips; it just depends on how thick the fabric is and how big of a bead you want. You can either add more or cut any excess off if necessary. You can use a combination of fabric and ribbon, lace and even wrap yarn!  If you are not using the wired ribbon,  pin your fabric to hold it together:

Step Two: When you get the shape you want, take a yard of wire and tie or twist it around the center of the bead. Then add a few seed beads as you wrap the wire around:

 Keep adding beads and wrapping until there is about 4" of wire left then loop it though a seed bead  near the edge a few times to hold and then I like to coil the rest of the wire around the skewer at the end:

Loop the end of the wire though a bead a few times to hold.

Then repeat, adding beads to the other half of the wire. Sometimes I need to add more wire and beads. You can squish the bead and shape it to make it tighter as you are wrapping. When I am finished I like to remove it carefully from the skewer, sliding onto a head pin or eye pin with a small bead cap,  adding a dab of tacky glue to the ends so it wont unravel.  I have also cut the skewer and left it inside the bead and wrapped the excess sturdy 20 gauge wire around and formed loops to hang. (see purple bead below) You can also start with a paper coffee stirrer straw instead of a skewer and glue your fabric onto that but I didn't want to raid Starbucks just yet!

 I used 20 ga wire and wrapped ends and made loops

Find my fabric bead jewelry in my Etsy Shop

Be sure to check out my Etsy shop frequently for more fabric bead jewelry or fiber art and even necklaces will be coming soon!

Do you like this tutorial, is this something you could make? Comments welcomed :)

Inspiring Wearable Art jewelry Finds on Etsy

'Inspiring Art Jewelry' by BluKatDesign

Inspiring wearable art jewelry finds on Etsy

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

1980's Retro Jewelry Art

A collection of some of my wearable art jewelry made in the early 80's. A friend pointed out that it is now vintage retro jewelry art! I guess I am getting old!

I made this necklace in high school. I was fortunate to have the master of  found object art jewelry, Ron Ho,  as my teacher! 1981 sterling silver repousse

After high school, I  played with acrylic for a bit; this was my first. 1982 acrylic, copper, brass wearable art necklace

1982 nickel, amethyst, plastic tubing art pendant

1982 Necklace/Belt;  nickel, acrylic, plastic tubing, citrine

1982 retro art necklace; nickel, acrylic, copper, garnet, plastic tubing

1982 retro jewelry; nickel, acrylic, plastic tubing, telephone wire

1982 Art Jewelry Necklace/Belt

1982 Necklace with interchangeable acrylic triangles, nickel, copper, plastic tubing, carnelian

1982 art jewelry necklace with nickel, acrylic, plastic tubing, amethyst

My Upcycled Jewelry Today:

2012 upcycled necklace made of bobby pins. As you can see I still like fun and funky jewelry designs and color!

Colorful Neon Earrings made from repurposed bobby pins!

I also collect vintage jewelry to remake into unique jewelry collages. 2010 upcycled necklace.

To see my jewelry teacher and other inspiring jewelry artists and wearable jewelry art, see my article on Squidoo!







For some really inspiring jewelry please follow me on Pinterest!