Wire Wrapped Stars

During our long drive to NJ this weekend I was able to figure out how to create the wire wrapped stars that have been tumbling around in my mind for a while now. I've got about 4-5 different uses for these stars and just needed to figure them out.

Here is what I thought worked best... (And please forgive the photos - I literally figured this out in the car and then snapped the pictures there too. Our 4 and half trip home, took over 7 hours. I had to keep myself occupied somehow!!!)

Materials:

• Scrap wood
• 5 finish nails - note the top of the nail, the part that you strike, must be as narrow as possible
• 26 gauge wire, color of your choice
• Wire cutters
• Round noise pliers

Step 1 - Nail the nails into the wood in the shape of a pentagon.

Step 2 - Wrap the end of the wire into a loop.

Step 3 - Attach the loop around the nail at the top of the pentagon.

Step 4 - Pull the wire down and to the right so that you wrap the wire around the outside of the nail that is roughly at 5:00 on the board.

Step 5 - Bring the wire up and wrap it around the nail that is at roughly 9:00, more like 9:30...

Step 6 - Bring the wire straight across the pentagon to the nail that is at 2:00ish.

Step 7 - Wrap the wire around and draw it down to the last nail, at roughly 7:00.

Step 8 - Bring the wire back up to the top of the pentagon and wrap the wire down to begin the at step 4 again.

Repeat steps 4-8 twice more so that you've gone around the pentagon a total of 3 times.

You'll note I kept the wire attached to the spool to make it as easy to work with as possible. But now, it is time to cut that spool loose. Pull out about 18" of wire and cut with wire cutters.

Step 9 - Up until now, the placement of the wire on the nail hasn't really matter and you'll see I've got them from the base of the nail all the way up the head:

Now it is time to pull the wires all up as close to the head of the nails as you can get without them popping off.

Step 10 - Keeping the star attached to the nails, take the free end of the wire and begin wrapping it around the joints of the star moving clockwise around the star. Make sure you wrap all 3 lengths of wire together at each joint.

Step 11 - Once you have secured all the joints, remove the star from the nails.

Step 12 - With the remaining wire, being wrapping your star any which way that you like.

You can keep it as simple or get as complex as you like.

When you've reached the end of your wire simply secure it by wrapping and tucking it into a joint of the star and you're done!

Here are a couple of variations that I played with in the car:

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, look for these little suckers popping up in future projects through the rest of the year.