What can I do with leftover wire and beading wire?

Recycle, recycle, recycle... I was making some earrings for a class last week when I realized that I was being so wasteful! I have been saving bits of beading wire for a very long time now: Whenever I was left with a 5-in. (13 cm) piece of beading wire at the end of a spool, or overestimated how much I'd need for a project, I'd make a  loop with the wire and wrap one end around the other a few times to hold it in place. Then, I'd throw it in a little bag with about 25 other ringlets of colorful beading wire. Until now, that bag was just something I'd move from one place to the next, but I decided to make some earrings (left) to use up the scraps.

After I found them (because I've been moving the bag around forever, it was hiding on me), I strung a few top-drilled crystals and some beads on one of the shorter scraps, then I crossed the ends through two crimp beads. I repeated this with two more leftover pieces, each one slightly longer than the previous one, crossing the wire ends through the same two crimps as the first loop. Leaving a little space between the two crimps, I crimped the crimp beads, and covered them with crimp covers. To finish up, I opened a loop of an earring finding, and attached it between the two crimp covers. So easy and so quick!

Besides using up those scraps of beading wire, this project is also a great way to use leftover beads from your last project. Go ahead and use this technique to make a matching pair of earrings for that fabulous necklace or bracelet you just finished, but be warned...it's so fun, you may want to make 10 more pairs.

You can save scraps of gauged wire, too. I save scraps in empty bead tubes, marking the tube if it is sterling. Sterling scraps can be recycled, but you can also use short scraps to make cute corkscrew earrings or dangles. First try to find two scraps that are about the same length, then make them the same length by trimming them with your wire cutters. Working both pieces at the same time, make a plain loop on one end of both wires. Coil the wires around your roundnose pliers, and end with another plain loop. Open the loops on one end of the wires to attach briolettes or top-drilled crystals, then open the loops on the other ends to attach earring findings. 

Have fun, and if you have tips on other recycling projects, please fill us in!

Comments

craftinggrama wrote re: What can I do with leftover wire and beading wire? on Thu, Sep 29 2011 10:28 AM You can use any kind of left over wire beads feathers rivets or even yarn or buttons to make gifts or pictures as presents you take a photo you like and make it into a cartoon type for friends or grandkids they love them KLM