Hi All,
A friend has asked me to make them a penannular brooch to hold their shawl in place. Lots of photos on google. Any advice/recommendations before I start? Not sure best gauge to use.
Crikey, there are 101 variations of 101 styles of 101 sizes.
Your mental picture of a penannular may not be the same as your friends.
Perhaps ask them for an idea of what they want, that would be a good starting point.
Don't make the same mistake as I did - I thought it would look 'slick' and slide nicely if I curved some tube to the same radius as the brooch to attach the pin to, it did look and slide very nicely, but as it was curved it would not hinge open!
When we did this in our class, we were given 3.0mm wire and asked to forge it down to make a good hard pin.
Depending on the weave of the shawl, you could use 2.0mm wire for the pin and harden it by twisting.
Below some variables. Dennis.
Fab. I have a bit of 3mm wire from recycling. She is a Swedish knitter so I think Viking style best. Would it be a mistake to try and stamp a pattern into the circle ends or would the annealing make it hard to get back the work hardening?
Roughly the way it is done is to make the pin first, flatten the 'tube' end and start to hammer it around a mandrel. Then finish and refine the tube with looping pliers. Then form the pin without heat or solder.
Form the circle, slip on the oversized tube and hammer the ends of the circle flat, leaving a gap for the pin. Again no more heating, so that everything is hard from beating.
If you are a neat forger, you can leave the hammer marks as texture, or add more. Dennis.
In case anyone wonders how it is warn, you push the open pin through the fabric, put the end of the pin through the gap in the brooch and then rotate the brooch. Quite clever really. Dennis.
Bookmarks