Thursday, December 6, 2007

On the Second Day of Christmas: Decorative Ornament Hooks

As we get closer to the holidays it's time to start thinking about gifts. I always make ornaments every year. I can't seem to get out of it and everyone expects one every year. Here is a decorative hook that can be used to hang many things. Using copper looks great and it's inexpensive.

Start with 4" piece of 18 gauge copper wire. I picked a spool up at Ace Hardware. Don't try to straighten the wire too you will put kinks in the wire that you can't get out.

With the curve of the wire facing away from you, use your round nose pliers to make a small loop at the end of the wire. Always roll your wire away from your body.

Using the handle of a large paintbrush, about 1/2" up the loop end of the wire bend the wire over handle. Do this by smoothing the wire as you bend it. Bring the wire slightly under the handle and begin curving the other end to form an "S".

Begin making the coil on the end by using the large end of your round nose pliers to create an open loop.

Complete the coil by rolling it upwards towards the top of the hook with your fingers.

I like my hooks hammered. Use a hammer and a striking plate to hammer the small loop and coil.

Completed Hook.

Combining your hook and ornament.
Cut 10" of sheer ribbon. I get mine at Michaels. To give the ornament and ribbon a nice finished look and to keep the ribbon from doing the annoying split, I slide a 10mm glass donut over the ribbon. Fire Mountain Gems has a great selection. The clear glass donuts go best with all ornaments.

Don't forget to add your artist tag so everyone knows they have a hand crafted item by you. This one is 1" x 1"

Tie the ribbon onto the bottom of the hook using an overhand knot. This keeps your ornament and hook together and secure.

You have a beautiful finished product hanging from a handmade copper hook. Colored wire works wonderful also. Just don't hammer it.
18 gauge wire will hold most ornaments. The heftier the ornament the thicker your wire needs to be.

10 comments:

Elaine Ray said...

Oh - I love this idea. We have a bunch of those yucky looking old wire hangers I'm going to try to replace with this technique.

Thanks for sharing!

Elaine

Anonymous said...

That's awesome!!!

Margot Potter said...

What a gorgeous snowman! I love this! Hammered copper is so pretty.

Fabulous and thank you for playing Ornament Thursday!

Cheers,
Margot

Alexa said...

yes, very pretty and very easy to do.

Tari of ClayButtons.com said...

Thanks for all the wonderful comments! Start replacing all your ornament hooks!

Hali Chambers said...

This is AWESOME! Thanks for the lesson and inspiration! :-) Hali

Michelle McGee said...

That is so cool!

Arrow said...

Love the ornament, and the hanger is great!

Kriss said...

I love your snowman! Thanks for showing us how to make the hook -- it's great too.

Craftybernie said...

Fab! I prefer the hammered look too! Thanks for this.