I admit it. I absolutely love Irish waxed linen cord (IWL). I know I am not alone! But I believe I am the only person taking part in this blog hop who lives in the country in which the waxed linen that most of us work with is produced, so the designs I create with these threads/cords are particularly Irish! (Despite Northern Ireland being tiny, I have yet to track down the elusive Crawford Threads HQ - I only have two more months living on this side of the UK so I need to get cracking! ;-) )
I have worked with IWL for a number of years now. It's a beautiful fibre - strong, supple and available in a range of colours and thicknesses, with a protective waxy coating that helps to slightly stiffen the cord and aids with placement of knots. At first, I spent a whole heap of money buying it in from America. Yes, ironic when you live over in the UK that you have to get Northern Irish products shipped in from the US, but it is often the case that things are wholesaled over to the US and then we have to buy them back.
My problem was that I wanted ALL THE COLOURS. These waxed cords come in a myriad of absolutely beautiful shades and I am a self-confessed colour-aholic. I also got fed up with buying in relatively small quantities and paying customs and handling charges every time. Surely I wasn't the only one in this predicament? I thought to myself. And so, The Curious Bead Shop was born. Yes, it really was the desire to work with all the beautiful colours of IWL that led me to set my little shop up!
As I have such a range of gorgeous colours and plys available at my fingertips, I really am spoiled for choice. So that I have a good selection on hand at my own work/design area, when a spool gets near the end, I take it out of the Curious Cabinet, and stash them on my desk.
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| Really, just look at these beautiful, saturated hues! Yum. |
When Suburban Girl Diana P organised this blog hop, I knew I wanted to play along. But because I work with IWL often, I wanted to try and do something a little different. So, I gathered all my little end spools together to see what they looked like. I decided not to include the Denim, Lemon or Olive cords from the picture above, but the rest I gathered together in one gloriously, chaotically joyous colour scheme. I also grabbed a lampwork ring from Earthshine that I'd been hoarding, in a juicy orange....
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| How delicious do these colours look together? If I do say so myself. |
I grabbed some lovely dark wooden rounds from Smitten Beads to really show off the colours of the cord, some ceramic beads from Grubbi and a few tubes of seed beads (something else I always want in *All*The*Colours*)....
...and here's the finished piece.
I am pretty pleased with this! It's a riot of happy colour and has a pleasing bohemian, rustic feel. I added a central strand of coral reef 7ply to the main mix of 4ply, drawing these over each wooden/ceramic bead in a swath of stripy colour. 'Ply' refers to the number of twisted strands that the cord is made up of, so 7ply is almost twice as thick as 4ply. It's my thickness of choice when I'm knotting bracelets, as they have to stand up to a little more wear and tear than necklaces or earrings.
I finished the cord tails by simply knotting on a few seed beads. Pretty, textural and easy to do. It's often my favourite way to finish cord tails - no chance of trimmed knots coming undone and it looks good too.
...I even managed to inject some colour into the toggle bar, by choosing this creative component from Vintaj. They are hard to photograph, but you can hopefully see here the coloured seed beads (same palette as the cord tails) that I've slotted inside. {And it's now available over on etsy!}
To give you an idea of just how versatile IWL is, here are a few more of my designs featuring it:
I love knotting with coin/disc beads, so that the cord is exposed. Pretty and tactile, and this gives you lots of colour opportunities.
I've used a similar technique here as in the bracelet I made especially for the blog hop, but kept it simple, using only two lengths of cord - one to go inside the beads and one to go around. I then did a little macrame to create the loop for the button closure.
You can even use IWL in earrings - and these were great, as they just used up a few tails I had left over.
Here, I've just used it as a simple stringing material - a subtle charcoal grey in this particular necklace. But if you wanted vibrant pops of colour, you could achieve that too!
(Art beads - Elukka, Golem and Thea Elements)
And here, sweet and simple multi-layer stackable bracelets. Easy to wear and fun to make!
Thanks to Diana P for organising this hop! I hope you will be inspired to try working with this beautiful material (and if you like, you can check out the range I have available over at Curious).
