Christmas time is upon us, which means gift-making season. This year I decided to make gifts for the staff of our local library. After brainstorming some ideas that would work for 21 people, and that wouldn’t kill me to make in a couple of days, I settled on bookmarks. Isn’t it a perfect gift for someone who works with books? The only problem was that I never made metal bookmarks before. But hey, that never stopped before, and so I turned to Pinterest for some inspiration.
Copper heart wire bookmark
After seeing what’s out there in the bookmarks scene I started sketching some designs that would work for my style and available materials. I decided to use 12 GA round copper wire for the longer traditional bookmarks, figuring that with enough hammering it will hold the shape nicely. And I decided to use 14 GA bronze wire for the smaller bookmarks that clip onto a page. Why bronze? It is what I had a lot of at the moment, and I like the look of it without the need to patina (oxidize) which darkens it. I would definitely need to patina copper bookmarks, though I like them bright and shiny, but there is no way they will stay that way long enough in our humidity lately. So to speed up the aging process that gives copper that beautiful antique look I will have to use LOS (liver of sulphur).
Doodle copper wire bookmarks
I also added some pearl beads to the smaller bookmarks just for fun. I think it dressed them up a bit, and maybe not everyone is a minimalist that I am, so they might appreciate some extra decorations. I also secured some of the designs on larger bookmarks with thinner wire, I think it was 24 GA and 26 GA. I didn’t have to, they were sturdy enough, but I just wanted to do a bit of wrapping on some of them. Can you blame me?
All in all, this was a good learning experience. The bookmarks turned out exactly how I dreamed they would. Now I just hope that the recipients like them and end up using them. Also, maybe I should make myself some?
