P-a-r-a-c-o-r-d

Paracord is an interesting and multi purposed material.

It comes in a few different weights the kind pictured above has a strength rating of 550lbs. It's thin nylon strands spun together to make thicker strands and then about 10 of those strands in side of colored nylon tube. 

Premade bracelets can purchased on-line or at such retailers as Dick's Sporting Goods & E.M.S (to name a few) and any of the premade bracelts that are dual colored don not undo it one piece of cording. So not all to functional. You can also order bundles of cording, or spools. (E.M.S has rock climbing cord that has silimar properties & weight tolerances. 

Keychains, lanyard, zipper pulls, boot / shoelaces (yes, laces!) sweatpants / hoodie strings.

It can used to make dog collars (the large yellow & grey coil) bracelets. Which are called Survival Bracelets. They can be undone to produce one piece of functional, strong line (and if unravelled further still the thin strands can (probably) be used as suture material. The red & black bracelet in the middle is app 26' of black cording with the red being just the nylon shell (it's flatter and there for more easily woven through the finished bracelet for decoration. It's the one I wear!

They're fun, easy to make and go together quickly. 

J e w e l r y !

Machine smoothed black stone (upper left)

Onyx arrowhead (middle top)

Small chunk of Amnethyst (upper right)

The Quartz pendant from the previous post (bottom right)

A sand smoothed sea shell (say that 5 times fast) (middle right) 

A sand smoothed piece of beach glass  (bottom left)

( unfortunately it wasn't colored glass, I hear there's a market for that )

All wrapped with heavy gauge chromed wire! These were really fun to make, . 

hopefully they won't become dust collectors, but will soon be adorning the necks and or cleavage of some lovely lady because some caring man bought it for them. . 

hint,  hint, hint   

Pendant!

A Valentines Day present for Kelly.

A chunk of quartz (about the size of a walnut) 

that I mined / panned (not sure of the exact term) from a quarry place 

(you buy a a bucket of earth & you get to sift through it and keep what ever you find) in the Outer banks in N.C. I've held onto this rock and bunch of others, always meaning to do something with them. Flash foward about 10 years and  . . 

BOOM a pendant. I wrapped thicker gauge wire around the rock to cradle it, and so it wouldn't rattle around or move, made a loop on top to thread a chain / cording through.

This was a fun piece to make. 

I dabbled in making jewelry a few times, . . 

I may make some more

Pimped out Pliers

I tricked out my pliers with a finger loop!

So now I can spin them around like a big dork, . . 

but mainly so I'll have better control while working on things, . .

 and the spinning! 

Heavier gauge wire was used for the main loop, and a softer wire was

wrapped around it for appearance and comfort.

A great reaction!

My friend Daniel asked me to make his son Aidan a present for his 9th Birthday.

It was the Meow post, a wire form cat (it's a few posts back)

I got to watch Aidan open his gift, and it was the best reaction! He was so happy!

It was very satisfying to see his reaction to my sculpture.

Thanks Daniel, and Thank you Aidan.

Even though it was your Birthday, you gave me a present as well!  

Wire Form Cord / Cable Manager

I made a head phones caddy for my iPod shuffle. 

One piece of medium gauge wire was used, took me about 30 minutes.

The loop at the top is for a key ring, or a small carabiner.