Late in his life, my dad would walk around his entire 105 acre farm every day. He said he needed the exercise since he was semi retired. I believe he began his walking ritual when he was 85 or so and kept it up until he passed away at the age of 90.
While on his daily ramble, my dad would sometimes find an arrowhead and eventually accumulated quite an arrowhead collection. A few months before he passed away, he gave me his arrowhead collection and said "maybe you can make something with these".
That was over 3 years ago.
I am finally ready to make something with one of my dad's arrowheads. I'm making a necklace for my son, it's his birthday tomorrow and I can't think of a more meaningful gift.
I have no doubt there are many ways to turn an arrowhead into a pendant. There are a variety of ways using the wire method alone. You can start with this simple X and make another X alongside the first one to create a fancier double X. You can wrap wire around the top of the arrowhead. You can add wire spirals and loops. You can add crystals and beads.
I have made my wire work as simple and unimportant as possible. My goal was to showcase the arrowhead.
Tools and Materials:
1. Arrowhead
2. Wire - I used 18g bare copper
3. Cord - I used black suede lace
4. 2 Cord ends - I used fold overs
5. 2 Jump rings
6. Clasp - I used a copper lobster claw
7. Glue - I used a 2 part epoxy because I ran out of E6000
8. Wire cutters
9. Round nose pliers
10. Chain nose pliers
11. Nylon jaw pliers if you need to straighten the wire
Cut a piece of wire. The length will depend on how elaborate you plan to wrap your arrowhead. Make sure you add about 2" extra for the bale. I cut my wire approx. 12" for the simple X pattern but ended up only using about 8".
Decide which side of your arrowhead will be the front and lay the center of your wire along the back of the arrowhead. Place it a bit below the middle.
Wrap the right wire to the front of the arrowhead and cross it over to the top left of the arrowhead. Repeat with the left wire, crossing to the top right of the arrowhead.
Wrap both wires to the back of the arrowhead, crossing one over the other.
Twist the 2 wires together 2 or 3 times.
Cut one of the wires off as close to the twisted wires as possible. Tuck the cut end in using chain nose pliers.
Wrap the remaining wire around the round nose pliers, holding the pliers close to the twisted wires, creating a loop for the bale. The loop can be round, oval, teardrop or any shape you want, just make sure it's large enough to accommodate the cord. Now wrap the excess wire around the wire under the loop. Wrap the wire around 3 or 4 times then cut off the excess wire. Tuck in the cut end.
Thread the cord through the bale.
Put a small amount of glue in one of the cord ends and place one end of the cord on top of the glue. Use the chain nose pliers to squeeze the cord end closed. Repeat for the other cord end.
Open a jump ring, place it through the hole on one of the cord ends and close the jump ring. Repeat for the other cord end but place the lobster claw clasp on the jump ring before closing it.
All done :)
As always, thank you for visiting!
