A Wire Pumpkin With a Twist

I recently saw Amanda at the Hand Me Down House create some cute little wire pumpkins.  It reminded me of crafts I did with kids when I was babysitting, and I decided to try making my own “big girl” version just like Amanda’s.

The only wire I had came off a roll of hardware cloth a while back.  The wire was holding the hardware cloth all rolled up nice and tight, and as I unwrapped it, I figured I would probably wish I had it down the road if I threw it away.  So I kept it.

I really liked Amanda’s pumpkins, but I decided I wanted mine to look a little “fuller”.  Plus, my wire is skinny and looks pretty industrial.  I came up with the idea to use some kind of ribbon, yarn, or something to wrap around the wire and then I’d use the wire to make the pumpkin.

Ultimately, after digging through the craft bin, I settled on using raffia because I couldn’t find anything else I liked, and this needed to be a “free” project.  But then I didn’t actually have any raffia in the natural color like I thought I did….until I thought to check in the Christmas wrapping paper box…  And lo and behold, I DID have raffia!  It was tied into cute little bows that I’d saved from some beautiful Christmas wrapping job from years past. 

Good enough for me!  I untied two of the bows and got to work.

I grabbed a quart sized jar, the wire and the raffia.  I twisted the raffia and wire together as I wrapped them around the jar.  Because the raffia was cut somewhat short for the bows, I just tied new pieces on whenever I would reach the ends of the current piece I was working with.

When I had wrapped all my wire (and raffia) around the jar, I slid the jar out and used floral wire in two places a couple inches apart to hold the wire in its circular shape.  After it’s secured on the one side which will become the “stem”, then you can just pull the loops around and finagle them into a relatively even pumpkin shape.  I put a little raffia bow on top and used the tails of the bow to cover up the floral wire and make the “stem” a little prettier.

And when  you’re done, it will look like this: 

Easy peasy, and FREE!

I’m linked up to:

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Beyond the Picket Fence

Between U & Me