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February 20, 2014

Handmade Wire Hair Clip Barrettes

This week, it has been all about making hair accessories for me.

Technically, I'm not sure what you call them - hair clips, hair barrettes, hair pins - but that's what I've been trying my hand at making this week.

I have no instructions or tutorials to share with you yet - but I will, as soon as I feel like I've come up with a successful formula.

For now, I'm just playing and have come up with 3 different designs.

The first is a simple double spiral hair clip.  It looks
functional, but it's not so good.  At least not with my straight hair.  The hair pokes through the gaps in the spirals and looks messy - which is the exact opposite of what I'm aiming for.


I decided a simpler approach was in order and made this hammered teardrop shape.  This hair clip works very well - and is modeled by my daughter.

All of the hair clips are secured with a hair stick.  On the teardrop one, I added a wire holder for the stick.  It really helps to have something that keeps the stick in place when you are trying to secure it in your hair.


 I decided to get fancy and make one with some beads.  This last clip has a peacock freshwater pearl surrounded by a herringbone weave.  I also used herringbone weave to add a turquoise bead to the hammered end of the hair stick.

The nice thing about these hair clips is that they are a bit of mix and match.  Since the sticks are not attached to the clips, you can switch them around - provided the overall size is similar.


In this case, all of my clip bodies are between 2.5 to 2.75 inches wide and the sticks are about 3.25 inches long.  I used heavier wire than I usually do - 14g-16g and boy do my fingers feel it!

If you have experience making hair clips and have any tips, I'd love to hear them.  As usual, I have a nice Hair Accessory / Shawl Pin Pinterest board filled with inspiration.

2 comments:

  1. Very nice, Lisa :) They are very similar in form to scarf pins :)

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  2. Very nice ... I thought they were for scarves too when I saw them on small blog roll.

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