Make a Mermaid Hair Comb
Steve Parke
HERE’S AN ARTFUL WAY TO MAKE A GLIMMERING OCEANIC comb featuring shell “flowers” to hold back your hair. Use electroplated, gilded souvenir shells, typically sold as pendants with holes already drilled into them and jump rings attached; you can buy them loose and in necklaces in beachside souvenir shops or order them online from suppliers on Etsy or jewelry supply shops like www.nbeads.com or www.beadunion.com.
TOOLS AND MATERIALS
- Wire snips
- Needle-nose pliers (the slimmer, precision-point ones)
- 24-gauge wire to match the gold edge of the shells (or pink-gold wire and copper edging)
- A string of tiny predrilled shells or a souvenir necklace
- 5 small, gold-electroplated or gold-dipped 1- to 1½-inch conch shells (or whatever shell you prefer), with jump rings
- 5 to 7 gold-electroplated or gold-dipped 2- to 3-inch abalone shells to form the flower petals, with jump rings
- 30 to 40 small crystals (the ones pictured are 4mm Swarovski bicone crystals)
- A French wire comb
Steve Parke
DIRECTIONS
1. Prepare your materials: Cut 12 to 14 pieces of wire 8 inches long. (Note: If the shells have an extra jump ring, remove it so there is only one ring on each shell.) Remove the tiny shells from the string.
Steve Parke
2. Start creating the center: String 5 to 6 crystals, one tiny shell, and 5 to 6 more crystals onto a pre-cut wire. Repeat this step at least 3 or more times, depending on how sparkly you’d like the center of your flower to be. String 5 or 6 tiny shells onto a pre-cut wire. Isolate the crystals on the wire and twist to form a loop. Make a couple of these so that you have a total of 6 or so shelled wires.
Steve Parke
3. Twist all of the wired tiny shells together to form a stem. It will look like a starburst when you are done.
Steve Parke
4. Gather these stems together to form the flower center. Give them a gentle twist to hold them together temporarily.
Steve Parke
5. Wire up a few of the conch shells and add them to the center of the piece.
Steve Parke
6. Make the petals from the abalone shells: Loop a wire through the attached ring on each abalone shell. Wrap it through a few times so that the wire is secured firmly to the ring on the end. Try to use an odd number of petals—say 5—depending on the size of your comb; an odd number will look better.
Steve Parke
7. Once the abalone shells are wired, place them together around the center of the flower (7A). Don’t worry about the shape yet, as you will fan everything out into a flower shape once everything is in place (7B). Be careful not to twist and untwist the wire too often, as this could cause the wire to break.
Steve Parke
Steve Parke
8. The stem will be a bit thick at this point, so split it into two groups of wires and trim them to even them out. Use one of the original wires you cut to wrap everything up into a tidy bundle.
Steve Parke
9. These finished wire bundles are now quite easy to wrap with a length of the cut wire onto your comb. Wrap the wires onto the comb, tooth by tooth, for a pretty finish.
Steve Parke
10. Crimp the ends tightly so that no wires are poking out. Fold any sharp ends under and make sure they are not facing the inside of the comb, where they could poke your head. Adjust the shell flowers as desired; your mermaid comb is ready to wear.
Steve Parke