Make a swirly (extra girly).

Where have I been for the past few weeks? I was very lucky to get to go to Spain. We stayed in Seville, and explored a bit around Andalusia's little white hill towns. Here's one of my favorites, a town called Ronda.

Ahh. So beautiful.

Throughout my trip, I kept an eye out for crafty ideas. The first one I want to show you is some...thingies...I found in a jewelry shop in Seville's old Barrio Santa Cruz. I didn't know what they were, and had to ask the lady. Have you seen them before?

You can't tell from the picture, but they are teeny tiny. (Suddenly I'm wondering if they're really so mysterious. Maybe you all have dozens of them already, and I'm the only dork in the world who has never run across them? Well, they were new to me.) Okay, here's what they are...

Little hair ornaments. The cutest! Really fun worn sprinkled amidst an updo.

Fun, yes. But kind of expensive. I paid 5 euros for these! Horrors! So I ask you: why on earth should we spend our hard-earned euros buying other people's hair swirlies, when we can easily make our own? Are you with me?

Start with some short lengths of wire. Flexible enough to bend into a swirl, but not too flimsy - it has to be able to keep its shape. I used some ornament hangers, 100 for a buck at the $ store. Leaving a little extra length at the top, wrap your wire around something taper-y. A pen...


...or anything you can find.

When you pop the wire off, you can sort of manipulate the swirl to get it fairly regular looking. (Although lots of mine were pretty irregular, and they worked just fine. Do not stress over it. I'm talking to you, perfectionists!)

Bend the straight bit so it sticks up at right angles to the swirl.

Put a bead on the wire. Bend the wire over sideways, like this:

Make a loop above the bead to hold the bead in place. That's it!

Your girly swirlies are ready for their updo.

You can try all kinds of bead combinations. Nothing too big, though - these are meant to be dainty and barely there.

I tried some little silk blossoms, too. They worked great! Even lighter than beads.

A small caveat. The wire ends of the store-bought ones were tipped with a rubbery coating, to protect from pokes. There's this stuff you can buy, a liquid plastic, which I would recommend if you're making these for a little girl. But for me, the bare wire wasn't so scratchy that it bothered me - I think you could call it optional.

Hope you liked this project! Tomorrow, another tutorial inspired by stuff I saw in Spain.