Hey Nancy,
Prototypes of anything can be tough. I'm pretty comfortable with pretty much flying by the seat of my pants with each one, but if I'm doing a production run of anything where I need some size consistency, I will sketch it out first. I have a new tutorial in the works for an item I've made often, but in a different scale and have found that drawing thumbnail sketches of the angles I want arms and legs helps a lot with wire proportion in the long run. As much as I hate to say it, its often a matter of trial and error.
Its always better to make your wire longer than you think that it needs to be...its much easier to cut some off than to add some on. I often will assemble a several parts together before even approaching it with the soldering iron, just to make sure sizes are right. Even so, I have frequently made fingers and toes the wrong size, but I toss them back into my scrap box to be used on a future project. I rarely throw anything out. In the grand scheme of things, recycled copper is fairly cheap, so I've never balked at using it to "doodle" with, like many artists do with pencil and paper. It helps to look at it as research and development for a new creation. It really it helps to do a practice run at parts of a project with scrap wire sometimes, just to make sure that the points of contact in the wire will make a decent connection to one another when they're soldered.
For example, if you want to make bunnies, play around with the part that is different than what you've already done. Make a couple of sets of ears or what have you and make sure they look right for the size bead you have in mind.
I don't know if that answers your questions, but if you still find yourself stuck, drop me a pm. Maybe we could talk over the phone and I could help explain it a little better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by playswithfire104
I need a little help here. When you make something that isn't a mouse, like your spiders or birds or what have you. Do you sketch it out first? How do you know how to bend the wires and how long to make them? I'm not asking to be hand lead through how 'you' do 'your' thing but how just how to get started planning an object. I want to do some Easter Bunnies and I really don't want to waste a lot of wire and solder messing up.
Any advice?
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