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Reply to "ART Workshop Lessons and Ideas for Trial and Crucifixion"

Nail Cross 2: The "No Nail Bending" Version

Update: See my "lesson liturgy" in the next post after this one where I combine the creation of the necklace with scripture from Mark's story of the Crucifixion.

As mentioned above, bending the nails takes some strength and precision, and takes a little more time than I wanted to take.  My "no bend" version is easier to set up and wrap with wire, and leaves more time to make additional crosses that kids can give to others.

How to:

In the "no bend" version below, I used four straight horseshoe nails (#5). They are about about 2.5 inches long.

1. Prior to class, super-glue the nails to each other and then reinforce the middle 'joint' of the cross with a rubber band. This was an important improvement for us as you do apply quite a bit of force on the cross nails as you are wrapping the wire. The glue and rubberband is merely a temporary way to hold the nails together while you wrap. Once they are wrapped, the wire makes the cross very sturdy.  I would suggest gluing in advance of class.

Starting out, here's how it will look..

cross1


2. Think about which colors of wire or cord you want to include on your cross.  If you are going to wrap the cross in rawhide or cord, I would still recommend binding the two cross pieces with a bit of wire.

Think about how far to each edge you want to wrap. For example, you could wrap all the way covering the nails, or you could just wrap the center, leaving the tips of the nails somewhat (and safely) exposed so that their "nail-ness" is more apparent.

3. Start with one piece of wire, as you wrap around the nail, you'll wrap over the loose end of wire you started with, in effect, pinning it underneath your wire wrap. (Doing this is more obvious when you actually start!)  When you want to change colors, cut the wire and start wrapping with the new color over the old end. After the cross is complete, you can add a dab of super glue to hold the ends down. Glue is especially helpful if the kids didn't wrap the wire so tightly.

TIP: Because we had used very small "craft" rubber bands, we simply wrapped the wire right over them. In the "nail bending" version of this project, you are instructed to cut the rubber bands off the nails as you wrap. In my finished version below, you can see a bit of the small green rubber band underneath the wire.

TIP: Don't cut the wire off of the spool until you're done wrapping with it. The spool makes it easier to get a nice TIGHT WIND around the nails.

cross2

4. Create a wire loop at the top for the lanyard. When wrapping wire on the TOP of the cross, create a loop by twisting the wire a bit so that you have an 'eye' look at the top of the cross for your lanyard to go through. Continue wrapping your wire with the loop around the nail. Pretty simple once you try it.

5. Finish by tucking in any loose wire ends and adding a dab of super glue to make them stay put. Add a lanyard.   You can get a spool of craft cord or rawhide at the craft store.

Finished product:

Nail-Cross-Necklace-Rotation.org

Options:

Wrap the cross with rawhide or colorful but thin nylon bracelet or "paracord."  If you use cord instead of wire, you will DEFINITELY want to add some dabs of Super Glue to hold the cord to the nails at strategic points because the cord doesn't wrap as tightly around the nails and doesn't help hold the nails together quite as tightly (without the extra dabs of glue).

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  • Nail-Cross-Necklace-Rotation.org
Last edited by Neil MacQueen
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