...A Solution for the Shrug!

...Here is one solution to the shrug design balance and closure issue. The hardest part of making this pin was finding wire! I called every beading and jewelry making store in town, and either they were out, or just didn't have 16g copper wire on hand. I was about to order, when I just decided to give the smaller hardware stores a try. BINGO!!!! I found just what I was looking for at good old Ace Hardware. I watched this video from YouTube on making a wire fibula pin, which is perfect for getting a completely ignorant person started. The next hurdle was figuring out what to use as an anvil. About to head for the garden shed and draft a shovel into unusual use, My eye caught an antique iron that perches on my phone books in the kitchen, and turning it upside down, it became a perfectly good anvil to hammer the wire on with my household hammer. Obviously, I didn't let the lack of specialized jeweler tools stop me. It was pretty quick and easy, and there are such a variety of these fibula pins, that working from a basic design and adding embellishments is a breeze. Fibula pins are the first known "safety Pins." They date back to ancient Roman and Greek history, and perhaps even beyond that. They were utilized for holding pieces of cloth onto a person's body. Strangely, not much was known about cutting and sewing pieces of fabric together to fit. I can hardly imagine this, but maybe that came along after scissors were invented. I can also see reason in the preciousness of supplies and not having fabric waste.