How to Crochet a Wire Flower Pendant

Here’s something I’ve been noodling around with lately – crocheting flowers in wire. Once you get started on the whole wire crochet thing, the challenge becomes really compelling.

With some practice, you can convert many different crochet flower patterns into wire. It’s stiffer stuff, obviously, so you may want to keep to the simpler patterns. But the results are pretty cool. Here’s a very simple flower pendant to try.

If you’re new to wire crochet, you may want to take a look at Ye Olde Basic Tutorial first. I’m using 28 gauge colored copper wire here.

Slip knot your wire to your hook. (I’m using a US size C hook here, which is a good size for practicing. Later, I’ll switch to a size 5 steel hook.)

Chain 7, and then slip stitch in the first chain to create a ring.

Next, I do a little cheat to help compensate for the wire being much stiffer and less flexible than yarn. First, I want to set my hook down, so I pull the loop that’s around the hook open, so it becomes nice and big and impossible to lose.

And then I pinch the chains in this ring together a bit, so the ring becomes skinner. (This will make sense in a minute.)

When I’m ready to start crocheting again, I just put my hook back through that great big loop I made, and pull the leading wire so this loop shrinks back to hook-size.

Now, I’m making 16 single crochets into this ring. As you’re working these singles, you’ll probably need to slide them around the ring at some point to make room for more singles. This is where it helps to have pinched the ring skinnier earlier – that makes it much easier to slide the single crochets along.

When you’ve completed the 16 singles, then slip stitch into the first one to complete the row.

This is a good moment to talk about slip-stitching with wire. When you’re working with yarn, it’s usually pretty easy to see where the right loops are to place a slip-stitch. Not so with wire. So if you need to make a slip-stitch, and you can’t see where the right wire loops are, don’t worry. Just find a loop that’s in the general vicinity of where you need that slip-stitch to be, and use that. Nobody will ever know.

Time to make petals now. Chain an odd number of times. I’m using five for this sample, but if you use seven, or nine, you’ll have longer petals.

Now, skip one single crochet in your ring, and slip stitch in the next one. (Or, as we just discussed, slip stitch in that vicinity.)

That’s one petal. Now repeat those two steps to make more. You’re going to make eight total.

When you’ve slip-stitched your eighth petal in place, then pull the loop that’s around your hook out again, so it grows to about 4″ in length.

Cut the loop in the center with wire cutters.

This cut results in a long loose end of wire. Weave it in by stitching it in and out of the ring of single crochet you made. Keep your stitches small, and they won’t be noticeable. Make about four stitches, and then cut the wire close to your work.

Then, do the same thing with the other loose end of the wire, which is the loose end from the beginning of your work.

If your flower looks a little wonky at this point, don’t worry. You kind of have to tell wire what to do. So, take a moment and give your flower a little shaping with your fingers.

Here’s the same pattern, crocheted in with a smaller hook (that’s the US size 5 steel.)

You can wire a nice button or bead to the center of your flower, if you like.

Just thread it through a piece of scrap wire about 6″ long. Then, poke the two ends through that single crochet ring, bring them to the back of the flower, and twist.

And I used pretty much the same technique to join the three flowers together for the top photo. Using pieces of scrap wire, I just threaded it in and out of the two crocheted pieces, and then wove in the ends. Pop a jump ring on there, and you’re all set.