W is for Wire and Wolf - abc-Wednesday, Round 6 - 'W' / Alphabe-Thursday - 'W'

Photo of Wolf from Wikkipedia

The letter 'W' is this week's stop on our journey through the alphabet with two great memes, Mrs. Denise Nesbitt's abc-Wednesday and Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday. I feel that I have strayed far afield from the main theme of my blog, jewellery-making, and really must have at least one word that is jewellery-related. That is why I am starting with my jewellery-word, Wire and will end my post with the more controversial word, Wolf.

This is a close up of a pair of earrings that I made out of sterling silver wire
and different kinds of yellow glass beads. I used a simple wire-wraping-technique to put the beads together and hang them on the earwires.

Wire is metal string in different thicknesses/sizes called gauges. The gauge of a wire is numbered so that the thicker the gauge, the lower the number. Wire that is 24 gauge is thinner that wire that is 16 gauge. This may seem confusing, but wire gauge has a long tradition, based probably upon the number of times the wire is drawn through smaller and smaller holes to make the thinner sizes.

This is a photo of a standard American wire-gauge-chart from Wikkipedia

One way of making different kinds of jewellery is to use chain, which is essentially wire that is bent into links, that are put together.

This is a bracelet that I made with this antiqued brass chain, red beads and olive green pressed glass leaves to make it look like rose hips.

Another use of wire in jewellery-making is 'wire-wraping'. Metal wire, such as brass, copper or sterling silver wire is literally 'wraped' around and/or through holes in stones, pearls or glass beads to be linked together with all parts, decorative and functional, in order to build necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

This is the same pattern earrings, but with green glass beads and red copper leverback earring-findings, instead of the white and shiny silver earwires. The colour of metal is also a design-choice. The red copper is a warm tone together with the emerald green beads.

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My second word, 'Wolf', has almost as many possibities as last week's word 'Viking'. The Wolf, has both friends and enemies, which is why I decided to get my jewellery-making-lesson over with first, before I let the wolf pack loose.

A pack of wolves in Yellowstone National Park, photo: Wikkipedia

The Wolf is a mammal, a carnivore and a predator, that has a long history parallell with humans. The Wolf or related species, is said to be the ancester of all breeds of dogs. The Wolf is genetically so close to dogs, that Wolves can and do actually mate with them. The Wolf has been feared and hated to such an extreme degree, that its numbers have been reduced to near extinction on the Scandinavian Pennisula of today. The lone wolves that wander in the mountains between Norway and Sweden are not in large enough numbers to even be called 'packs of wolves'. It is the wolf's history of not just taking wild prey such as deer in the forest, but also killing non-prey animals such as red foxes, dogs, sheep and raindeer, that have fueled the hatred of many generations of lifestock-owners.

Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), photo: Wikkipedia

Here is a photo of a howling wolf.
If you click here and go to the site on Wikkipedia,
you can click on a link there to hear wolves howl or click here.
To listen to a rallying cry click here.

As a mother, I am called upon to read fairytales about animals like the Wolf in Little Red Ridinghood. This is the one tale that most people remember as adults. Like all folktales, there are many versions, but two main literary versions. There is Charles Perrault's 17th-century tale that ends with Little Red Riding being murdered by the wolf, and then there is the Grimms brothers' 19th-century version, that allows a hunter to rescue both the grandmother and the child by cutting open the wolf's belly. (See Maria Tatar, The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, 1987.)

This is an illustration of the Wolf meeting Little Red Ridinghood by Gustave Doré.

And here the artist Svend-Otto S. has depicted the same scene.

If given the choice, which predator would you rather meet up with while wandering in the woods, a wolf or a bear?

(This photo is from the book Rovdjur, by Magnus Elander, Staffan Widstrand and Johan Lewenhaupt, 2002)

Which kind of predator would you be least afraid of ?

(This photo is from the book Rovdjur, by Magnus Elander, Staffan Widstrand and Johan Lewenhaupt, 2002)

Svend-Otto S. illustration of the Wolf in Little Red Ridinghood

Personally, I don't think that I would like to meet a bear. In spite of a world full of children stories, with sweet characters like Winnie-the-Pooh, Bamse and with all of these cute stuffed toy teddy-bears, I think I'd rather take my chances with a wolf rather than with a bear.

Here are some of the children's stuffed Teddy Bears:

I keep thinking about the dammage that a mere swipe of a bear's paw can do. A few years ago, I read a newspaper article about a Swedish bear-hunter who was attacked by a bear that was just about to bite off his arm. He only had a split second to do this. He had the presence of mind to punch the bear hard on the inside of the back of its throat and be able to pull himself free and save his arm.

I think I'd rather meet up with a Wolf!

Gustave Doré shows Little Red getting into bed with the Wolf
who is dressed as Grandma.

Let's be fair to the wolf. Even wolf-cubs can be cute,
and this one looks like a sweet puppy!

(This photo is from the book Rovdjur, by Magnus Elander, Staffan Widstrand and Johan Lewenhaupt, 2002)

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Best wishes,

Anna

First Commenter:
Lin
of Duck and Wheel with String

For more W-words at Mrs. Nesbitt's abcWednesday please click here.
For more W-words at Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday please click here.

To read an excellent Alphabe-Thursday-post about wolves by Jeff Campbell, please click on Jeff's Wolves
Read an amazing bear-story by Melinda Cornish here.