How to Make Metal Mesh

Wire mesh provides support for many artistic projects.

The term "wire mesh" often brings to mind standard chain link or chicken wire. But wire mesh takes on many forms and has many uses. Artists bend wire into a mesh form armature to give strength to sculpture. Artisans weave wire in tight or open patterns to create baskets, or sieves. One early type of wire mesh project is a simple wire mesh bulletin board. After you are through, you can slide pictures and papers between the mesh to hold them securely.

Things You'll Need

• Chair or coffee table
• Leather gloves
• 16 gauge wire, or rebar wire, length depends on the size of your board
• Wire cutter
• Needle nose pliers
• Clear varnish

Instructions

1. Turn a chair or coffee table upside down. The piece of furniture you use determines the finished size of your bulletin board.

2. Put on gloves to protect your hands while you pull the wire.

3. Wrap the end of the wire around one leg of the up-turned furniture. Twist the end around the wire to hold the end temporarily.

4. Pull the wire across the space diagonally and wrap it around the opposite leg. Choose another leg and wrap the wire. Continue to cross the open space between the legs. Weave the wire above and below the wire as you cross the space.

5. Cut the wire several feet from your mesh. Roll the extra wire into a ball that is small enough to fit between the mesh you have created. Thread the ball through the woven mesh, unrolling the wire as needed. Continue until you use all the wire. Twist the end of the wire to another wire in the mesh.

6. Un-twist the wire you began with. Weave the wire through the mesh and twist the end to another wire in the mesh.

7. Spray the entire bulletin board with clear varnish to protect the metal from oxidation.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't mind oxidation on your papers, you can skip the varnish step. Over time your bulletin board will develop a patina.

• For a brighter board, weave your bulletin board out of a variety of plastic-covered wire.

• Use the spray varnish in a well-ventilated area.

References

• Can't Stop Making Things: Wire Sculpture Bulletin Board
• Rural Missouri: Waeving With Wire, Jim McCarty, 2002
• Hebradean Whale and Dolpphin Trut: Making Wire Modles of Whales and Dolphins,