Oh my!  Yael of Yoola Design has a new tutorial that is truly in the art jewelry category. As many of you know already, she is known for her range of outstanding contemporary wire jewelry designs well as kits and tutorials available to those who wish to learn. One lucky winner will receive her new Shogun Element bracelet tutorial and kit in this giveaway.



Opinion is divided as to whether her technique is wire crochet (accomplished with a crochet hook) or wire knit because the result looks like knitting stitches. So you will note she uses both wire crochet or ISK (invisible spool knitting) terms when describing her wire jewelry technique. Yael has said that the Hebrew word is the same one for both crochet and knit.  If you think about it, both techniques involve making loops. Just the tool is different.



This new bracelet design is stunning. It looks best when done in two contrasting colors.  The tutorial covers the creation of two types of bi-color forms which can then be assembled in different ways.

 It doesn't have to be a bracelet either as you can see from the necklace version below. 


My favorite is this gorgeous bracelet where several of the forms are linked together. It is obvious why this tutorial has art jewelry potential!


The tutorial is a combination of both a PDF and a video.  I found that the pictures and descriptions in the PDF are not sufficient to really understand how she does her decreasing steps. So the video is necessary.

This tutorial in NOT for newbies.  If you have never done wire crochet before, the Shogun Element is not the one to start the learning process with. I took a while before I could be proficient at this!  I bought this basic starter loom kit  (shown below) when I first started.  The basic instructions are very clear to get you started.  She also demonstrates how to start without the looms. But I find that the looms are helpful in getting even stitches right from the beginning.


Another good set to get is the one which includes the fine crochet hooks as well as the draw plate if you don't have one.   I had a lot of trouble learning with the 0.6 mm hooks. So I started with larger ones and worked my way down.  I'm proud to say I can now work with these although I was stuck at 1.0 mm for a long while.  Yael now supplies 0.75 mm with her starter kits.



One reader, sis5of11, left an intriguing comment on a past post about the ISK technique.  She said, The reason I find ISK and Viking Knit to be different is because, while they LOOK similar, VK is, I think, sturdier after being drawn, while ISK, when drawn, is a softer, more flexible chain. I think VK is more suited to jewelry for men than ISK is."  

 That piqued my curiosity and raised a lot of questions and I felt the urge to experiment! So be sure to catch my review post later this week which goes into detail comparing Viking Knit with ISK techniques.

Here is the teaser photo.  Can you tell which of my four bracelets are done with Viking Knit and which with the ISK technique?  (Update : see the review here)



Giveaway
If you'd like to win this giveaway for both a kit and tutorial for the Shogun Element Bracelet, please make a comment below. Make sure you leave contact info below if you do not have an online shop or blog.

Email subscribers need to scroll down the post they receive, click on Share Comment and enter your comment. Pick Name/URL. If you don't have a store or blog, leave the URL blank.

This giveaway is international. 

Extra entries if you become or are a blog subscriber or follower etc. If you also do shout outs about this giveaway, those will count as additional entries too! Please say so in the comments. (The exception is Facebook - just like/comment on the giveaway status there!!)

It ends in a week's time at 6 pm EST Monday,  May 1, 2017. I will pick the winner randomly and announce the results as soon as possible after. So be sure to leave a contact email if you don't have an online link or make sure you come back and check! Otherwise I will redraw in a week. Good luck!

Disclosure
I do receive products for review as well as a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation.

Before You Go (Giveaways below are over):

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