Tag: beads

Beaded Suncatcher

A few weeks back we decided to follow up our #30dayswild nature dreamcatcher craft from The Wildlife Trusts with a suncatcher.

The craft was for one of our Facebook art live shows, so I thought I would write a blog post with instructions on how to make your own.

What you need:

A sturdy stick to hang your beads around
Wire
Glass beads
Twine
Small pliers / wire cutters
Scissors

How to make your suncatcher:

  1. Cut 5 lengths of wire, x1 30cm, x2 25cm and x2 20cm
  2. Place a small bead about 2cm from the end of each wire, turn the wire back on itself and twist together.
  3. Thread each wire with your favourite glass beads, leaving 4cm to wrap around your stick.
  4. Arrange your wires: small, medium, long, medium, small, along your stick, around 3cm apart.
  5. Cut a length of garden twine around one and half to two times the length of your stick and tie it to either end of your stick.
  6. Hang your suncatcher in a window and enjoy.

Beautiful Beaded Heart Hanging

If you have any old bead necklaces that you don’t wear anymore then you could upcycle the beads into a pretty wire hanging.

You will need:

  • Beads (ours were from old necklaces)
  • Wire (we used garden wire)
  • Pliers and wire cutters
  • Ribbon

Step 1.

Start by cutting a length of wire; ours was around 60 cm long but you could make it longer (for a bigger heart) or shorter (for a smaller heart.) We stripped the plastic coating off our wire but you don’t have to do this (or you might be using wire without a plastic coating anyway!)

Step 2.

Thread a bead onto your wire and make a loop around it, this will stop the other beads sliding off as you are working.

Step 3.

Thread on more beads! Stop when you have about 5-10 cm free wire at each end.

Step 4.

Twist the two ends of wire together, pushing the beads together so there are no gaps.

Step 5.

Bend the wire into a heart shape, or a different shape if you prefer!

Step 6.

We threaded a few beads onto the two loose ends of wire for extra decoration but you could just twist the ends together and trim. Whatever you do it’s worth using your pliers to tuck the loose ends of wire in so they don’t catch on anything.

Step 7.

Tie a ribbon onto the wire between two beads so you can hang up your heart.

Have fun and don’t forget to show us how you get on.

How to Make Paper Beads

Making paper beads is really easy and a good way to use up bits of decorative paper or pretty magazine pages.

You will need:

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  • Paper (magazine pages, patterned paper or anything you want to use up)
  • Pencil
  • Ruler
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Stick or something similar to roll your beads on.

Step 1.

On the back of your paper use the ruler and pencil to mark out strips. The wider the strips you mark out the wider your bead will be.

We made marks along the top and bottom of our paper and then joined them up with the ruler and pencil to make our strips.

Step 2.

Cut out your strips.

Step 3.

Place a strip of paper face down in front of you and cover it in glue, leaving a small section (about 1-2 cm) at the top un-glued.

Place your stick on this un-glued section and then begin rolling the strip of paper around the stick.

Keep rolling till the end of the strip then slide the roll off the stick. You’ve made your first bead! Keep going and make some more.

Step 4.

You can try this technique with triangles as well as strips of paper. Why not make a few of each type of bead?

Have fun and don’t forget to show us how you get on!