Beaded Christmas Ornaments
Date Submitted: December 16, 2006
This one is hard on the fingers! The design is fairly common and is created with 26 gauge wire and silver lined 6/0 sized clear beads - or green and red beads for a true "wreath" look. The forms are 16 gauge wire soldered at the connection (something similar to metal shower rings might also work), with a large jump ring attached at the top for hanging 
Materials:
- 26 gauge wire
- silver lined 6/0 sized clear beads
- The forms are 16 gauge wire soldered at the connection with a large jump ring attached at the top for hanging.
1. Start this project by stringing a large amount of beads onto the wire while still keeping the wire attached to it's spool. Depending on the size of the wreath form, you will add more or less beads, but to give you an idea of how many to use, my form is about 2" in diameter so I used approximately 100 beads.
Tip: To save time, put the beads in your hand and string them by spearing them with the wire. 
all the beads on the wire. 
2. Bend the wire around a bead, then twist the bead into the wire chain nose pliers to form about a 1/2" long twist for each bead.
1/2" long twist 
3. Continue with this process until all of the beads are used. Don't worry about having what seems like a lot of beads, it will fill in the wreath. Once all the beads are strung, snip the wire a few inches from the last bead. You will use this extra wire to secure the beginning and end of the bead "chain" to the wreath form. 
extra wire 
4. I wrapped the bead chain and the individual bead twists to the wreath form all the way around and secured the jump ring with the untwisted end of the wire. Make sure that your beads are arranged so as not to leave blank spaces.
untwisted end of the wire 
5. Tie a ribbon to the jump ring loop at the top to finish.
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