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Beaded Spider: A DIY Photo Tutorial by Laura Bracken

// March 4th, 2012 // Kids Crafts

(See end of tutorial for printable version)

Materials Needed:

• 1 large bead (the spider’s body)
• 1 smaller bead (the spider’s head)
• Five 6-inch pieces of wire (thick enough to be able to hold some shape with a large glass bead on it, but thin enough to go through the bugle and seed beads (about 24 gauge)
• Seed beads (the leg knuckles)
• Bugle beads (the leg segments)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tools Needed:

• Wire cutters
• Round-nose pliers
• Needle-nose pliers

Step 1: Take one of the wires (we’ll call this the “main wire”) and using your round-nose pliers make a tiny curl at one end (with this, you are making the circle at the front of the spider’s head in case you want to hang him… see end of text for other options).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1a: After you make the loop, hold the loop with your needle-nose pliers as you wrap the wire tail just below the loop a few times, using your round-nose pliers.  Snip the excess wire and tuck the end in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2: Place the smaller of the two glass beads (the spider’s head) onto that main wire.

 

Step 3:   Take the four remaining lengths of wire and make a small loop in the middle of each one and place them all onto the main wire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 4: Put the larger bead (spider’s body) onto the main wire and wire-wrap a loop at the spider’s back end (another option for hanging the spider).

4a: It is very important that you wrap the wire so that the large (body) bead presses up against the wire “legs”.  Otherwise the spider’s legs will be too loose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 5: Take one of the legs and place a seed bead onto the wire, then place a bugle bead (the longer tube-shaped) onto the wire.  Continue this pattern, alternating seed bead and bugle bead until you have the following:  seed-bugle-seed-bugle-seed-bugle-seed-bugle (four sets or pairs).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 6: You will have an excess of wire on that leg so clip the wire leaving about ½ inch remainder and curl the end up to the beads.  (Or curl the wire, then clip.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 7: Repeat steps 5 and 6 for all remaining legs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 8: Shape your spider by bending his legs the way you want them.

You can hang you spider (from either the nose end or the tail end).

You can let your spider stand.

You can attach your spider to clothing, bags, or purses using a safety pin.

You can bend the starter (“nose”) wires onto the spider’s head if you don’t want a loop there.

You can also fashion some “fangs” from the nose-end of the main wire.  (See white spider at start of tutorial.)

The legend of the Christmas Spider is a story that begins “Once upon a time, long ago…” and goes on to tell the tale of a woman who put up a Christmas tree in her house the night before Christmas. During the night, the curious spiders crept all over the tree, dancing and playing, and leaving a tangle of gray spider webs all over the branches. When Father Christmas came and saw this, he knew the mother of the house wouldn’t appreciate the spider webs, yet he loved the little spiders and didn’t want to hurt their feelings by clearing the webs away.  So he touched the tree and turned all the gray spider webs into glittering silver strands… which have come to be known as our tradition of hanging tinsel on the Christmas tree.

Hope you have fun making beaded spiders.

If you’d like to print this tutorial out, you can open it in PDF format from the SRAJD Resources page (under “Tutorials”): http://www.artisimportant.com/SRAJD/resources.html

Thanks,

Laura