All about jewellery making

I was most excited to collect a copy of ‘Simply Sparkling Christmas Beading’ by Dorothy Wood from the library today.  When I wrote my first post on Christmas beading I mentioned this book but at the time had not been able to see a copy.  In my opinion there are some really fabulous Christmas designs and I thought I would share a few of my favourites with you. 

Firstly I must tell you that this is not a jewellery making book but full of beaded home decor for the festive season. 

I love the beaded snowflakes.   This is the first project in the book and they look simply stunning hung in a window.  They are created using a ’snowflake wire’ base - basically a pre-soldered wire form with six arms ready for you to attach beads.  I am sure that there must be a way of improvising such a base using cold connections - I might work on this idea although I can’t promise I will have arrived at a solution by this Christmas!

My absolute favourite project are the beaded tealight holders - an embellished ’cup’ constructed from herringbone stitch that snugly holds the tealight.  They just look so beautiful.

The third Christmas beading project that really appeals to me is the beaded wire garland shown adorning a large white candle.  The techniques used for this are very similar to those used for creating bead picks in tiara making except that the base wire here is green and the beads have been selected in various ‘berry’ shades.

I so wish I could show you pictures but I can’t because of copyright - you will just have to find a copy of the book for yourselves!