just a pharmgirl: Making Grandma's Snowflakes

After posting my Grandma's Snowflakes on the JBS Inspiration blog, I got a couple of questions about how I made these. It's very easy and is a great winter activity. After all, snowflakes aren't just for Christmas!

Here goes!

1. Supplies: A strand of costume jewelry, wire cutters, needle nose pliers, a snowflake wire form (made or bought), tape, and a non-slip surface.

My handyman (aka dh) made my wire forms for me by soldering 3 lengths of floral wire together in the middle. Ready made forms are easily accessible now though in most craft stores and online. A scrap piece of velveteen works well to keep the beads from rolling all over the place.

A lot of the fun in this project is picking out the jewelry to use. If you haven't inherited any costume jewelry, look for strands at flea markets and tag sales. Prices are usually very cheap if you go to the right places. The best jewelry to use for this project would have different sizes or shapes of beads in multiples of at least six. Having some tiny beads helps also as you will see.

2. Using scissors or your wire cutters, cut the strand apart. You can separate the beads by size and shape if you want.

3. Start threading your wire form with small beads first, threading each arm to make sure they are small enough to meet at the middle of the snowflake. If you used larger beads at this point, they would not be able to meet at the middle, and you will be left with exposed wire in the center.

4. You now start threading each arm separately, alternating color, size, and shape as desired.

5. When you like the way one arm looks, place a piece of tape at the end of the wire to keep the beads from sliding off.

6. Continue on with each arm, making each arm the same because snowflakes are symmetrical after all!

7. When each arm is done and taped off, push the beads together snug on one arm, and cut the wire about 1/4 inch from its last bead.

8. With your needle nose pliers, turn the wire end into a loop. Turn and end the loop snugly against the last bead on the arm. The beads will now be held into place and you shouldn't see any exposed wire on that snowflake arm.