Make a Beaded Spider Ornament

This beaded spider is an ideal Halloween decoration or traditional Christmas tree ornament. Large spiders make great pins and pendants, while smaller ones can be used as earrings, rings, and accents on purses and hairpins.

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Skill Level	Suitable for beginners.
Time Required	A few minutes to an hour, depending on whether legs are beaded.

Materials	Comments
Seed Beads	Optional: Use for eyes and beaded legs
Two Different Size Beads	Head and Body
Stringing Material	I used wire so I could pose my spider, but you can use nylon monofilament or other stringing material
Wire Cutters	Flush cutters preferred
Round Nose Pliers	Used for making wrapped loops

You will need two beads, one for the body and one for the head. I have used two crystals (10 mm and 6 mm), but you can use pearls, rounds, bright polymer clay beads, or any beads that strike your fancy. Will your spider have eyes? I gave this spider 4 eyes (or 2 eyes and 2 fangs), but your spider could be completely different! After you select your beads, string them onto the wire (still attached to the spool) in this order: body, head, eyes. Choose a wire that is thin enough to fit through your beads, but wide enough to be strong. I used 24 ga dead soft wire (any craft wire you get will be soft). Half-hard would work, but full-hard may be too stiff to bend.

If you have beads for eyes, wrap the free end of the wire below the beads to form a loop. Wrap the wire a second time to secure it and cut it flush. Use pliers to push any sharp edges into toward the head bead. If your wire is thin enough, you can twist the wire together under the eyes and then hide the ends inside the body. Use the same technique for 2 or 3 eyes. If you don't want eyes, you could use a long head pin instead of wire.

I wanted to use the same wire for the legs that I had used for the spider, so I went ahead and cut my wire, leaving several inches below the body bead. If you are using different wire for the legs, you may prefer to keep your spider on the spool of wire until you are ready to finish it.

Cut 4 lengths of wire to form the legs. My pieces are each about 6" long (which is more than I needed). Thicker wire makes stronger legs, but it also makes it harder to wrap the legs between the head and body beads. Select a wire thickness in keeping with the overall size of your spider (I prefer 22 or 24 ga). You won't be able to use thick wire if you have small head and body beads. For small spiders, you may want to use 2 wires to make 4 legs (it still looks like a spider). Grasp all 4 wires together at their middle and wrap them once around the wire between the head and body beads. Pull tightly to snug the wrap around the main wire.

You can arrange the wires as legs and cut them to the desired length or you can add beads to them. I'm a bead addict and I like to add seed beads and sometime short bugles to the legs. To bead the legs, add the beads in your choice of pattern and length, push them securely against the body, and then make a loop or simply bend the end of the wire back from the last bead. I like to make loops because they give me more points from which to hang the spider.

Here is my spider with all 8 legs beaded. I pushed the spider down toward the finished end and made a wrapped loop below the body bead. These spiders look great with clear monofilament attached to the loop. If your legs are long enough, you can run monofilament through their ends to give your spider the appearance of spinning a web.

Here's another spider, this time with 2 eyes and unbeaded legs. This spider was made using 26 gauge enameled green wire. This spider doesn't have any loops. Spiders with no loops work well attached to a pinback or onto a barrette (watch those legs!). If your wire ends are sharp, use a cup burr or file to smooth the ends.

My kids were fascinated by this project, so I gave them pipe cleaners (chenille craft wires) and acrylic crystals and let them make their own spiders. It's a great family project, but do be sure to use care when cutting your wire. Please feel free to send me pictures of spiders you make using these instructions (jewelrymaking@allinfoabout.com) and I will place them in a gallery for everyone to admire.