Handmade Monday: Beaded stars and flowers

This week I decided it was time to take on board the fact that it will soon be Christmas - I've been in denial for a while!  This star or flower could be a little bit festive, so I thought I'd post a little tutorial in case you want to make your own.

You will need:

• 25 beads for each star or flower
• Monofilament or beading thread
• Jewellery glue (optional)

I used 6mm beads which make quite a chunky star about 4.5cm across.  I've used two colours of beads in this example just to show how you are basically creating a circle and five little triangles and to make the explanation easier.  The two colours could be an interesting effect though!

1. To start, thread 3 beads on a long strand of monofilament.

2. Cross the two ends of the monofilament across a fourth bead...

3. ...pull the ends of the monofilament so the beads form a diamond shape

4. Add 5 more beads to one end of the monofilament (keep using the same end of the mono to thread the beads on from now on, but you will need to keep pulling the other end tight as you continue beading)

5.  Put the end of the thread that you added the 5 beads onto back through the second of those 5 beads

6.  Pull the monofilament so that it forms another diamond shape next to the first one, separated by one extra bead as shown in the diagram

7. Repeat steps 4-6 again to form another point of the star

8. Repeat steps 4-6 again twice to form the last two points of the star

9. You can see that the purple beads will form the inner circle, and you need one more to complete the design so thread on that additional bead by crossing the two end of the monofilament through it

10. When you pull the threads through, you'll see the star shape forming - nearly done!

11. The first thing you'll notice is that the star is quite floppy (!) and the two ends of the monofilament are not in the same place.  Start to rectify this by threading one end of the monofilament through all the inner circle beads, then threading through each of the points of the star in order.

12.  Once you've done all the extra threading, the monofilament ends should be in the same place and now you can knot them and glue the knot.

Your star or flower is now ready to use as you wish.  Perhaps a necklace, bracelet or Christmas decoration?  They look nice in neutral colours as well as the brights.







This one I've made into a simple necklace

Here's the link to see what others handmade crafters have been doing this week.