Pack of 7 Wire Snowflake Forms 4.5 inch diameter, by the Beadsmith
These make excellent tree ornaments when beaded up.
Each wire form has 6 spokes which you thread beads onto, leaving yourself enough room to form a loop with pliers at the end, to keep your beads from falling off.
Tip: start each spoke off with one or two small seed type beads, to ensure that your beads lie nicely when all the spokes are beaded because space gets very tight in the centre!
Ideal beads for the snowflakes are size 8/0, 6/0, 3/0, 2/0 and 1/0 seed beads - the smaller the number the larger the bead - odd but that's seed beads sizing for you - up to size 15/0 anyway. I have some really gorgeous frosted AB seed beads in size 6/0 - approx 4mm diameter - really pretty - there are blues, reds, purples, greens - all sorts of colours - check out the seed bead section of the Beads category. In the metal section of Beads, the round silver plated shiny beads from 4mm upwards are great to use as spacers.
Most of the single colour hand made glass beads - you know, the orange, mint, dark blue, plum etc beads will fit well - the only one I might doubt is the 4mm dark blue round beads, but even they might.
All the firepolished crystal beads will fit - there are lovely colour mixes - check out the fire polished crystal beads section, in Beads. Swarovski crystal is mega blingtastic and the 4mm bicones will fit the wires - you could intersperse Swarovski with the fire polished to add more bling at less cost.
The 2x7mm bugle beads will fit too.
These are just a few ideas for suitable beads - really your only limit is your imagination -( and the size of the bead's hole!)
Remember to leave sufficient room to turn your loop at the end of the spoke, because broken beads, caught by errant pliers cause major frustration! I sometimes end the spoke with a seed bead, so that larger beads cannot be caught as you turn the loop.
It is worth noting that the spokes are pretty resilient and it is tough to turn the end loop especially on the smaller frames - you need a bit of patience and a good strong grip - a small child could not manage it and an average sized adult will get achey wrists if they do too many in one go.
Some people prefer to superglue an end bead onto the spoke rather than turn loops - if you do this, use superglue gel, as it will stay where its put rather than the liquid which runs everywhere - and leave your creation sufficient time to set properly and dry before trying to hang it up. It does sometimes help to end your design with a couple of seed beads as the holes are not a lot bigger than the spoke and the glue takes easily, whereas if you use a larger holed bead, sometimes you need a lot of glue to fill the hole up!
I've made a few of these just lately and I am erring on the side of using superglue, then tying clear nylon cord - like Illusion cord tightly round a spoke, to hang the creation.
Once all spokes have been beaded, simpy attach a ribbon, thread or cord and hang on your Christmas tree or in a window for a dazzling decoration!
Package your finished snowflakes in one of my pretty organza bags for real gift appeal.
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