Okay, so it's no secret that I love Halloween. I have an amazing costume put together for myself as well as two great ones for my kids. But the entire month of October deserves special treatment. So I want creepy jewelry to wear to work, but I don't have the budget to buy it. What to do?? Make it! I've been wanting a spider ring and my buddy Ann suggested I could make my own.
I started out with the plan of making the spider and then making a stretchy one-size-fits-all band for it. I watched an awesome
video on making bead spiders on YouTube. Then I had to look at my collection of beads to see what I had. My beads are usually leftovers from projects or given to me. I also harvest them from old costume jewelry I've picked up inexpensively. I liked the video's use of seed beads to create joints in the spider's legs and decided to go with coiled spacers and seed beads to create the same look. I used simple hang pins to to string them, creating a simple loop at the end to attach them to the body of the spider.
My original idea was to use the oblong greyish bead for the abdomen and a black bead for the head, but I couldn't quite get it all attached securely. Here is what the first prototype looked like.
I am not by any means a jewelry maker, I don't know a lot of the proper ways to make things, so quite often my projects are cobbled together. If they look good and stay together I don't care what they look like on the back side. The first spider looked good (I love the little rhinestone spacers I used on the front legs!), but my 7 year old gave it a few good shakes and it fell apart. Back to the drawing board. I decided to try for a jeweled main body but I had the worst time with the supplies I had on hand, until inspiration hit and I remembered a fake engagement ring sitting in my costume jewelry stash. I found a large jump ring that I could use around the base of the rhinestone's setting and added the legs to that. I left the ends of the legs loose, and it looks more realistic but it'll take some getting used to having them on and between my fingers. I then used a long hang pin to add the oblong bead abdomen. Instead of hanging it from the jump ring that holding the legs, I attached it directly to the base of the rhinestone's setting.
I am not by any means a jewelry maker, I don't know a lot of the proper ways to make things, so quite often my projects are cobbled together. If they look good and stay together I don't care what they look like on the back side. The first spider looked good (I love the little rhinestone spacers I used on the front legs!), but my 7 year old gave it a few good shakes and it fell apart. Back to the drawing board. I decided to try for a jeweled main body but I had the worst time with the supplies I had on hand, until inspiration hit and I remembered a fake engagement ring sitting in my costume jewelry stash. I found a large jump ring that I could use around the base of the rhinestone's setting and added the legs to that. I left the ends of the legs loose, and it looks more realistic but it'll take some getting used to having them on and between my fingers. I then used a long hang pin to add the oblong bead abdomen. Instead of hanging it from the jump ring that holding the legs, I attached it directly to the base of the rhinestone's setting.
