The Christmas Spider, A Tutorial

I first saw the Christmas Spider last Christmas when my friend, Rachel Catoe, gifted my granddaughter with a Christmas Spider.  I was hooked.  The story is great and the spider ornament is great.  Rachel kindly put together a tutorial for us at D's Paper Studio.

Rachel Catoe
Wife to one...
Mom to two...
Crafty chick extraordinaire
The Christmas Spider
24 gauge metal bead wire for the legs
20 gauge metal bead wire for the body
ornament hooks
jewelry beads for the legs
larger jewelry making beads for body
wire cutters
needle nose pliers

Cut a piece of 20 gauge wire about 2 inches for a 1 inch spider body.  You will need the extra length of the wire to give yourself room to move the beads and the legs around.  You will trim off the extra wire once you have added the legs and are satisfied with how it looks.

For the legs, you will need four pieces of the 24 gauge wire.  Cut them about 5inches long. Again, the length is to give yourself plenty of room to work.  Better too long than too short.  

Choosing your beads:  For the body of the spider, you will need two main beads.  One to be the head and another the body.  I find it best to make sure that the head bead is smaller than the body bead.  The size combination may vary as much or as little as you like.

For the legs, it is fun to mix up different colors and combinations, small round beads and the long cylindrical  shaped beads make a great combination.  Take your needle nose pliers and curl one end of each piece of wire that will be used for the legs to keep the beads from falling off.

Make sure you put an even number of beads on each wire for the legs.  Do not fill the wire completely.  Make sure to leave at least 1inch of the wire empty.  Once you have finished, curl the other end of the wire.  Then using the needle nose pliers, grab the wire in the middle and bend the wire around the pliers making a loop.  This is how you will place the legs onto the spiders body.

To make the body take your needle nose pliers and curl one end of the 20 gauge wire.  This will keep the beads from falling off the back and also give you a place to attach an ornament hook at the end.

Take the wire for the body, place the body bead on the wire, then add the legs wires.  Once you have done that, then you can add the head bead.  Then take your wire cutters and needle nose pliers.  Cut and curl the wire as needed.  All that is left to do is to pose the legs and add the ornament hook to the loop you made on the back of the spider.

Other Spiders

Read the Ledged of the Christmas Spider here.  Are you getting ready for Christmas?

Have a Crafty Day!