Beading Instructions

Hey All,

I am so glad that so many ladies enjoyed the Beaded Serving Spoon craft this month. Here is some of the details on the materials incase you want to try it at home & start beading anything that stands still!

First off the spoons came from Wal-Mart. They are $1.50 each. They also have matching serving forks & serving slotted spoons at the same cost.

On the serving untensils you should use 20 gauge beading wire. For the beaded glasses you need to use alittle smaller of a wire which is more like a 26 gauge.
The wires come in all different colors & I am attaching 2 great links which show the serving spoons using red wire for Christmas, and the red gobblet using gold wire. They are great examples.

The wire for these specific spoons is 44 in. long. You might need to cut it at the end if it is too long. You need about 2 inches at the finishing end for the final spiral.
The beads I used were 6mm faceted plastic beads (which were the larger beads - in red and clear) You can get a pack of 850 beads for $2.99 at Michaels.
The smaller beads (seed beads) are 6/0 glass seed beads (the small beads - in red & clear) You can get a 3 oz pack for $2.99 at Michaels.
For one spoon we used about 30 large beads (red & clear combined) & about 70 small beads (again combined)
The packages from Michaels will make many spoons (About 50) so you can make all sorts of stuff w/little investment.

While beading, I was asked if we could bead on the backs of the spoons too. I thought I'd let you all know that I tried this. For these particular spoons this would not work out that well. It is very difficult to keep the wire tight & wrap the beads around the edges. I personally did not think it looked as nice as the other. If you decide to try this, you need to add about 5 inches to the wire, & of course double your bead amount. It would be more suitable if you had actual rounded handles on the serving spoons.

As a side note, I thought I'd let you all know that while I was looking for utensils to bead, I came across a great set of wooden salad servers for 3.15 at Target. They would make a lovely beaded gift. I can envision using turquoise w/the wooden utensils. I think it would be great. Of course we were under a tighter budget, so we couldn't afford that, but maybe one of you all would venture into this idea.

Also remember that any beaded utensil or glass needs to be hand washed. The dishwasher would be too hard on the wire.

Check out these sites & happy beading!
See you all next time, Kristen

http://www.artbeads.com/christmas-serving-utensils-decor.html?cmp=postech&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=postech


http://www.artbeads.com/wire-wrapped-wine-glass-christmas-idea.html?cmp=postech&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=postech