A Christmas Spider

The story I heard, went something like this;

Long ago a Mother was cleaning her house and all the spiders fled to the attic to get away from the broom. After it had grown quiet, the spiders returned to the down stairs to discover a beautiful tree, right in the room. The spiders were so excited that they ran up and down the trunks and branches of the tree. When Santa Clause arrived he looked at the tree realizing how excited the spiders were, yet he also realized how upset the Mother would be when she saw her tree all cover with grey dusty cob webs. So Santa turned all the cob webs into strands of silver and gold. That is why we put tinsel on our Christmas trees (We don’t do that anymore, but we did when I was a kid.) and why every Christmas tree should have a Christmas Spider. This Instructable is on how to make a Christmas Spider for your Christmas tree, or as earrings or a pendant to use as a gift.

Supplies (for 1 spider):

1 12mm clear faceted bead

1 7mm gold colored bead

1 bead cap

1 2” eye pin

28 gauge wire

40 Seed beads (I had clear)

32 Bugle beads (I used different colors)

Wire snips

Needle nose pliers

Measuring tape

Super glue

The Legs

Measure out 4 strips of wire 10 mm long.

On one end of one piece of wire, pick up a seed bead. Bend the end of the wire over the bead so that it runs along the remaining length of wire.

Pick up a bugle bead and other seed bead. Run these beads down toward the single seed bead, so that both the beads go over both wires.

Add 3 more sets of bugle and seed beads. Add another seed bead

and then 4 more sets of bugle with a seed bead. Your pattern should be; seed, bugle, seed, bugle, seed, bugle, seed, bugle, 2 seeds, bugle, seed, bugle, seed, bugle, seed, bugle, seed.

Now fold the end of the wire down over the last seed bead and then slide some bugle, seed bead combinations over the ends of the wire up to the last seed bead. Lay the beaded wire down and slide 4 bugles and 5 seeds to each end of the wire, leaving an empty space in the middle.

You just created 2 legs. Repeat steps 3-7, 3 more times to make a total of 8 legs.

Once you have completed the legs, pick them up by the empty middle area and twist the legs together. Put it aside for later use.

Body and Head

Pick up the eye pin and slide the bead cap,

then the 11mm bead

and then the gold bead.

Use the needle nose pliers to create a loop in the end of the eye pin,

be sure to leave a little space between the two beads, then twist the end of the wire around and cut off any extra that my stick out and cut or scratch you.

Lay the twisted part of the legs over the wire between the two beads.

Twist the two sets of legs around the wire, each coming up on the opposite side from the one they started on.

Bend each leg so that it looks like a spider should. Put one drop of super glue on place where the body and the legs are joined together.

Done!

Now that you have a spider you can attach it to an ornament hook and hang it on your Christmas tree.

Or you can attach a matching set to French hooks and turn them into a set of earrings.

Or you can hang one from a chain and wear it as a pendant. What fun possibilities. Enjoy!