The original description of these had them made on a framework of sewing thread. They also used a lot of buttons to make up the icicle. That can be nice - in fact, some of the original ones I made, I incorporated clear glass/plastic or opaque white buttons that came from my grandmother's button box. (My mother, rightly, currently has custody of these icicles). But I've modified the recipe for these to be simpler and not require buttons. (You can use buttons if you like, especially if you have a full button-box, extra-especially if you have vintage or sentimental buttons you'd like to put on display). I did replace the sewing thread with fine-gauge wire, which I think is preferable. The sewing thread is hard to successfully tie off, and over the years (especially if stored somewhere humid) could weaken or rot...and you don't want icicles breaking open and spilling on the floor off the tree.
The current version I make uses beads. You can use plastic, glass, or crystal/semiprecious stone (like quartz) beads depending on your purpose and budget. The glass and crystal beads are pricier but I think they have more shine and gleam and I mostly use them.
If you make bead jewelry, you may already have a lot of what you need in your leftovers. If not, I will say a really fun part of the craft is going to the craft store and picking out beads...there's a huge diversity available right now.
The good thing is that making bead jewelry is in right now, so most craft stores (and even places like the Mart of Wal) have quite a bit of stuff. So here's what you need:
Wire. In the Waggoner book she suggests 24-gauge, but I recommend using the finer 32-gauge wire. You'll also need scissors you don't mind using to cut wire (NOT your wife/mother/sister/companion-who-sews' fabric shears. Not their embroidery scissors either!)
Then you need beads. Lots of beads. Lots of different beads. Mostly clear, but I also like to mix in a few "frosted" or opaque white beads, and a few pastel beads. (Just steer clear of yellow, if you have people around you who might make "yellow snow" jokes). I tend to use mostly blues as the add-in colors; that seems right for an "icy" look, but I also have used pink or sort of a smoky color.
Be forewarned: there's a fair amount of initial outlay for this project. Beads, especially the Swarovski-style ones, are NOT cheap. However, once you've invested in the beads, you can make dozens to scores of ornaments off of your kit.
I suppose also some folks living in more populous areas that have a dedicated beading store, you might be able to buy beads in small quantities. Because I just have big-box type stores near me, I have to buy things like beads in mass quantities. However, as I said - you can make tons of icicles off of the initial outlay for the beads. (Also, as I said, if you're a beader, you might have leftovers you could use). Also - I suppose if you're a lucky sort of person when it comes to thrift shopping, you could probably find old bead necklaces you could take apart and use. Or if you had old jewelry from you or a family member you don't wear or that is broken...
And you need something to put the beads in. One nice thing about this craft is that it's super portable and not messy (unless you upset the container of beads onto the floor.)
I like to store mine in a divided plastic box that's roughly 10" by 10":
This is a craft you could do with kids - provided they're old enough to safely handle the wire and not do something like put beads up their noses. (In some cases, there might be adults you'd want to watch out for, who might do that*)
As I said: it's not messy, it's quiet, the results are pretty, and you don't have to be particularly artistic to do it.
(*Remember: I work on a college campus so I see all KINDS of behaviors).
To start, you cut maybe an 18" piece of the wire. Then thread a bead onto it. What I like best to do is to have some beads with the hole drilled near one end - kind of like the "drops" on an old-time chandelier. Then, once the bead is on, you fold over the wire so it's doubled - the bead you just put on is like a "stopper" that will hold the other beads:
There are other options. If you don't have the chandelier-drop type of beads, you can just use a very small regular bead and have it be on its side because of how the wire runs through it.
I particularly like the little holly leaf. I forget where I got the package of those.
Now, you start adding beads. Ideally, you work from smallest up to largest, but I find it difficult to find larger beads (especially in glass), so I don't tend to have a lot of size variation in mine.
Another thing I like to do is mix a few opaque or colorful beads in with the clear ones. It looks less monotonous. This year, I found a pack of "beach glass" looking glass beads and I used them in some of my icicles.
This is a very low-pressure craft. If you don't like the way a bead looks, you can take it off and exchange it for another one. It's easy to get "in the zone" with this. Or at least, it is for me.
You just sort of keep adding beads until you think the icicle looks big enough. I tend to limit mine to being about 3" or so long. (The original instructions from the magazine had you make them longer). If you have one of those vintagey style artificial trees where the branches are really far apart, you could certainly make them longer.
To finish off the icicle, I just wrap the end of doubled wire around my finger (not too tightly!) and then wind the ends around the wire just above the topmost bead. A more satisfactory solution - especially if you make jewelry and have them on hand already - would be to use a crimp bead to capture the ends of the wire and finish the icicle off. But this works for my purposes.
Et voila.
This is one I made pretty much entirely of plastic beads. As I said, the plastic beads are a lot more reasonably priced, and you tend to be able to find more large beads (for the icicle top) among the plastic beads. These would also be good if you needed to make a ton of these (like, if you were doing them with a Scout troop or youth group), or if you have particularly rambunctious pets who might knock over the tree. I've never had an icicle break, but I suppose the glass beads could smash if roughly treated. Also, the plastic-bead icicles are a lot lighter, which is a consideration if you have a "real" tree that's a fir or something with soft branches that will get bendy under heavy weight, or if you want to make really large icicles.
And really, the plastic ones vs. the glass ones don't look any different from a distance. They're both pretty.
Making these things is kind of like eating salted peanuts: it's hard to stop after just one. Luckily, as I said, you tend to find beads for sale in mass quantities, so you can make lots of icicles. They also work up fast so you can make a ton of them in a day or so.
One of the reasons I got into making these was that my family realized one year that they couldn't have tinsel on the tree any more. The old cat we had when I was growing up - Sam - never really went after the tinsel, but the cats who followed in his pawsteps (Cleo and Patty) would try to eat it - and ingesting tinsel can be very dangerous for an animal. So we cut out the tinsel and replaced it with icicle ornaments, both handmade ones and some purchased ones. (Some places you can find molded-glass icicles; I know my family has a few that they've got over the years from artists who work with glass). I think a whole bunch of these, all over a tree, as a finishing touch instead of tinsel, would look nice.
The icicles tend to pick up the glow from the tree lights.
There are a lot of other things you could do with these - you could tie them along a garland and hang it off the mantel, or you could hang them from a chandelier, or you could make small ones and use jewelry findings (like French wires and stuff) and make earrings and pendants and stuff. And they make nice package tie-ons, if you have friends or family who appreciate homemade tree ornaments.
I think another fun thing to do with these - if you were into doing crafting get-togethers - would be to invite all the people you invite to those things, and then tell them each to bring some quantity of clear beads (and frosted, and pastel) and then let everyone swap beads as they made their icicles...so you're not stuck with three hundred plain globe-shaped beads, and the person next to you doesn't have to figure out how to use all their pink Swarovski-style beads and make the icicle look "right." The host could supply the wire (that kind of wire is super cheap) and maybe some extra beads for people who didn't bring as many or whatever. And people could just sit around and make icicles. It's a very restful sort of craft, I've found.
No comments:
Post a Comment