Beaded Christmas spider ornaments are a longstanding tradition on German Christmas trees. As a young child in the ’60s, I was given such an ornament from a German family that lived across the street to put on my own tree. This is the story they told me. It is retold from memory and is not quite the same as those I have found elsewhere on the Internet, but the stories are similar.

any years ago in a small German village, a prominent family in a stately mansion was preparing for Christmas Eve. As was tradition back then, the Christmas tree was not decorated until the eve before Christmas Day in anticipation and welcome of the birth of the Christ child. It was customary to lavishly decorate with the finest ornaments of silver and gold and to fill the home with rich and spicy fragrances, symbolic of the gifts that were offered by the Wise Men

who traveled from afar to honor the birth of the Savior of the world. In this home, the servants were industriously cleaning and organizing everything when one servant noticed a small spider in the boughs of the Christmas tree. She quickly swept him into the trash bin and took him outside. The little spider had only wanted to spin its silvery web amongst the branches of the tree as its own welcoming gift to the baby Jesus, but now he was summarily ejected to the outside. He was sad that he could not participate in the Christmas Eve festivities. A gentle snow was falling as the little spider crawled dejectedly from the porch of the house and made his way to the giant fir trees surrounding the home. There he was met with all the other spiders that lived outside. They all wanted to hear what life was like in the big house. As the little spider told them of the fragrances, the decorations, and the celebration, they all soon wished to decorate their own fragrant pine trees with glistening webs from cone to cone. Hundreds of little spiders came forth to spin. That night a gentle snowfall and sleet shower brought an icy breeze to blow; soon white tufts of soft snow formed on the branches and diamond- like crystals began to form on the webs in the trees. In the morning sun the trees glistened and shown with brilliant rainbows and silver and gold icicles. People came from all around to see the home of the family that decorated their trees both inside and out. This is why today it’s a tradition in Germany to hang icicles on Christmas trees and every tree must have a little spider ornament sitting on a branch.

Making Beaded Spiders

Procedure:

1. Choose a wire gauge (or thickness). The higher the number, the thinner and softer the wire will be. The spider pic-tured was done with 22-gauge. These beads also work well with 20-gauge, but the feet have to be done differ-ently (as the wire is too thick to wrap around the small beads). See additional notes for �nishing the legs and feet. For 24-gauge wire, you might want to use a smaller seed bead and, possibly, make the entire spider smaller.

2. Cut wire into four equal length pieces (approximately 10 inches each).

3. Just a 1 ⁄4 inch below center on the bundle of four wires, position two pair of �at pliers about 1 ⁄ 2 inch apart and twist the tools in opposite directions. Twist the wires together with about four twists.

4. Spread two wires apart on the larger half of the bundle and lay the headpin in the crevice between them. The headpin should be resting on top of the twists and have two untwisted wires on top and two untwisted wires below it.

5. Again grip the twisted part of the bundle of wires with �at-nosed pliers

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Materials:

• 16mm bead cap for the bum (1)• 18mm bead for the bum (1)• 10mm rondelle for the collar (1)• 10mm bead cap for the collar (1)• 12mm bead for the head (1)• 3-inch headpin (1)• 10-inch pieces of 22-gauge wire for the legs (4)

• #10 seed beads (approx. 3 grams)• #10 seed beads of contrasting color for the feet and knees (16)

Tools:

• Wire cutters• Round-nosed pliers• Chain-nosed pliers and/or �at-nosed pliers (2 pair)

• Tri-corner tray (makes beading easier)

Finished spider

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6. You should now have four wires twisted together, in approximately a 3⁄4-inch segment, with a headpin in the center of the twist. Now pull the headpin out and set the bundle aside.

7. Add the spider head to the headpin, then add the 10mm bead cap for the spider’s lacy collar. Note: If the hole in your head bead is larger than the head of the headpin, you will need to add a small metal washer to �ll in the sur-rounding space.

8. Pick up the bundle now and push the headpin through the tiny hole it came out of, to add the head to the bundle of legs. Gently curve the twisted part around the back of the head bead.

9. Add the jeweled necklace rondelle to the headpin now and push its concave side down tightly against the wire twists. This pins the wires in tightly so that less of them show, and also pre-vents the legs from unraveling from the twists after the spider is �nished.

and gently twist the four separated wires together by hand. Once a loose twist has been made by hand, it’s easier to grip the loose twist with the second pliers and, again (twisting in opposing directions), put four fairly tight twists in the other side of the headpin. You should not twist so tight that the head-pin won’t come out. The purpose of this is to leave a hole in the twisted wire to add the body to the legs after they are twisted together.

Twist all four wires together about 1/16th below the center of the wire bundle and then slip the head pin with two wires

on top of the pin and two below.

Head, bead cap, legs, rondelle... then add the bum.

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10. Add the big spider bum bead. Then add the bead cap (this covers the hole in the larger beads).

11. To make the bail, bend the excess head-pin outside the beads to a sharp (90-degree) angle so there is little or no wire standing up over the body beads. Lay the round-nosed pliers close to the base of the angled wire and pull the loose end of the wire over the round-nosed pliers in order to make an eye at the center of the spider’s bead-capped bum.

12. The bail: The bail is the part to which you will connect the clasp and the piece that will hang your spider from a neck-lace, chain, ribbon, or string.

With your hand or using pliers to hold the very end tip of the loose wire (and leaving the round-nosed pliers in the center of the eye to keep its shape), wind the loose end of the wire under the round-nosed pliers and around the base of the wire eye that the round-nosed pliers is holding in place. You should make at least two winds; three is optimum (see diagram). Snip off any wire that will not wind around, as close to the bail as possible.

13. Now gently spread and separate the spider’s legs. You can untwist a little if your twists extend much beyond the rondelle’s edges. The twists under the rondelle should be snugly compressed and keep their twist.

14. The spider’s front 2 legs should be a tiny bit shorter than the back 6. Us-ing a tri-cornered bead tray will enable threading the beads on the wire more easily. For the spider pictured on page 1, #10 Toho Hex beads were used in the following counts:

Front legs: 7 black Tohos, 1 crystal knee cap; 10 black Tohos, 1 crystal foot.

This is the order all the body parts go on the headpin.

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Back legs: 8 black Tohos, 1 crystal knee cap; 10 black Tohos, 1 crystal foot.

15. Finish the spider’s feet as appropriate for the gauge of wire you have chosen. See the notes accompanying the diagram.

16. Add the clasp connection to the bail with a jump ring and you’re done.

Scooping up the seed beads in a tri-cornered tray is easier than trying to string them by hand.

When using 24-gauge wire, gently wrap the tail end a few times around the last bead. Twenty-four gauge is too thin and soft to make into a small ring at the end. Twenty-two gauge is stronger so the little loops will be strong enough to stay in place and not snag fabrics. You can even use the

loops to stitch the spiders down on clothing.

Using 20- or 22-gauge, make the rings as tiny as possible, using the smallest end of the round-nosed pliers.

*Note: The “alternate foot” inset is large for demonstration purposes only.