Advent day 12: crystal snowflakes tutorial and a giveaway

Edited to add - this is my Making Winter post for this month!

I feel a bit of a fraud - not only is it not day 12, it's the morning of day 13, but also we didn't actually do yesterday's scheduled activity. We were supposed to go shopping for Christmas ornaments (the girls get a new one every year to make a little collection they'll eventually take to their own homes - assuming we ever let them leave home. Ahem.) but events overtook us, so instead I've taken a few pictures of how to make the crystal snowflakes.

And here I feel a fraud again - the first thing to do is to buy the snowflake frames. I know some of you thought I had cleverly soldered and twisted and spun the frames out of the purest green, but in fact they are on sale at my local bead shop. If you're in or near Cambridge, the Beaderie is your source for all snowflake making components (and mine are an adaptation of the ones Sally makes there), otherwise google is your friend ...

So, first grab your frames:

round and flat nosed (chain nosed? I am making this up as I go along) pliers:

crystals - these are glass and very sparkly:

and seed beads in mouthwatering colours:

Thread beads onto one arm in a pleasing arrangement, leaving about 70mm free wire. The most important thing is to put a seed bead, or other small bead at the open end as these frequently get chipped or cracked in the next stage and you don't want to waste Swarovski:


Bend the tip of the wire firmly with your flat nosed pliers - the wire is stiff, you'll need to be insistent:

Bend the free wire into a loop with your round nosed pliers:

Neaten the loop and urge it closed with flat nosed pliers:

Repeat on the other five arms:

And go a bit crazy:

Hang them up and admire the sparkle.

And now for the giveaway. Months and months ago, lovely Ali Magic Bean ran a pay it forward which I won and never blogged about, and spectacularly failed to follow up on. So I shall try to make up for it now and say that there are 3 of these snowflakes up for grabs, with no strings attached except for the ones to hang them by. Not a PIF, just a gift. Leave a comment if you'd like one - I can't guarantee a colour preference but I will try to accommodate requests. You can sign up till Friday to give me time to get them in the post before The Big Day - though sadly international commenters probably won't get theirs till the New Year now!