You probably don’t know this, but this week – from the 27th of July to the 4th of August (which is actually 2 days over a week) – is International Beading week. In honour of that, I will be sharing a beading pattern or craft every day this “week”.
Today we will be starting off with a fairly easy ‘bead pet’ pattern to learn this type of beading. Bead pets are basically beading designs that are flat, normally animals, but most importantly, not strings!
Here we go!
As said above, today’s craft is an octopus. He (or she) is kinda small, but you can do it with pretty much any kind of bead that you can fit your wire/string through twice.
(Yeah, I only gave mine 5 legs. I’ve been busy writing up all the International Beading Week posts and didn’t want to go find the wire again.)
Materials Needed:
- size 10 seed beads
- size 6 seed beads
- wire or string (I use 30 gauge wire)
- pliers (very helpful, but not necessary)
Above is the pattern for the octopus. Most flat beaded patterns are similar to this, as you will see in the next few days. You start at the top where the wire splits off into red and blue. No, your wire is not supposed to be two coloured😜, I have only done this to make the pattern easier to understand!
All the other colours (magenta, orange, turquoise etc.) represent additional pieces of wire.
1.String the first two rows on the wire as shown above. They should be the bigger beads.
2.Take the “red”/left wire and bring it through the beads of the 2nd row, making sure the two wires come out on opposite sides. (It should be like the upper picture, not the lower one.) Pull tight.
3.String the third row onto one side of the wire, then bring the other side through the beads, as in step 2.
4.Repeat step 3 for the fourth row, then string 9 smaller beads on each side of the wire. Tie a knot in the wire close to the beads and fold down the end so it isn’t sharp.
5. Take another smaller piece of wire and twist it around the existing wire in between the beads on the bottom row.
6.Put 9 smaller beads on each side of this wire and finish it off in the same way as in step 4.
7.For each of the remaining four arms/legs (I’m not sure what they are), take smaller piece of wire, attach/tie/twist it around the existing wire on the bottom row, string on 9 smaller beads and finish as above.
That’s it! You have now finished your first beaded animal!
Happy Beading,
ForestPoodle88🐩
Hedgehog Hollow 