Book: Celebrate Christmas
Project: Beaded Candle Holder
What I made:
How does it shape up to the picture in the book? Not too badly - mine is probably a little wonkier!
About making this project:
A word of warning! You should always wear goggles or safety glasses when working with wire - but with this one it is an absolute must. The wire will get everywhere, and the last place you want it is in your eyes!
The instructions in this were nicely clear, although there seemed to be an error about the lengths of wire you should use. The imperial and metric measurements were different lengths! I just went with the longer measurement to make sure I had enough wire.
Some things I learned when making this one:
I used crackle beads to get an interesting effect when the lantern was lit - however, due to the way crackle beads are made, I lost a lot of them when I was pulling the wires tight. (They split apart where the colours are fused) It did work in the end, but I ended up with a couple of gaps on the base - so I'd probably go with normal single colour glass beads next time and alternate them if I want multi-colour effects.
Don't use cheap wire. It's really temping since this project uses a lot of it. I got some off ebay - and the old saying is true - you get what you pay for. I got what was labelled as "special for jewellert". :/ It was too springy and wouldn't hold it's shape, and my first attempt at the holder failed after several hours frustrating fiddling!
I then bought some proper artist wire My next attempt was still fiddly, but a lot easier than the first one!
This project will take a good few hours to do. The book describes it as easy - I wouldn't say so. It's simple - the design is easy to understand and you know what you are supposed to do. It's not easy! It's very fiddly!
Oh, and don't be tempted to snip the long wire that you are curling shorter to try and make it more manageable. I did that without thinking about the fact that as you build up the holder, you have to slide the beads along that wire, and I ran out of room and had to remove a couple of coils worth of beads to make room.
I imagine if I did it again, I could make a neater job (I have some more beads to do it, but just haven't had the time nor the space to leave everything out recently!) and I've got a couple of ideas of how to modify the structure to hold it more securely. Whether that works or not... well if I ever get around to making another one, I'll let you know! ;)
