Description
Design Corner Bauble
When I was editor, I introduced ‘Design Corner’ as a regular feature, starting in issue 58 of Bead Magazine. The principle behind Design Corner is to create a few different types of beading project from the same mystery pack of beads.
The design ideas that went into the project are outlined in the feature in the magazine. Then, readers were given the opportunity to win a copy of their favourite design and the beads to make it. If you have seen this feature and entered the competition, then even if you weren’t lucky enough to win the competition, you can still make the beaded Christmas bauble using this pattern.
About the project
For this Design Corner feature I focused on examining how to use particular beads in a way most suited to their individual attributes. The mystery packs for this project were supplied by The Bead Shop Online and they included:
- 3 packs of mixed beads
- 3 tubes of size 6 seed beads
- packs of bugle beads
- a pack of twin hole beads
- pack of pearls
- 8mm crystals
- 4mm crystals
I was particularly fascinated by the packs of mixed beads. I am always drawn to these as they look so pretty. However, the very thing that makes them look appealing – the mix of colours, shapes and sizes – also makes them particularly tricky to incorporate into a project.
This issue of Bead Magazine also came out just before Christmas. So I felt it was appropriate to include something suitable for the season. I realised that if I simply used the mixture of beads as they were for some easy bead embroidery, I could replicate the appearance of the packet that was so appealing. I found some material and used basic techniques to make a simple bauble. You can fill this with festive pot pourri and use it to decorate your home.
