Tiny beaded snowflakes

Hi! I must be the only one not writing a Valentine post, but I don't care. The snow is melting and I want to post my doll-sized snowflakes before this winter is over. These snowflakes are very easy to bead, before you know you'll have made a lot! You can put jump rings through them and use as little charms for human jewellery, thread them to make garlands, glue on gift boxes... I invite you to take a look at the tutorial and decide what to do with all the resulting snowflakes later.

I'll show two different ways to make them. All you need is seed beads, beading thread and needle.

You only need one colour, but I used three because the pattern has three rows and I made each row a different colour to make them easier to see. If you do use more colours and they are also different sizes, try to have the biggest beads in the middle. If you start with the small ones, this happens:

In the following examples, the pearly pale blue beads are slightly bigger than the others, so I use them in the centre.

Snowflake #1 - neat

Start by stringing six beads.

Tie them in a circle, but don't make it super tight.

Put the needle through the first bead (to bring the knot inside the bead), pick a new bead and bring the needle through the second bead in the first row.

I put the needle through two beads at once, not one like I wrote. This is not important.

The goal is to have a new bead between adjacent beads in the previous circle.

Continue until all the spaces have been filled. When finished, bring the needle through the first bead in the second row.

Pick three new beads and put the needle through the second bead in the second row.

Pull the thread, and the beads will arrange in the shape of a triangle. The third row creates "bridges" between the beads in the second row.

Continue in the same manner. Half way there...

The snowflake is complete!

I usually weave a little more, tie the thread around itself and cut in an inconspicuous place.

This is a variation of the same pattern, where I used 3mm bicones instead of the beads in the last row. This thing is impossible to photograph:

Snowflake #2 - fluffy

The first row is the same. Tie six beads in a circle, bring the needle between two beads.

Next, pick four new beads and pass the needle again through the first of the beads you just picked. I used a different colour to make it easier to explain.

The needle direction is bottom right to top left.
The thread is twisted in the picture but basically you want
the needle to enter from the old beads and exit towards the new ones.

Bring the needle through the next bead in the circle. Tug and let the new shape nest between two beads of the first row.

Fill all the spaces. Three are done:

Adding the last one...

Here are a couple of finished snowflakes:

Because the peaks on this model are connected in a single point at the base, they tend to fluff and misbehave.

Here are the two side by side:

Left - #2, right - #1
Forgot to flip the picture ^^;

The first pattern results in a more compact and neat snowflake, while #2 is more snowflakey with those protruding peaks. I supposed it could be varnished to make it flat, but I didn't bother.

So, what did I do with all the snowflakes? Well, most went around my beaded tree, except three. I gathered some jewellery supplies around...

I ended up not using 3 of them. Guess which :P

Some time later... Ta-dah!

Up close:

I finally made the set I started over a year ago! But this is a subject for another post. I want to cover more styles and ways to make closures and earring bases. Will you be interested in such a tutorial?

For now, I hope you liked these simple beaded snowflakes. Tell me how you'd like to see them used!

The Black Kitty

(^^)~~~