Making a Christmas bauble from seed beads

An original Christmas bauble or a decorative bauble to decorate a double curtain tieback, for example... covered with seed beads in a patchwork style, it's a DIY that can be done with recup'... and patience... Don't miss this ball made of crystal beads and using a different technique.

The first step is to mark out areas on the ball (which will then be covered with different-colored seed beads). To work with peace of mind, stick a wooden pick into the ball and then stick the other end of the pick into a piece of Styrofoam (or a ball of crushed aluminum foil): the important thing is to have both hands free! If the seed beads are on wire, this is perfect. Otherwise, thread about 30 cm of identical rocailles onto nylon thread: knot the end before threading, thread the rocailles then knot the other end of the thread, so as not to lose the beads while gluing the thread. Draw arabesques on the ball with a fine brush dipped in glue varnish: the aim is to create loops and closed areas. Start gluing the rocailles wire to the varnish-glue. When the varnish-glue has dried, you can pull out the thread, which was only used to position the seed beads evenly.

To achieve the best results, apply a 2nd coat when the 1st coat is dry, to fill in any gaps.

Another way of gluing rocailles is to use the "beads on wire" technique once again, but this time to fill an area, the top of the ball in our example: the curved lines of rocailles look great!

Once the ball is completely covered with beads, all you have to do is insert a clip... your Christmas ornaments are ready!