I didn't plan on doing anything special for Christmas this year, beadywise. I had my mind focused on Octavio the Octopus, the Sunshine pendant workshop and I want to work more on my 2022 Beadworkers Guild Challenge piece. Not much progress has been made on the latter; it has been an endless tergiversation resulting in tons of beads bought that won't work (the trouble of having a specific idea in mind!). I also have a pile of Czech beads to play with... I'm busy, happily busy.
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| Beautiful version of Sunshine beaded by Eileen Montgomery |
But!!! I did an unexpected and totally improvised "workshop" in the Facebook group Cellini Peyote Freaks, a group founded by me but expertly moderated / managed by Linda, Dee, Sarah, Eileen, Karyn and Coral.
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| Click on the image to go to the FB group |
Linda asked me if I knew about the existence of a pattern for a Christmas tree design made with Cellini peyote, in particular with the "Bola method". The bola method is flat diagonal Cellini peyote. Immediately an image took shape in my head that I wanted to try to bead.
For this little green Cellini tree, I used a sequence with softly increasing sizes of Czech seed beads (11°, 10°, 9° and 8°). Below the 4 photos show it from each side.
Yes, it is a wonky tree. And the more I look at it, the more I love it. No need for perfection. We need variation.
I tried to do a live demo on FB, but it didn't work right.
The videos with the instructions are posted in the FB Cellini peyote freaks group. I hope that you will enjoy making your version with your favorite colours and look forward to seeing it.
I also tried to use Japanese seed beads and see what I could substitute. That resulted in this pretty white wonky tree.
And now members are testing various combos and it is really interesting to work on this together, to bead together.
Even if far apart, we are close, we are a family. A family of beaders.
And thanks to this experiment, I discovered that "crooked little Christmas trees are actually a thing. Charly Brown, Grinchmas and even an adorable Christmas tale all feature wonky trees.
illustrations, great to watch with kids.
One thing leading to another, I had to try another snail after making my Wonky tree, of course, but it was far more complex to do than I thought and it took me quite a bit of trial and error, but I am so pleased with the result! So much better than my previous snails.
I hope to tutify this pretty "Snow Snail" next year.
During this challenging year, meeting with fellow beaders through Zoom and Facebook has helped me very much to stay positive and creative, and I hope that this is the case, somehow, for you too.
May the holidays be happy and cosy, may you stay safe, and find reasons to rejoice, even if it are only "the little things".
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate.
Cath
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