Even though it is not yet Thanksgiving, I was thinking ahead toward the holidays and wanted to make some 3-D Christmas Tree earrings using twin beads. I figured if I searched online I might find a pattern or at least an idea for its construction. To my surprise, after an exhaustive search, I didn’t find anything like what I had in mind. What I did find was either 2-D, not made from twin beads, or too large for my taste to be an earring. So I decided to work out a pattern for a small twin-bead 3-D Christmas Tree myself and share it with you all! The secret to stabilizing the tiers of the tree so that they don’t shift off-center is the “hidden” bicone crystal placed between the middle and bottom tiers. The shape of that crystal helps both tiers remain centered around the post, while being only about 5% visible. I was so happy with how the first pair turned out, I immediately experimented with other color combinations. I found the pattern worked with either twin beads (like the gold and green examples) or Superduo beads (like the silver and dark blue examples). The Superduo beads seemed to make a slightly “fatter” tree, as the tiers had a little shallower bowl shape than the twin beads. The last pair I made were the gold trees, where I decided to make a wrapped loop instead of just a simple loop on the last step. That worked really well to hold the pieces more tightly on the post, and in hindsight, I probably would have done all of them like that. I hope you enjoy this free beading pattern!
Materials used:
- Light Green twin beads, transparent rainbow 11/0 seed beads, 4mm green bicone crystals (hidden), 4mm red bicone crystals for the top, and 4mm silver round druk beads for the trunks
- Silver Superduo beads, red and green silver-lined 11/0 seed beads, 4mm green bicone crystals (hidden), 4mm round lime green metallic crystals for the top, and silver round druk beads for the trunks.
- Iris Blue Superduo beads, gold and silver 11/0 seed beads (silver-lined), 4mm green bicone crystals (hidden), 4mm gold bicone crystals for the top, and 4mm gold pearls for the trunks.
- Gold twin beads, silver and aqua 11/0 seed beads (silver-lined), 4mm green bicone crystals (hidden), 4mm teal AB bicone crystals for the top, and 4mm gold pearls for the trunks.
Zoom/Print Instructions:
Click on the photos below (or the free beading pattern) to zoom in.
If you wish to print the pattern, download it in PDF format:
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