DIY Wire Gem/Bead Tree

When I've gone to the Sudbury Gem & Mineral Show in the past, I've always noticed some booths selling pretty wire trees with gems as the leaves. There were all sorts of different colours since different gems were used. They looked so complex that I thought it would take a lot of work but, earlier this year, I decided to see if there were directions online. I bought some beading wire and gemstone beads at a craft store and tried it out. I wanted to make a small tree just to learn how to make them and it was easier to make than I thought! I gave my first tree to my Dad as a late birthday present. I decided to make another wire gem tree for this DIY post and I even made another tree, a weeping willow, with seed beads! The step-by-step directions are below along with photos and tips. Once you know how to make the wire gem/bead tree, it is easy to switch up some of the steps to make different looking trees. At the end, I give a short description of how to do some of the steps differently to make a weeping willow with seed beads.


Supplies:

• 24-gauge beading wire
• Gemstone beads (or regular plastic/glass beads)
• Ruler
• Scissors

Notes before starting:

*These instructions are for a small tree. If you want to make a larger tree, increase the amount and length of the pieces of wire.

*Always twist wires in the same direction so that they look nice.

*Trees are perfectly imperfect so make sure to keep this in mind:

• The twisting does not have to be perfect.
• Give your branches and roots some variety. Do not make them all the same.
• Arrange the branches and roots in a natural way so that they go all over the place.

Instructions:

Step 1:

Cut 24 pieces of the beading wire, each measuring around 12 inches.

Step 2:

String a gemstone bead on a piece of wire, bringing the bead to the center of the wire and folding the wire in half. Twist the two halves of the wire together a few times at the base of the bead. 

Repeat for all of the other pieces of wire.

Step 3:

Take two of the beaded wires and join them together by twisting them together at the base of the previous twisting. Add a third one to a few of them. 

Repeat this with the other beaded wires so that you have several small branches.

Step 4:

Take two of the sets and twist them together, just like we did with the single wires in the last step. Add a third one to some of them.

Repeat this with the other sets so that you have at least four large branches.

Step 5:

Twist all of the large branches together at the base of all of the twisting and twist down to create a trunk. Do not twist all of the way.

Make sure that you leave enough wire to create roots in a similar way as creating the branches.

Step 6:

Separate the wires into three groups.

Separate each group into two groups so that you have a total of six groups.

Twist each of the six groups a bit. A few of these groups can be twisted all the way. Others can be separate again into two groups which can be twisted all the way.

Cut off any excess wire.

Step 7:

Bend and arrange the branches and roots in various directions.

To make a weeping willow with seed beads:

Cut 24 pieces of the beading wire, each measuring around 12 inches. Keep each piece of wire straight. Curl one end of each of the wires in a bit to make a sort of loop that will hold the beads on.

String seed beads onto a third of a piece of wire. Do this for each of the other wires. Be careful not to let the beads slip off of the wires. Follow steps 3-7 of the wire gem tree instructions.

They make such pretty decorations and they especially make pretty gifts!

Cheers,

Kaylie