Welcome to the Blog for John Bead Corporation: Beads, Crystals, Components and Carnival

We have been selling and showing wonderful finished pieces with the original snowflake frame for years.  We are now adding to this fun craft with seven new shapes!  If you are new to the Wire Frame craft concept, this page is a wonderful starting point to learn more about how to use the frames, what to use with the frames and how to display them.  Click on the icons below to get to additional pages of inspiration. 

 

Tips on using the Wire Frames for the First Time

 

 

What Beads Work On the Wire Frames?

 

 

How Do You Finish (or close) Each Open Prong?

 

 

How Do You Hang or Display Your Beaded Project?

 

 

Tips on Adding Wire

 

 

Tips on Bead Sizes and Tight Spaces

How Do You Hang or Display Your Beaded Project?

 

Not all the frames have a closed loop to make it an instant ornament.

In order to add beads to the top of the Cross, Sun, Snowflake, Christmas Tree, Stick Figure and Sun  we had to leave these prongs open.  You will need to create a loop so they can be hung with ribbons or wire.

The Rainbow, Icicle and Cloud have a finished closed loop.

As long as you have a loop at the top of your creation, the project can be hung with ribbon, cording, yarn, twine, wire or other fibers.

Most of us already have many different styles of ornament hangers on our Christmas trees.

A simple ribbon through your loop is an easy way to hang your beaded frame.

You can also purchase pre-formed ornament hooks that work with the Wire Frames.

You can learn to make to make a beaded wire ornament hook with Staci Ann Lowry on her blog. 

   

There are many table top display options using home decor accessories.

There are many suction cup and sticker hooks for glass allowing you to hang your wire frames as a window suncatcher.

How Do You Finish Each Open Prong?

Once you have selected the beads you want to add to your wire frame prongs,  you will need to determine how you will stop the beads from falling off.

The traditional way, as shown on the packaging, is to leave 1/2 inch of wire free and with round nose pliers, form a closed loop to stop the beads from sliding off.  This option is permanent.  The stainless steel wire is a hard wire and once it is formed into a loop it is almost impossible to straighten it out again. 

This option is very secure and has the added bonus of providing yet another design feature because you can attach additional beads or charms to the loops.

The loops also make the wire frames easy to display because you thread ribbon, an ornament loop or wire through a loop so you can them hang them on a tree or nail or display case.

A second option is to use a jewelry making finding to stop the beads from sliding.  This component is called an “earring clutch bullet” earring back.    It is the finding you use to keep your pierced earrings in place on your ears.

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There are also plastic ear nuts...but they are not as secure.  Both of these findings allow you to add beads and then remove them anytime you feel like a fresh color or new design.

The bullet earring back has metal and you could use a permanent glue to ensure it does not slide off a prong.  This is a more permanent option for fragile beads.

The metal clutch bullets also add a little sparkle to the prong, but you will not have a loop to add a charm.

Some of the frames already have a closed loop to make it an instant ornament.  In order to add beads to the top of the cross or to the body of the stick figure, we had to leave these prongs open.  You will need to create a loop so they can be hung with ribbons or wire.  The other prongs you could close with the earring findings.

The sun sample shows you a single loop made on one prong wire and then ear nuts were used on the other seven.

 

 

 

   What Beads Work On the Wire Frames?

Virtually all beads can be added to the stainless steel wire prongs.  Everything from vintage beads and pearls to current seed beads, glass beads and high end crystal.

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Here is a small list of beads we have worked with.  By combining beads you can create unique “arms” with each prong.  They can be color matched or themed.

 

Tips on Bead Sizes and Tight Spaces

 

Many of the prongs are well spaced and you won’t have any issues covering every inch of the wire with beads.

Where you will need to be creative is when you are adding beads to an angle.  In this illustration, you can see that bigger beads will not be able to fill some areas.  You might consider adding tiny beads in these areas so the wire is covered.

Here is how the angles in the snowflake were dealt with in these pieces.

Bicone beads are also very effective in these corners.

 

Tips on Adding Wire

 

 

If you are already an experienced wire worker, you will know how to add wire to a frame and by crisscrossing an open space, fill it with strung beads.

The circle in the sun frame is a perfect open space to fill.  You could also cut felt and sew it so it appears suspended in the circle, or evenly attached.

You can also use wire, to wrap extra beads around a edge of a frame like Lena Gillespie did with the cloud.  This adds so much interest to the plain wire.

Another suggestion we would make is to use wire to string new “lines” or extra prongs to a design.  This is easily illustrated with the Christmas tree that Lena choose to change, making it look fuller, a more 3d tree.

There really are many ideas and experiments you can make with wire or thread.  Here are a few more.

Even the cross can be wire wrapped to create additional areas of interest.