A Halloween Present for You

Belleza and Her Spider Earrings

It's Halloween so I have a treat for you today.  The photo above shows a closeup of my Belleza, the Halloween Beauty canvas I stitched last winter for Tapestry Fair from Manual Salas' art.  Here's what the bare naked canvas looks like.  See how she has a spider on her chin and a spiderweb on her right cheek?
http://www.stitchtherapyneedlepoint.com/feature.php?id=22619&title=Belleza%20De%20Halloween&itemtype=hand%20painted%20canvases

If you look at the photo of Belleza above, there is a second spider just above her left eye.  Look over on the left side and you'll see a package of Pier One Halloween earrings.  I wanted to put one of them on this canvas but since I was writing a stitch guide, I couldn't.   There's no way that everyone who buys my guide will be able to find these earrings since Pier One has discontinued them.   I decided to come up with a way to recreate the spider earring in beads and silk.  As my Halloween present to you, here is how I did it.

First, you will need black floss (I used Splendor silk but cotton floss works just as well), a sharp needle (I used a beading needle), a bead and a bicone.

"A what?" someone in the audience asked. (I heard you!)

Bicones are crystals from Swarovski that are faceted and slightly oval pointed.  As you can see, they come in various sizes.  I used a 4mm purple bicone for my spider.
http://www.artbeads.com/swarovski-5301.html

A Closeup of the Spider

It doesn't matter what size bicone you choose but it will need to look proportionate to your bead.  The bicone is the spider's body while the bead is the head.  I used a size 11/0 bead in about the same purple as the bicone but if your spider is larger or wants a different body color than its head, that's perfectly ok.    Use larger bicones and beads and any color you like.  It probably is best not to use a bicone any smaller than 4mm, however.  You have to take the needle through the bicone's hole multiple times to make the spider and tiny holes will fill up fast with multiple passes of thread.

Here is the spider diagrammed.  To finish the spider you need to add another stitch on each side, going through the bead each time, to give it eight legs, four on a side. Just add a 5-6 stitch on one side and a 7-8 stitch on the other.  ( I didn't diagram that because of space constraints.  I didn't want the diagram too confusing.)  Pull each leg thread pass snug but not too tight.  You want to preserve the thread curve to give the spider nice legs.  Once the body and legs are in place, simply add the bead head.

Happy Halloween!

P.S.  If you want something larger and more elaborate for your piece, consider this beaded spider tutorial from Shawkl Designs.
http://www.shawkl.com/2011/09/beaded-spider-tutorial.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
@ Copyright 2013 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.