Make this Scary Beaded Spider for Halloween

I’ve updated this DIY project for my beaded spider design (You know, made some corrections, cleaned up the typos, added the wine component).  I’ve kept one of these guys on my printer/copier/scanner in the office since last Halloween.  He’s good company, doesn’t eat much, and keeps the real spiders away!  Make a few for yourself and your friends.

Gather these supplies and a glass of wine. Or 3.

You will need

26 gauge beading wire (I used black)

1 large black bead (mine was 22 mm)

1 smaller orange bead (I used 12 mm)

1 size 6 orange seed bead

2-3 grams black Size 11 hex beads

1 gram size 11 orange seed beads

Various tools for snipping, twisting, etc.

Cut 4 pieces of wire 8 inches long, and 1 piece 6 inches long

On the 6 inch piece of wire, place a size 11 black hex bead and center (roughly) on the wire.  Fold the wire so the 2 ends are even, with the bead at the “fold”.

Thread the 2 ends of the wire through the  large black bead, large orange bead, and the size 6 orange bead.

Bending the wire back around the smaller orange bead, go back through the hole of the smaller bead (between the 2 orange beads).  Slide the smaller bead down and while holding it, pull the ends of the wire to tighten.  These will be the pinchers which will be shaped later  Right now, leave them long to help you hold onto the spider with your non-drinking hand.

Man, I need a manicure. And another glass of wine.

Now take the 4 pieces of 8 inch wire and wrap around the wires between the large orange and large black bead.  Twist the wires together to form 8 legs.

Stringing 1 leg at a time, place 5 black hex beads and 1 size 11 orange bead (those are the little ones).  Repeat the pattern for as long as you would like the legs to be.  I repeated 6 times on each leg.

Great, now everyone has my fingerprint…guess my witness protection identity is about to come to an end…

This actually goes pretty fast as the wire acts as the needle.  For the first spider I used 5 repeats of the black and orange beads, and it turned out fine, as well.  You could do 5 on the front and back legs and 6 on the legs in the middle.  Play around, people – get creative.  Drink up.

At the end of the leg, bring the wire back around the last bead, and holding it in place, wrap the wire around the bead at the end of the leg several times and snip off the excess.  Repeat for the remaining 7 legs.  Or 5 if that’s all you ended up with.  I don’t judge.

Now trim off the ends of the “pinchers” coming from the head of the spider.

Using a round nose plier (What?  you don’t have round nose pliers?  Well, using a pencil tip or some other round object), twist the ends around to resemble little biting jaws.  BwahHaHaHaHa.

The legs are very bend-able which makes the spiders completely pose-able.  Guess who will be going to work with me tomorrow?