Bead Spider Jewelry Made with Polymer Clay and Glass Bugle Beads

Meet Miss Pink Widow Spider… A Unique Accessory For Your Steampunk Pendants:

Sometimes working with polymer clay is just too much fun! Such is the case with the little beaded spider in the photo. She's exploring the top of a steampunk jewelry design I'm currently working on. More pictures to follow in a future article.

The other day I was talking about using glass beads in your polymer clay work and I mentioned that glass bugle beads make good spider legs.

Well here is the creepy crawly little gal I was talking about. Her body is made with black and white marbled polymer clay. Then pink and black glass beads were used to make her legs. Isn't she cute!

As mentioned in the original bugle beads article, I pulled three separate pieces of fine wire through the hole in a black and white polymer clay bead.

The wires were cut at about 6 inches long so that there would be enough length for each of the six legs (3 on each side), plus some extra for securing to the pendant.

Each of the back two legs on each side took three pink glass bugle beads and four black glass seed beads. The front legs are shorter with only two pink beads and three black.

As you can see, she's waving at you with one of her front legs! Courtesy of my quirky husband the photographer.

Polymer clay beaded spiders are a bit of a tradition for some folks at Christmas time. Legend has it that a poor family awoke one Christmas morning, delighted to see their tree covered in extravagant volumes of tinsel. Turns out it was a gifted spider who blanketed the tree with her glistening web.

Beaded spiders are also fun to have around at Halloween. And as you can see in today's photo above, they can bring charm to Goth and Steampunk jewelry designs.

Try making your own version of the pink widow spider and let me know how it works out.