How to Make a Beaded Snowflake Ornament - Vintage Pipe Cleaner Style

Set out 12 inch white pipe cleaners and your beads: 8mm faceted rounds, tri beads, and 18mm starflake beads in two colors. Add a pair of pliers, a few paper clips or eye pins, super glue or nail glue, and some clear monofilament or nylon quilting thread. Plain acrylic craft-store beads are exactly what the vintage originals used.

Fold a pipe cleaner in half and snip it at the fold so you have two 6 inch pieces. Use wire cutters or an old pair of scissors, since the wire inside will dull good ones. One ornament needs three of these halves, so cut two pipe cleaners and save the spare half for the next snowflake.

Fold one half to find its center and pinch it. Lay a second half across that center and fold the first one around it, crossing the ends so it wraps. Find the middle of the third piece and wrap it around the center the same way. Spread the six arms evenly. Nothing should slide when you tug an arm.

On one arm, slide on an 8mm faceted bead and push it down to the center. Add a tri bead, then another faceted bead. Add a starflake in color A and one in color B, nestling them together. Finish with a faceted bead, a tri bead and a last faceted bead. That is the full pattern for one arm.

Repeat the same sequence on the other five arms. Push each bead in snug against the center so the snowflake stays tight and even. When all six arms are done you will have white pipe cleaner tips sticking out past the last bead on each arm. Those get trimmed next.

Slide the last bead off one arm and note where its tip landed on the pipe cleaner. Cut the pipe cleaner right below that spot. Put one drop of super glue on the cut end and push the bead back on. It sets almost at once. Repeat on all six arms. This is the step for a grown-up, not the kids.

Straighten a paper clip, or use an eye pin. Pick any arm and push the wire into the end bead as far as it will go. Add a dab of super glue where it enters the bead. Set the snowflake aside and let the glue cure, since it takes longer to set when it is exposed to the air.

Once the glue is set, trim the wire to about 3/8 inch above the bead. Leave too much and the loop gets big and clunky. Grip the end with round nose or needle nose pliers and roll it into a small loop. The direction it faces does not matter. A hook or ribbon goes through it later.

Cut a length of monofilament and tie a faceted bead on, leaving a 6 inch tail. Set a starflake over the front center and wind the thread between its points and around the arms a few times. Do the same with a starflake on the back. Thread the second faceted bead on, wind it in, tie the two ends off and trim.