Going further down the “Miniature Rabbit Hole”

Several weekends ago, I went to my favorite wholesale show for gem and jewelry.  I found several strands of beads which reminded me of some of the beads I used on the miniature trees I made in 2012.  If you are trying to make the tree “to scale”, beads make great ornaments.  Many of the beads I use are 6mm (1/4") to 20mm (5/8"), which if you are wanting the 2 foot tree to be scaled to an 8 foot tree, then these beads would appear to be 24mm (about 1") to 80mm (3-1/4").  Since I also add at least two additional 3mm beads to almost every miniature ornament, you can add an additional inch to the apparent scaled size.

While glass beads have an inner ‘glow’ or ‘life’ to them, they also have weight.  The finishes available to the glass beads are much more vibrant, reflex light and have a wider range.  For the most part, a glass bead and a plastic (sometimes known as acrylic) the same size, the glass will weight considerably more.  When you will be adding almost 200 ornaments, weight should come into consideration.

Some of the beads I use have larger holes.  Solutions to this can be as simple as using a bead cap and additional beads inside to fill the hole.  I have several beads which have made great ornaments but the hole was larger than 1mm.  I usually use a 3mm beads on the bottom and top of the ornaments and when you have a larger hole the bead will sit down on the 3mm, or even won’t even stop to notice and fall off the headpin.  With beads with 1-4 mm holes, on the headpin I will put the traditional 3mm bead, a bead cap, then put on several smaller beads which will slide inside the hole of the larger bead.  Using these extra beads take up some of the room in the hole, thereby stabilizing the bead.  If the beads are transparent, I have used clear silver lined Delicas®, silver 2.5mm beads, or clear silver line bugle beads.  If the beads are hollow like the corrugated metal beads, I use the soft plastic ear nuts at the top and bottom to act as stabilizers and help center the bead on the head pin.  I prefer using the ones that look like little hats as I can cut the excess off.

I went browsing through one of the local bead store at the beginning of June and the store had a “bargain bin” of beads that they were trying to clear out.  I knew I shouldn’t have browsed, but I did and ended up buying a few packets (13) of beads.  Almost everyone of these will be used in making miniature ornaments.  Some will be finished just by adding some chain, or maybe a linked gold bead if I can find a gold which matches.  The bead shop had more of these beads, and I will most likely be heading back soon to ‘clean them out’ of certain beads.  I have found over the years, that if you find a limited quantity, better to buy as many as you can afford, as you will find the next time someone has beat you to it and you will never find them again.  This has been learned from experience.
The black and white squares are ½”, ¼” and ⅛”, the entire block is 2" x 3".  Most likely the spikes or daggers will be used as icicles, attach a piece of chain and maybe a beaded link for the small spike.

The mesh beads will have a clear earnut inserted into each end and covered with a bead cap.  The last time the store also had several different sizes of the mesh beads available in different anodized colors: pink, light blue, dark blue, silver, red, bright green, bronze and purple.