The creative mind behind perlentiere.com, Christiane Brüning, recently published a new book with patterns for all sorts of little beaded figurines for many occasions throughout the year.
The beaded dolls in this book range from tiny to thumb-sized (which, come to think of it, is also tiny), and I just couldn’t wait to get started with one of the bigger dolls, from the “Easter” section: the Easter Bunny.
In the book, it is a white bunny with pink details, but I decided I would like to use the frosted amber beads I have had lying around for ages and never really used. These frosted beads are all the rage right now, especially for beaded animals, because they give the finished critter a distinctly furry look.
The details, that is the fur inside the ears, the cheeks, and the tail, are sand colored transparent beads.
This bunny was the main reason for me to buy the book, and I just love the way that he turned out!
Here he is!
See the cute little tail? I think that’s my favorite bunny part.
When making this bunny, you’ll start with the head and body and then attach the limbs and appendages to those.
Since the doll is hollow, it is recommended to insert a larger bead inside the head and body. The head does have a large, milky-white bead inside, but with the body I just plum forgot to put a bead in, as you can see in this picture if you look closely:
The body was really instable without the bead and I didn’t feel like opening it up again – especially since I didn’t notice my mistake until after I had been fumbling to get the legs right for what felt like hours. So I decided to just go ahead and stuff the body with scrunched-up cling film. I bent open a dull-pointed paper clip and stuffed the foil through a gap between the beads little by little until there was a nice firm ball of foil inside the bunny body.
Not ideal, but it worked and the bunny is now stable.
Yay!
The basic technique for making these little dolls (right-angle-weave, also known among German animal beaders as the Japanese technique) is explained very well in the book. For example, there’s a step-by-step photo tutorial for making a little snow man on the front and back flaps that will be very helpful if you’re trying your hand at right-angle-weave for beaded animals for the first time.
The patterns in the book include, but are not limited to, two kinds of dragons, bees and spiders, colorful caterpillars, owls and doves, Easter eggs, koala bears, and Christmas trees.
Disclaimer: This is not a paid advertisement – I just love the book.
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