Beading Animals

(One of these days, I’m gonna take the beading/beating puns too far and get hate-mail from animal rights activists or something…)

Similar to the way in which my new hair-do-hobby led to beading necklaces and bracelets, the beading necklaces and bracelets led to beading animals. While I was looking for new jewelry patterns to try out (or rather add to the already brimming pattern-folder on my hard-drive), I happened upon a couple of websites showcasing the cutest and most dramatic little figurines made from beads and wire – in 3D nonetheless! Pretty soon, I knew I wanted to bead a dragon for my brother’s upcoming birthday, and I got to searching all the archives and googling my fingers to the bone.

Finally, I found an instruction book on beading fantasy animals, such as dragons, using a variation of ladder stitch. My first beaded 3D animal was a baby dragon from that book, and apart from the fact that he turned out a teensy bit floppy (but hey, he’s pretty much new-born), I think he’s really quite rad:

He started out from a meshwork of wire.

But they grow up so fast…

… actually not so fast, but who’s counting hours and beads and knots in who-knows-how-many metres of wire.

When I went to the birthday party, the dragon baby was still in the egg, which I stuck on top of my other present. But I ran a little late, and on my way to my brother’s house, the dragon hatched!

Looks fierce, no?

(And cute, but don’t tell him, he won’t like it.)