Luxury Icicle

Difficulty: 3

Luxury Icicle Decoration

Preciosa Ornela will celebrate this year’s Christmas with the twinkle of fire polished beads.

We will provide you with inspiration for Christmas decorations which you can use to decorate your Christmas tree or as part of a premium costume jewellery set. A glass icicle in a honey crystal shade will make a warm and luxurious impression despite its shape. We wish you a pleasant Christmas!

Julie Ashford

Julie has been creating jewellery and decorative items with beads for over 35 years.

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Procedure

The decoration is made in five stages. First a plain core row is made from seed beads. The fire polished beads are added in a spiral around the core. The top of the core is finished with a hanging loop. The design is worked with a single thickness of thread throughout.

Step 1

The Core - Prepare the needle with 2 m of single thread and tie a keeper bead (temporary anchor) 25 cm from the end.

1

Step 2

Thread on 1x FPB4, 50x R8, 1x R10, 1x FPB1 and 1x R10. Pass the needle back up 1x FPB1 and the following 1x R10 and 4x R8.

2

Step 3

The Spiral - Thread on 4x R10, 1x FPB1 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB1 and 4x R8 of the core to emerge 1x R8 above the start of this stitch. Push the new stitch to the left.

3

Step 4

Thread on 4x R10, 1x FPB1 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB1 and 4x R8 of the core to emerge 1x R8 above the start of this stitch (fig 4). Push the new stitch to the left.

Repeat Step 4 as on picture 4/b

Repeat Step 4 again as on picture 4/c


The stitches are making a spiral around the core. This technique is similar to Spiral Rope or Spiral Staircase Stitch.
Repeat Step 4 two more times (7x FPB1 in total).

4 / a

Step 5

The FPB2 beads are slowly introduced to start to make the icicle wider.
Thread on 4x R10, 1x FPB2 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB2 and 4x R8 of the core to emerge 1x R8 above the start of this stitch. Push the new stitch to the left.
Thread on 4x R10, 1x FPB1 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB1 and 4x R8 of the core to emerge 1x R8 above the start of this stitch. Push the new stitch to the left.
Repeat Step 5 four times.

Step 6

Thread on 4x R10, 1x FPB2 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB2 and 4x R8 of the core to emerge 1x R8 above the start of this stitch. Push the new stitch to the left.
Repeat Step 6 five times.

Step 7

The width of the icicle is now increased again by adding 1x R10 to each stitch.
Thread on 4x R10, 1x FPB2 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB2 and thread on 1x R10. Pass up 4x R8 of the core to emerge 1x R8 above the start of this stitch. Push the new stitch to the left.
Repeat Step 7 five times.

7

Step 8

The width of the icicle is now increased again by adding another R10 to each stitch.
Thread on 4x R10, 1x FPB2 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB2 and thread on 2x R10. Pass up 4x R8 of the core to emerge 1x R8 above the start of this stitch. Push the new stitch to the left.
Repeat Step 8 three times.

Step 9

The FPB3 beads are slowly introduced to start to make the icicle wider.
Thread on 3x R10, 1x FPB3 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB3 and thread on 2x R10. Pass up 4x R8 of the core to emerge 1x R8 above the start of this stitch. Push the new stitch to the left.
Thread on 3x R10, 1x FPB3 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB3 and thread on 2x R10. Pass up 4x R8 of the core to emerge 1x R8 above the start of this stitch. Push the new stitch to the left.
Repeat Step 9 two times.

Step 10

Thread on 3x R10, 1x FPB3 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB3 and thread on 2x R10. Pass up 4x R8 of the core to emerge 1x R8 above the start of this stitch. Push the new stitch to the left.
Repeat Step 10 seven times. The needle will emerge at the top of R8 core.

10

Step 11

Five identical stitches are added to the top 3x R8 seed beads of the core – this stops the spiral effect and creates a neat finish to the top of the icicle.
Thread on 3x R10, 1x FPB3 and 1x R10. Pass back up FPB3 and thread on 2x R10. Pass up the top 3x R8 of the core. Push the new stitch to the left.
Repeat four times.

Step 12

Pass the needle up through FPB4. Thread on 1x R8, 1x FPB3, 1xR8 and 35x R10. Pass the needle back down the 1x R8, 1x FPB3, 1x R8 and 1x FPB4 beads. Remove the needle and let the thread hang loose.

12

Step 13

Remove the keeper bead from Step 1. Attach the needle to this thread end and pass up through the 1R8, 1FPB3 and 1R8 just added and the 35R10 of the loop to strengthen it. Finish off both thread ends neatly and securely.

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