I enjoyed my 2018 Rainbow Wreath Project so much that I decided to do another One-A-Day Project for 2019. This year I’m making a Christmas Wreath! 

I started the project with the main focals of the wreath, the blue and gold poinsettias. 

Update March 18, 2019 – 

So far I have 76 pieces, and 289 pieces left to go! 

The Poinsettias are finished, along with the poinsettia leaves. I wanted to make Poinsettias that were more decorative than realistic, so they are blue, they have the holly-leaf type bracts and leaves, and I just used round gold metal beads for the flowers in the center. One Poinsettia is slightly larger, measuring 8 inches wide, while the other two are just under 7 inches. Each poinsettia is 14 pieces, so 42 pieces in the Poinsettias. Then 15 of the leaves – 5 large and 10 small. And I have 19 pieces for the gold ferns so far, two full fern leaves are finished, the other pieces are not pictured. 

Nothing is actually attached to the wreath frame at this point, though you can see in the pictures below that I’ve got the pieces laid out on the frame. This just helps me plan ahead a little bit. I can see how much space I’m taking, how much is left, and I can decide if I have enough of everything I’ve made so far. Right now I’m using a 16″ frame, the same size as the frame for my Color Wheel Wreath, though I have an 18″ frame as backup, since I’m a little worried it will need more space by the time I’ve finished all my pieces. 

I kind of wish I’d chosen an easier project this year as I do have quite a lot going on. I’m working on a full course with videos, and a book, and so far the individual pieces have been more complicated than the daily projects for the Color Wheel wreath from last year, which has made this much harder to keep up with. So far I’ve been doing pretty well, except one week when I had injured my wrist while playing with my children and couldn’t bead. I had to make up those pieces by doing two a day for a while. 

But, despite my terrible time planning skills, I’m really excited about this project! I love Christmas! And I’ve always wanted a big beaded Christmas wreath, so in the end this will be another long-time dream come true. 

I’m still working on gold ferns at this point, but there’s so much more coming! 

June Update:

I’m still plugging along as best as I can with this project. There were a couple weeks where I forgot about it, but I’ve managed to catch up on the pieces themselves, though I have some pieces not shown in pictures because they haven’t been assembled into branches yet. Usually whenever I post pictures of pieces like that, someone “borrows” them and tries to pass them off as a tutorial or MK somewhere, so I don’t like posting pictures of parts prior to assembly anymore. 

So, I have some pine branches with pine cones. These were fun to make. I was trying to find a way to avoid using the wire-back fringe. Those are so tedious, especially with long ones like these, and I was trying to reduce the amount of time I was spending on this project every day, because there are other things I have to make. So, I made them look like they have a layer of frost on them so I could use the continuous loop technique. Much faster! I really like what they add to the arrangement as a whole, since they aren’t just more green beads, but also white. Kind wish I’d thought to add crystals or fire polished beads in with the white to make more icy frost. 

I’ve also made a Fir Branch, and will be making more of those. Just made one so far to test my design. Also very easy. 

I’ve somehow lost one of my gold ferns! I don’t understand at all, but there used to be 5. So… I will have to remake those pieces for those days. Of course, as soon as I remake them, the original will show up.

This project has been so much harder to far. With my last wreath it didn’t matter if my flowers didn’t look like anything in particular, because it wasn’t meant to be realistic. Just a mix off a bunch of random flowers. This one I have to have my shape and size down on the first try, and it has to work with all the rest of the pieces in that flower or branch, which is much harder. Designing that way is harder. And these are all new designs so far! 

I’m currently making more pine cones to go with the other pine needles that I’ve made. Then I’ll work on more fir branches. After that is going to be holly, a huge bow, and probably some small filigree leaf branches. Then we’ll see how much time is left and what else needs to be added in. 🙂 

September Update: 

For the last few months my family has been selling our home and preparing to move. I didn’t have a lot of extra free time, but I did my best to keep up with making pieces. 

However, I procrastinated the actual assembly. I just stored pieces in a box until I found the time and inspiration to put them together. 

But, I’ve finally gotten caught up with assembling the Pine cone branches, fir branches, and holly. 

And here are the last 4 pieces!

Even though it is now 2020, I haven’t had time to put the whole wreath together yet! I’ve been so busy getting my Beginner Course ready to launch and preparing for moving and a presentation for a Bead Society that I just haven’t had enough time to do a good job. I’ll update when it’s finally put together! 

It’s June 2020 and I finally was able to put this wreath together! The finished wreath is approximately 19 inches wide and weighs almost 9 pounds. The book for this wreath is coming soon!