When I think of Christmas bells, my first thought goes to the Zimbelstern or cymbal star on the organ in our oldest church in town. The star has little bells which make a tinkling sound when the star rotates. For me that had always been a highlight of the Christmas service when I was a child.
Did you know, however, that there is a flower called Tasmanian Christmas bell (Blandfordia punicea)? It's one of those plants that blooms around Christmas. I hadn't heard about it before, but of course I'm not really a plant expert, anyway.
It's really pretty with the yellow shining out of the red and the long bell-like blossoms.
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| Blandfordia punicea - Tasmanian Christmas bells by Bill Higham on Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0) |
What I know more about is beading, so, after my little success with the puffy stars, I looked for a tutorial for beaded bells for this post that I could try with the beads I had on hand.
Luck was on my side and I found the Christmas bell by Sidonia's handmade jewelry on YouTube. So pretty and sparkly with the crystals!
My first attempt had a slightly different shape than Sidonia's bell, probably because instead of Superduos I only had Twin Beads which are not as uniform. Instead of getting that nice flaring out shape all the way down, my bell looked as if it had been on a diet and lost some weight around the waist.
I tried a second time using different Twin Beads that were a bit thicker, and this time it was a little better, but I still wasn't completely happy.
So I hope Sidonia will forgive me for modifying the pattern by adding extra beads to the "waist" and the bottom edge. Also, instead of wire headpins I used beads for the loop and the clapper.
Didn't they turn out cute? They also have a great size for pendants and earrings, but would also look nice on a gift, so maybe you want to try this yourself?