Oh, oh, oh Christmas trees for I Might Make That! Monday

Wire trees by Chris Wrinn

I appreciate everyone's patience while I dropped off the radar for what now feels like a very long time. We now return to our regular programming.

Black Friday is winding down as I type this a few days in advance of posting Monday. I don't do Black Friday--never have. I DO plan to do a little shopping on Small Business Saturday. One of the spots I'll be checking out is the Fenton Street Holiday Market in downtown Silver Spring. Want to do some scoping out to see if I am interested indoing this crafts show next year.

I also want to hit Accents Beads, a great little bead store in Rockville that is having a small-business Saturday sale. Although I know I can buy seed beads cheaper online, there's nothing like being able to see the color in person, and I do appreciate having a local store that's not a Michael's or other chain for buying such supplies. (Not that I don't drop plenty of $$ at Michaels.)

Because we're inching toward December, I do have Christmas on my mind, so here is a roundup of tannenbaum bounty. I wanted to find some patterns beyond the cliched stacked marguerites or the staggered swirls embellished with beads that you see everywhere.

WigJig Chandeliers

I love the simplicity of the simple wire trees shown above. They are designed by Chris Wrinn and are available as a free download from Jewelry Making Daily

And these here, to the right, are ordinary chandeliers, and the instructions from WigJig show them in several colors, but don't they evoke Christmas trees when made with green bicones? All it needs is a little blingy something right at the topmost point.

Beyond trees, there's a whole page of Christmas-themed patterns from WigJig, from a funky Rudolph to a moon angel.

I've already featured WigJig's dove pin, and last Christmas I highlighted these clever magatama tree earrings from Bead & Button.

Friendly Plastic trees

I'm not fond of plastic jewelry as a rule, but I do admire the artistry of these marbled ones here, made from a product I'm not familiar with called Friendly Plastic. The tute is very detailed with lots of cool pics.

I'll stop with this last one. This is intended to be a tree ornament, I think, but with fancier ribbons and blingier beads, I think this would make a lovely brooch. (No tute, but surely you can figure it out.)

Source: lh4.ggpht.com via Geneva on Pinterest