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Golden Crystal Spider Watch.
Kind of a strange title for this post but I really did make a spider watch. When I first started making spiders this month I started thinking of what I could use for the bodies and heads. That is when I started thinking about using a watch for the body making the spider useful as well as decorative. At first I thought of a pendant on a chain. Then It seemed cooler if I made it into a wrist watch so it looked like the spider was crawling up my arm! So that is what I did! I didn't take pictures as I went so there is no tutorial but I will explain how I made it. These instructions are for the beads and wire I had, you may need to make substitution for your spider.
First thing the project went wrong. I wanted to make a small spider using seed beads but I could only find the pearl and silver seed beads. So I decided on a gold spider using small Swarovski crystal and pearls.
First I got a gold and black watch 3/4 inches by 1 1/4 inches. On each end was a space for adding a wrist band. The most important thing is to make sure to add the head bead to the 6 end of the watch. Using 22 gauge gold colored copper wire (Zebra brand) about 8 inches long, I put the head, a 6mm round crystal, on the wire. Next I inserted both ends of the wire through the wrist band opening. Then I ran both ends through the crystal again. Back through the band again. Finally through the head bead again. I pulled it very tight using pliers and then cut and curled the ends into pincers. Between the head and the watch there is now wire forming a small space.
For the legs I used 26 gauge wire (Zebra) I cut 4 pieces about 8 inches long. The space formed by attaching the head bead is now used to hold the leg wires. I tried several ideas but the one that worked was to take two wires fold in half and wrap them through the wire space twice. This will give you four leg wires. You really need to make the wraps tight. Do this in both sides of the head crystal. Now the spider has 8 legs.
Now string the leg wires using any small beads. I used 4mm bicones and 6mm joints. Make at least two joints on each leg. I also used a joint bead as a foot. This part is as creative as you want, have fun with the spider legs and make them as long as you want. Only one caution, you need to start the legs with small beads because the wires are so close together it will look odd with large beads. Cut of excess leg wire leaving enough to curl a couple times. This is what keeps the leg beads from being to loose, so tightened the loops be careful if the foot is a crystal. Wouldn't want a spider with a broken foot. You now have a spider watch!
Now how to attach it to your wrist! First I tried having the spider going around the wrist but it didn't look like a spider. So I decided to string a strong beading wire (Accu~flex 49 strands .024) and make a bracelet running the beading wire through the wrist band opening of the watch. This wouldn't work because the crystal spider is to large and heavy. So I made two bracelets! A little strange but I like how it came out. I took measurements and aimed at 6.5 inches plus the width of adding a clasp and the width of the watch band area. It is important to measure your wrist because a loose bracelet won't work. To make the clasp easier I used a two strong magnetic clasps. The magnets want to attach to each other but they can be made to behave!
You can see the two bracelets, each going through the area for the watch band.
So I cut the beading wire 10 inches long and added the clasp using a crimp tube. Next I strung 3.25 inches of beads. I used small black pearls with small small black crystal. Then strung the watch through it's band opening then added 3.25 inches of the small black beads and crystals. I had to adjust the number of beads. But when it was right I added the other half of the clasp. I did this again for the second bracelet at the other end of the watch. Be sure to measure your arm where the second bracelet will be. Your arm will be a little larger and will need more beads. That is all I can think of to make this cute watch! Just be as flexible as your beading wire and improvise if your beads are smaller or your wrist larger. It is a really fun project! Good luck!
Finished watch!
Thank you for looking and I would appreciate any comments. If you can think of a better way to attach the spider I would love to hear from you! Thanks again!
