Beaded Easter egg projects

Perhaps looking at those you can understand that I felt a bit intimidated, seeing as my painting skills are, well, sub-par might be the best way to put it, and I’m not too conversant with wax-resist techniques. So I went to Pinterest to see what other ideas I could find. As I’m sure you would agree, Pinterest is a fabulous place to see all sorts of neat craft ideas. And there is no shortage of great ideas for egg decorating. From adhering decoupaged paper napkins to transferring patterns from silk ties to decorating them with paint pens to dying with natural dyes (cabbages, blueberries, lilacs, and onion skins all impart really beautiful colors!), tutorials abound that show you how to create some really amazing effects. Of course there are beaded eggs, too, including beaded Pysanky-style designs, bead crochet eggs, and eggs that feature images of birds, bunnies, chicks, and even mushrooms. Yes, mushrooms!

So after spending too much time on Pinterest and purchasing a pattern for a project that is going to take quite a while, I was feeling a little ansty about my prospects of actually completing an Easter project. I happened to mention this to my friend Cathy Jakicic (former editor of Bead Style magazine) and she had the best instant gratification solution! You may be familiar with Cathy from her time at Bead Style or perhaps from her beading books. She recently published her third book, Quick & Easy Stitched Jewelry, and in it is a cute little project called “Twin Spins,” which is a very simple component made of Twin beads, bicone crystals, and a few seed beads. Cathy, being the clever girl she is, adapted that pattern into an egg shape and made a pair of earrings. She calls the project “Faber-gist earrings” because she was, as she says, “going for the look of a Fabergé egg and while it’s not quite there, you get the gist. LOL.”