Using Bead Garland in Your Tree

There are many ways to use bead garland in your tree. I wrote a blog about it, and now I'm writing another blog about it with video's. A picture is worth a thousand words, but video is even better. First, here is a link to view some of my Christmas trees. Notice how almost all of them have bead garland. Bead garland just adds to your tree. It adds color, shine, and elegance. Here's the link to my Flickr channel: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/63808310@N08/  Take a look at these and then read this blog: )

There are many ways to put garland in your tree. One way is to twist it. You can use a single color or several colors of beads to do this. You can make thick ropes of garland or thin ropes. I show it several ways in the following short clips.

 

In this clip, I used bead garland that is 18 feet long. I found the half way point, used that as one end and started twisting there. This is a very thick rope garland. I used two gold, two silver, and two iridescent strings.

 

For this garland, I only used two green and two iridescent strings. The rope garland is much smaller but still very elegant.

In this last twist video, I used red and green garland. I made a thicker rope. When you use garland to make a thick rope, you should tie it to sturdier branches in your tree. The sturdier branches can support the weight of the heavy bead garland.

Another way to use bead garland is to braid it. Yes, just like you would braid a girl's hair. Choose your colors and braid. Again you can make it thin or thick. To make a braid thicker just increase the number of bead strands you use.

 The first thing you do is find a place to secure your strand. I find the knob on a chair works, when you can't find a person to hold the end. In this video, I used four strings of red and two strings of green. This makes a thicker braid. You can use any color combination you wish. I used 6 strings so that each strand would have two strings. Braid the garland until you run out of bead garland, then you can use wire to tie it closed at the end. 

This video is part of the first clip. It just shows the braid more finished and close up.

These next two clips are showing how to make a Swag. Think about how a lady might wear several gold chains around her neck. She wants them to be slightly different in length so that each chain may be seen. Well you can do the same thing on a tree. I don't like to put the "swags" on the tree so that it looks like a cake. I go a little crazy with the "swag". I may tie one end and have a long swoop with a short swag. Do this all over the tree and it looks elegant. Remember, don't tie the "swag" off, swoop it, and tie off again on the same level, tie it off on different levels of the tree. By levels I mean tree layers. The tree has all it's branches put on in layers, except the very top of the tree. 

These next video clips are very easy and pretty self explanatory if you watch the video.

This first video is "tying the knot". If you use "tie the knot" and "swagging" at the same time...your tree will look absolutely elegant.

This next video clip shows how to add a string of lights to your bead garland. You might want to use white strings if you add to gold, silver, and white. I didn't have any on hand so you can see the strings. Or use the green strings, but use green and red beads. Anyway, I think you know what I mean. 

This last video is how to combine bead necklaces to make a garland with a "knot". Putting these on the tree with a swag would be very nice. So if you bought a ton of bead necklaces and don't know what to do with them...watch this.

Well, that's all I have for now. Maybe this next Christmas I can show you how to put these on the tree. Till then...Happy New Year!