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by: Nadine Foskin

Oh the weather outside is frightful,

But the fire is so delightful,

And since we've no place to go,

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Let's start by thinking of this as 6 branches around a central point, each branch has 2 secondary branches. The centre embellishment is done last.

Start with your 18 inch length of wire, fold it in half, around something small and round, like a thin knitting needle or the end of round nose pliers, and give a couple of twists to the two wires together - this makes the round hanging loop at top.

Next, add a bead, on one wire, slide it all the way up to the twist, and grasping both wires, right below the bead, give a couple of twists to the bead. You want those twists to be fairly tight, and right below the bead. But - there is a lot of twisting going on - and we don't want to fatigue the wire and have it break - so don't unwrap the wires and re-twist them if you think they aren't perfect. Good enough is fine.

Next, separate the two wires, and take one, either is fine, and slide a bead on - moving it almost all the way to the end, to about where you want the bead on the side branch to be, about a pinkie finger's nail width out of wire from the "main branch." Fold the wire where you want the bead to stay, doubling it back to itself at the main branch, and holding the wire and main branch with one hand, twist the bead with the other, to make the second branch.

Do it again to make the other "2nd level branch" - slide the bead onto the wire (same wire you just used - it is noticeably shorter now), hold the wires firm and twist the bead.

By now, you should have both wires come back together, side by side just below 3 branches with beads at the end. Hold both wires and twist the branchy end 4 - 5 times until you have an adequate main limb down to where you want the centre of the snowflake to be.

Separate the two wires again, and slide a bead on - taking the bead to just about how long you want the next main branch to be, fold the wire over the bead, and again, twist a couple of twists right under the bead. This is the second main branch - you need to add two more secondary branches, as you did above. Take one of the wires, slide a bead on, fold the wire, twist the bead, etc.

At the end of each branch, come back to the centre. Try to alternate wires from branch to branch so that you use up each end of the wire evenly.

Once you have your 6 branches (or more or less, depending on how well it is going and what you think of it), take one end of the wire, slide your final bead, or in the illustrated piece, the rose montee, onto the wire, and wrap the wire around the back and back around the front to secure the centre embellishment. Make sure the ends of the wire are wrapped tightly into place, trim with flush cutters, and tuck any pointy wire end down into the wire base.

That's it.

Very pretty and surprisingly quick to do!

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