I love traditional German style wooden decorations and these beaded stars fit in with that theme but you can use any type of bead from plain wooden to the sparkliest shiniest beads you can find. The smaller the bead, the fiddlier it will be to make them, but the bigger they are you may need to add some support such as wire through the bead holes to support the shape.

There are different styles of star that you can make, at the end of the tutorial for this star, I’ll point you in the direction of a couple of other tutorials for different shaped stars.

You will need …

• Thread, bead elastic or wire - I use perle cotton as this allows me to create enough tension to stop the star getting floppy

• Beads - the size, shape, colour and material are up to you but bigger beads will need more support/thicker thread

• Needle - the hole needs to be big enough for the thread to fit through while the needle (and thread) need to fit through the hole in the bead

• Scissors - to snip the thread

How to …

• Take a length of thread (I tend to leave it attached to the skein/reel so I can get extra length if needed)

• Thread on 5 beads and then thread the needle through the first bead to create a loop

• Now to add the first layer - this is worked in the gap between the beads in the centre circle

• Thread on 4 beads and the thread the needle back through the first bead you threaded on, pull tight and arrange into a diamond shape

• Be careful not to pierce the thread with the needle as it will make it difficult to get the tension needed

• Repeat this so you have 5 diamond shapes, you could stop here if you wished!

• Now to add the long points of the star, these are worked either side of the top if the diamonds you created in the previous layer

• Bring your needle up through one side of the diamond and thread on 7 beads.

• Pass the needle through the 4th bead to create a diamond shape at the top of the point, pull tight to avoid the arm going floppy

• Thread the needle back through the other side of the diamond on the previous layer and make sure the beads lie as you want to

• Pass the needle through the centre circle to the next small diamond and repeat

• When you’ve created all 5 arms, make sure you are happy with the tension and then tie off both ends of the thread by knotting between beads and threading the ends though enough beads to keep it secure, trim the ends

• Cut a length of handing thread and pass it through the top bead of one of the arms and knot the ends together

Here are a couple of examples of two other star shapes you can make with this technique, for tutorials on these shapes, take a look at this blog and this blog for tutorials.