Q&A for How to Make a Beaded Wire Tree Centerpiece

You could use any beads, but I'd guess the ones used for this tree are small, glass beads. I've seen larger trees done with chunks of amethyst, and I've seen tiny ones made using glass seed beads. The general idea for bead shape is that you're trying to make it look like leaves or flowers. Glass or stone beads look great, but plastic or wood could still give a nice effect while being less expensive.

Hot glue is necessary for this craft. You can buy a hot glue gun at your local craft store if you don't have one.

Yes, but it will have fewer branches, and might end up looking a bit thin. You can also shorten the wires if you want the tree to be smaller.

It depends on how small of a tree you want, but I'd assume that a tree half the size would require roughly half the wire length. You could also make the tree smaller by using fewer wires, and then trimming the wires shorter when it looks how you want. In general, it's better to have extra wire and trim than it is to run out of wire halfway through.

It would take more wire and more time, but it will work if done with care.

Since the wire needs to be able to fit through the hole in your beads or gemstones you should use a gauge that is smaller than the hole. Thing with wire is the larger the number, the smaller the gauge. So if your bead hole is 1mm then using a 20 gauge wire should work perfectly because it is 0.8mm.

The size of the wire would depend on the size and weight of the beads you intend to use. You need to make sure that the wire will fit through the bead hold and that it will hold the weight of your bead. As far as color goes, that is a personal choice.

0.5mm for chip beads, 0.6mm, 0.7mm & 0.8mm copper wire are commonly used. 1mm aluminum wire is used for large trees.