Safety Pin and Bead Basket


Supply List:

48 #1 Gold Safety Pins
105 6mm faceted beads- any color
12 6mm white Pearls
44 8mm white Pearls
1 spool 24 gauge wire- gold
needle nose pliers
wire cutter


Start by placing 2 6mm faceted beads on each of 48 gold #1 safety pins. Close the pins and flatten the heads with the needle nose pliers. Cut 4 lengths of the Gold 24 gauge wire as follows: 1- 8”, 2- 9”, 2- 12”.


Taking the 9” length of wire string ( through the head end of the pin) one beaded pin, 1 8mm pearl, 1 beaded pin, 1 8mm pearl until you have 12 pins and 12 pearls on the wire. * NOTE* - Make sure the beads on the pin face away from you as you string them so when your basket is finished the beads will be on the outside of the basket. After stringing the 12 pins and pearls twist the remaining wire so that the strand forms a circle and is very tight. After you have the wire twisted use the wire cutters to trim the excess down to 1/4”. Tuck the remaining wire inside the basket whe done.

Next With the 8” strand of wire string add on beaded pin between each pin on the loose end. Make sure you are beading the tail end of the pin so you will have both tails side by side. No Pearls added at this point. Again after stringing the pins twist the wire VERY tightly so you have a tight circle. Trim the excess of to about 1/4” as you did on the last round.

Next take the 12” strand and feed thru a pin head on the previous round. The add one pin feeding thru the tail end, one 6mm pearl, one beaded pin thru the tail end, go thru the head of the next pin. Continue the beaded pin, pearl, beaded pin between pins until you have 24 pins and 12 pearls added. Again- twist the wire VERY tightly and trim to 1/4”.

Next take the next 12” length and string it thru the head of a pin, add one 8mm pearl, and go thru the next pin head. There will be 24 8mm pearls on the top edge of the basket when done. Again- twist the wire VERY tightly. Trim. and hide the remaining edge. Squeeze the top side of the basket together a bit so it forms an oval shape.

Next- take the last piece of wire and twist one end on to the center of one long side of the oval shape.Then string one 6mm faceted bead, one 8mm pearl, continuing until you have 17 beads on the wire ending with the faceted bead. Attach the other end of the wire to the opposite side of the basket from where you attached the wire. Trim the end again.

Another pretty basket to do is to replace the faceted beads with pearls. Use 6mm pearls in place of the faceted beads. Replace the 8mm and 6mm pearls with 6mm and 8mm crystal faceted beads. Makes a lovely wedding favor done this way. Switch the faceted beads to Gold beads and you make a lovely favor for a 50th wedding anniversary.