I bought a string of green aventurine gemstone chips a very long time ago, and have never used them until now. I felt like they would make for very nice tree leaves, so I wanted to make a tree of life. Seems people like to add things to their trees of life (as seen in a quick Google search!) such as flat discs for moons, bird charms, and flowers. I used some red glass beads to resemble fruits, so my tree of life would be like an apple tree instead!

Firstly, I made a ring for the frame, and then tied lots of thin wrapping wire to the bottom of the frame. A handy bottle of cordial was used to keep the frame circular, don’t mind the strangeness of the image haha…

A handy tip I learnt was that it is easier to form a tree shape by braiding the tree roots first, which is why we start from the bottom.

Once braiding the roots, you can twist the wires together to form the trunk, and then the branches.

I added beads and chips onto the branches until they reached the frame. It’s important to not overload the branch, otherwise it might pop out a bit.

And we keep going until every branch is covered!

With the leftover wire, I wrapped the frame until every part was covered. I didn’t quite cut enough, so I had to fill the gaps in with more wire snippings.

At this point I realised I had made the entire thing backwards because I would be wearing it the way I was looking! (The top of the frame has to face a certain way) But it still looks very nice anyway.

Materials needed:
– green aventurine gemstone chips
– red glass beads
– 0.4mm and 0.8mm copper wire

Tools needed:
– jewellery pliers
– wire cutters