Last week Wednesday, MarthaStewart.com’s craft of the day was making beaded animal charms with fine-gauge wire and seed beads. The technique is quite simple: Center a piece of wire on a jump ring or split ring, then string beads on one end of the wire and cross the other end through them.

In the beading world, this is known as “crossweave technique” and you’ll be seeing a crossweave project in our September issue, which will be on newsstands August 4. The project is by our Class Challenge Winner, and we show you how to use both regular- and irregular-shaped beads for two totally different looks.

Crossweave technique is nothing new to me. My teenaged sister made me these crossweave critters (a sextet of "Seasame Street" characters and an otter, one of my favorite animals) from her own designs. As you can see, the technique is very adaptable and makes for great charms, keychain dangles, ornaments (can you say quick-and-easy holiday gifts?), and especially jewelry. We know you’re going to love it!