Playing with my beads..."Lace Flowers Bracelet" experiments

This post is an extension of a discussion that we're having on the group Pinterest board HERE. We're trying to come up with a better way to connect the motifs in Ellad2's "Lace Flowers Bracelet" pattern so that they don't look so messy. These are my experiments with the pattern.

#1 - This was the first idea that I tried for a different connection between the motifs. I replaced the pairs of 11/0 beads with single 8/0 beads. That worked somewhat well but I think they look too chunky. I do like the colors I used and matte metallic beads seem to work very well with this pattern.

#2 - This sample was made according to the pattern except for the experimental loop on one end. The little squares between the motifs are too wonky and those beads don't want to stay put. I do like the color combo of the matte bronze seed beads with stone blue fire polished beads.

#3 - This time I switched from single 8/0 beads to single 11/0 beads and that's the best and the most simple solution to the wonky bead problem. This is the method I will use when I make a bracelet. Even if the beads do sometimes lean a little, they're not very noticeable and they don't look messy like the "squares" do.

#4 - I tried the same method as #3 but used "Olivine" seed beads this time. They were very slippery to work with and I'm not keen on the result.

#5 - I tried a different tweak on this one. Instead of two seed beads between the motifs, I used three and popped out the center one to form little diamonds. It works pretty well but I'm not sure if I like the look with this pattern, at least not as a double band. It might just be the silver beads though. Also, it got a little tight getting back around through those little "diamonds" as many times as I needed to. However...

#6 - ...I decided that I love this version as a single row bracelet. It looks similar to my version of "Mingles", which I blogged about HERE and HERE. The main difference is in the way the fire polished beads are inserted into the motifs.

#7 - My first try using smaller beads and the same connectors as #3. It's pretty but it might look better with "Dark Bronze" seed beads and some more colorful fire polished beads than the ones I used. My experimental clasp loop works quite well on this size but probably wouldn't work well on a  bracelet made with larger beads.

#8 - I tried smaller beads again but with matte bronze seed beads. Again, I love how this pattern looks with matte beads but the 15/0 seed beads were a problem. There were some spots that I couldn't get back through even with Nymo B thread and a size 12 needle. I had to give up on the clasp loop because of that problem. So, smaller beads work but only if they're not matte, which tend to be kind of smallish.

I was going to try one more connection method with single 8/0 beads but gave it up because it wasn't going to work. That's because you must use pairs of two smaller seed beads on the ends of motifs or they won't come out shaped right. Replacing the pairs with single 8/0 beads didn't allow the seed beads to curve around the fire polished beads as they should.

Here are closeup shots of the four kinds of connectors I tried: 

If you'd like to give the pattern a try, you can buy it from Ella's Etsy shop HERE.