Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Beading News - Honeycomb Beads

PINCH BEADS AND HONEYCOMB BEADS

I stopped by 1960 Beads today to pick up some Pinch beads for a bracelet project. While I was there, the owner asked me if I'd seen the new 2-hole Honeycomb beads yet. I'd never heard of them before and the only thing that I can find online about them is on Akke Jonkhof's blog HERE. The distributor for these new beads is BeadSmith and you can see then on their site as well, HERE. If you go to the BeadSmith site, the link to the Honeycomb beads is on the left side of the main page under the heading "Product Spotlight". When you click the link a page will open with a list of the available colors. Click the blue "play" button/arrow next to each color and you can watch a video about these beads. HERE is the link to the video on YouTube.

I bought the Chalk Lazure Blue ones because that's one of my favorite colors. I also figured that it would be the easiest color to experiment with because I have so many other kinds of beads in that color. Linda, the shop owner (she's Adam's mom), printed out Akke's free pattern for me to take home and she had a "Bzzzzzz Bracelet" on display. I don't remember what colors she used but she had embellished hers a bit. Like me, she didn't like leaving all those SuperDuo holes along the sides of the bracelet open, so she added tiny seed bead picots (11/0 and 15/0, I think) to each SuperDuo bead. It looked very nice that way.

You can see some photos of this bracelet on Akke's blog but hers doesn't have any picots. I'm going to try the pattern sometime but I'll make mine with only two rows of Honeycomb beads for a narrower bracelet. It's quite wide with three rows. If you find a shop that has these beads they will probably have this bracelet pattern as a free hand-out. At the moment, I'm not sure if anyone online has these beads in stock yet. Google couldn't find any. I also couldn't find any on Etsy or Pinterest other than on Akke's blog. I'm pretty sure that they just came out this month so keep an eye out for them to start appearing in your favorite bead shops.

 

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tip on these. Very pretty and look like fun to work with. Also - I'm with you on the empty Superduo holes. I always fill in either through or around.

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  2. Thank you for the info Linda! I followed your link and on the BeadSmith website, under each color there is a little symbol (I cannot make out what the little symbol is) you can click on it and can see a gallery of inspirational jewelry ideas. :) Nelly

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    1. I didn't see that, Nelly. I'll go check it out.

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    2. I see the symbol and it's the logo for the BeadSmith Inspirational Squad. Click HERE to see a larger version of it.

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    3. I just looked through the slide show and there is only one bracelet that I like. Click HERE to see the photo.

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  3. Ahhh now I see the logo...thank you and very nice bracelet!! WoW. As you said these just came out so I'm sure we'll be seeing more designs coming. I can't keep up with all the new beads...lol...but love it...they can keep them coming!! :) Nelly

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  4. Glad you liked "my" honeycomb video for Beadsmith! Akke is one of our Inspiration Squad designers who, along with many others, has found out how sweet the honeycombs are. Thanks for the nice review!--Leslie

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    1. You're welcome, Leslie. It was fun to be one of the first beaders to hear about these new beads. Well, besides those who are on the Inspiration Squad. I hope to see lots of new patterns soon for the Honeycomb beads.

      Maybe you can answer a question for me, Leslie. The other day I saw THIS pattern in Ellad2's Etsy shop. It's actually called "Honeycomb Bracelet" but she calls for CzechMates. It looks to me like the Honeycomb beads would probably work well with this pattern. What do you think?

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  5. Did you ever make anything with your honeycomb beads? on a whim, i ordered three strands....now i need ideas!
    i love everything you come up with and i appreciate all of the finagling you go through to make it "right". keep up the great work!

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    1. Nope. I haven't had a chance yet. I think that the first thing I will try with them is Deborah Roberti's MiniDuo Bands pattern. It's just the size and style that I love and I'll get to also use some of my MiniDuos.

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