Pattern Review: Sara Earrings

I made my very first beaded bezel yesterday by following Sara Spoltore's YouTube video. You can watch it HERE. The actual name of the tutorial is "Beaded Bezel Earrings with Swarovski Cabochon and Seed Beads" but that's way too long to remember so I'm calling them "Sara Earrings". I've had the link to the video saved for ages because I thought they were so pretty. I just didn't have any rivolis/chatons to make them with. I just got a nice assortment of them from Deb Roberti the other day and she sent a couple of dark blue oval chatons that are the size called for in the tutorial.

If you haven't tried Sara's tutorial yet, I highly recommend it. Her instructions are very clear and easy to follow and the pattern is a fun one to make. I enjoyed making this so much that I'm eager to try some other bezel patterns.

Here are the materials that I used for my sample earring:

• 18x13mm crystal chaton "Dark Blue" (almost purple)
• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (15-457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (11-457D)
• 15/0 seed beads Toho "Opaque Lavender" (TR-15-52/c)
• 3mm bicones "Blue Violet AB" (Chinavoski)

Because the chaton is a bluish purple, I used some bicones that are a combination of blue and violet. The "Opaque Lavender" seed beads were used as accent beads. They aren't very noticeable on my earring because they're so pale, but they made it much easier to keep track of which beads I was going through while following the tutorial. Sara used red accent beads in hers and you can see them quite clearly in her example earring.

These earrings would also be perfect as a pendants.