Playing with my Beads...LiriGal's vs Michelle's bracelet

I just made two samples of LiriGal's unnamed pattern and Michelle Skobel's "Stacked Sparkle" (aka "Doubled Crystal Cuffed Bracelet") pattern using the same beads. Although they do start out about the same, and have a lot of similarities, you can see that they're not really the same pattern at all. Perhaps LiriGal got the idea from Michelle's pattern and added her own tweaks. Unfortunately, her version doesn't work all that well. It warps too much and the ovals of seed beads around the fire polished beads aren't evenly shaped. I think there are just too many seed beads even though the overall design is very pretty.

I really like Michelle's bracelet but the look is very different than Liri's. I think that the edge netting on Michelle's is a little bit busy though even with the little tweak that I added. The edge of my sample came out a little too wavy even though I heeded the advice of the pattern to keep my tension loose. So, I went back around the outside edge and popped out all of the center point beads. That helped quite a bit and gives the netting more shape. Before it just looked like a jumble of beads. Now it lays a lot flatter than before because the seed bead edging has been pulled up tighter.

Other than the different amounts of seed beads they each used in their bracelets, they both also added their netting in completely different ways. LiriGal added the outside netting by going through the center seed bead of each picot. On the other hand, Michelle's netting is added between the side beads of the picots. Michelle also adds an extra seed bead between the motifs that is added just after you make each of the picots. That's partly why hers looks to have a lot more beads and Liri's has a more open, airy look.

I'd still like to experiment with LiriGal's version and see if I can find a way to get it to stay flat but keep the design intact. I did find a photo of LiriGal's bracelet on her site but there's no pattern available. You can see it HERE. I have no idea how she got hers to lay flat unless she got lucky with her choice of seed beads.

Here are the beads that I used in both samples:

• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Gilded Marble Turquoise" (TR-11-1703/c)

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Galvanized Light Golden Bronze" (D4204)

• 4mm fire polished beads "Copper Teal"