Playing with my beads...Fiesta Twin Earrings

I really should be working on a bracelet for a birthday present but I ran across this earring pattern last night and wanted to give it a try. The first thing that I needed to do was edit the tutorial so that it was easier to tell what kinds of beads I was supposed to pick up. The designer of the pattern just gave them letter names and I didn't want to have to memorize which letters corresponded with which bead type. So, I renamed them with more descriptive code names, such as "B" for bicone, "SB15" for 15/0 seed beads, and so on. That made the tutorial so much easier to follow.

The full name of this free pattern, by  Chris Franchetti Michaels, is actually "Fiesta Twin Beads and Crystal Earrings" and you can find it HERE.

UPDATE 4/13/17: It's been brought to my attention that this free tutorial is no longer available on the new version of the About.com site. However, I was able to find several archived links to the original pattern page using the WayBackMachine site (https://web.archive.org). Click HERE to access the tutorial.

For my first sample, I made them as directed using Twin beads and Chinese bicones, but they came out horribly wonky. I don't think this pattern is very well suited to bicones unless yours are very regular in shape. I don't think that will ever be the case with Chinese bicones though. My earring came out a mess but it allowed me see that the design was worth trying with something different. The first thing that came to mind was to switch out the bicones for 4mm druks and they were just the thing. They give the earring a much nicer, rounder shape. Here is my first sample:

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Twin beads "Khaki Pearl"
• 4mm bicones "Black" (Chinese)

For my second sample, which I made with druks, I used the same Twin beads that I used in the first sample. I really like how this one turned out. The beads fit together nicely and the earring lays nice and flat.

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Twin beads "Khaki Pearl"
• 4mm druks "Green Luster"

Once I knew that druks would work, I decided to try using regular SuperDuo beads instead of Twin beads because I only have Twin beads in a few colors. While they do work, they are a little bigger than Twins so the stitching is a bit crowded. The earring isn't quite as flat as my other sample but it's still very nice. 

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• SuperDuo beads "Metallic Suede Pink"
• 4mm druks "Bronze Illusion"

It's a little hard to see this in the photos, but I changed the loops at the top of the earrings. I still picked up seven 15/0 seed beads as directed but, when I came back around in a later step, I added two more 15/0's on the sides to give it a nicer shape. The earrings come out about 1 1/2 inches long and about 1 inch wide at the widest point. They're a bit long and dangly but I think they're quite pretty.


UPDATE: I just finished making myself a pair of each color and the regular SuperDuos worked perfectly. This time my earrings came out flat. I guess it was just a matter of more careful stitching and pulling everything snug.