Playing with my beads...Heracles Earrings

This pattern was a bit of a challenge because it's in French and the designer was very vague about what kinds of beads to use. The result is rather pretty but my sample earring has too many problems to be usable. I really don't know if there is anything that can be done to make the pattern work better so I probably won't bother trying again. The pattern is free for download HERE, if you want to give it a try for yourself.

As far as the beads, there was no mention of the seed beads in the supply list at all and the size isn't given in the instructions either. I'm pretty sure that they are 11/0 beads. Here is the complete supply list with what they are called in the pattern in parenthesis:

• 11/0 seed beads (rocailles)
• 6mm bicones (Swarovskis 6mm)
• 4mm bicones (Swarovskis 4mm)
• 4mm pearls (rondes de 4mm)
• 10mm round crystals (rondes de 10mm)

The 10mm round crystals look like these:

 
These are the beads that I used for my sample:

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Bronze" (11-457)
• 10mm crystals "#C25 AB" (Beads One - not available online)
• 4mm pearls "Cream"
• 4mm bicones "Dark Rose" (Chinavoski)
• 6mm bicones "Rose Topaz AB" (Chinavoski)

The pattern calls for 10mm but I think that 12mm crystals might fit better. I don't have any that size or I would have tried it. The 10mm beads just sort of roll around inside of the earring. They should fit tighter to give the earring more structure and stability. The beadwork is too loose and wonky. Also, the round crystal is not attached to the beadwork in any way so it's possible for it to turn around so that the hole is showing through the front of the "bezel". I don't think this would be a problem if the bead was large enough to fit tightly inside the earring.

I used Google Translate on the instructions but it didn't do a very good job. I had to figure out on my own that I needed to repeat the ring of pearls and 4mm bicones on the back of the earring. It's during this step that you insert the large crystal and close up the bezel from the back before adding the loop for the earring wire. I'm not sure if this is explained in the instructions or not. Disregard my wire loop. I didn't make it the way the instructions show and it didn't turn out very well.

You can't really tell the size of the earrings from the photo on the pattern page. They're quite a bit larger than I thought they'd be and quite thick too. The motif is about an inch across at the widest point and about half an inch thick. The front and back look the same.