Arula Earrings - Tweaks and Variations

For some reason I have never blogged about this pattern before now but I did briefly mention these earrings in my very first post, HERE. I adapted these from a free photo tutorial that I found HERE. The originals in that tutorial are made with Rulla beads and I wanted to make mine with druks or pearls instead. I don't remember what all I had to change but I can see that the original tutorial has you add an extra row of beads to fill the second holes in the Rullas. Of course I didn't need to do that. Here's a photo of the original earrings from the Mézesmama Gyöngyei blog:

Mézesmama Gyöngyei original earrings

Although I like my version with the drop bead at the bottom, I wanted to come up with a version without the drop that wouldn't just be round. I prefer more of a teardrop shape so I added a bit more to the top part of the earrings which gives the illusion of a more elongated shape. Here is a comparison of the one with the drop next to the variation I just came up with:

Below is a close-up so you can see how I added to the top part of the earring:

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 3mm druks "Siam Ruby Copper Picasso aka Siam Ruby Bronze Picasso"

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 3mm druks "Opaque Rose Topaz Luster"
• 4mm fire polished beads "Opaque Rose Gold Topaz Luster"

Here are a few others that made a while back. Some are just sample earrings and others I made for myself or gave as gifts.

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Gilded Marble Black" (11-1706)
• 3mm druks "Bronze"

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Olivine" (458)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Olivine" (458)
• 3mm round stone beads "Picture Jasper" (Aura Crystals)
• Stone drop beads "Jasper Rice - Sand" (Beads One)

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 3mm pearls "Beige" (Beads One)
• Oval pearl beads (Walmart - no info available)

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Opaque Avocado Pink Marbled" (1209)
• 3mm druks "Champagne" (Nirvana Beads)

I used Miyuki "Dark Bronze" seed beads and some 3mm turquoise stone beads in this sample earring:

 

This morning I was searching with Google for information about Lunasoft cabachons and learned that they're made by BeadSmith. While looking around the BeadSmith site, I decided to check out their free projects section. I suppose this is old news to everyone but me, but they've got a few free patterns by famous beadwork designers there. HERE is the link to the main BeadSmith site. Once you get there, click on "Free Projects" at the top of the page. Click on a project and the link to download the PDF file will be near the top of the page and below that will be a list of products used to make that project. The BeadSmith site is a bit poorly designed so don't use your browser's Back button to try to get back to the main project listing after you've looked at one. Use the path at the top of the page. It will look something like this: "Free Jewelry Projects >> All Projects >> Blooming Vine Necklace >>". So, if you're browsing "All Projects", to get back to the index you'd need to click where it says "All Projects" in the path to get back to it.