Catching up and my search for silver Superduos

I'm still plugging away at my big beading project. So far I've made four bracelets and five pairs of earrings. I've also made lots of samples to try out bead colors, etc. It's a good thing that I'm not charging by the hour because I've already put in the equivalent of several 8-hour days on this project.

I thought you might like to see some of the earrings that I just made and also some samples of a pair that I'm still trying to decide on the colors to use. I'll be making a "Mystery SuperDuo Bracelet"  and a pair of my adaptation of Beth Clark's "Beth Duo Earrings" tutorial which you can buy HERE.

While you're at Beth's ArtFire shop, check out her new "Fandelier Earrings" tutorial. I've got the pattern but haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Below are two samples of the earrings that I'm working on. I know for sure that I'll be using the turquoise SuperDuos but I'm still debating on the silver seed beads and the silver SuperDuos in the center of the earrings. I'm pretty sure that I will use the Toho "Antique Silver" (711) seed beads but I'm not sure yet what I will use for the inside "flower". Both of the sample earrings have pewter colored SuperDuos in the center. That color goes very well with the Miyuki "Duracoat Galvanized Pewter" (D4222) seed beads in the sample on the left but I'm not sure if I like it with the shinier silver seed beads in the sample on the right. So, today I went to two bead stores looking for silver SuperDuos. That's a color that I didn't want to take a chance buying online only to find out that the color isn't right.

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Galvanized Pewter" (D4222)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Galvanized Pewter" (D4222)
• SuperDuo beads "Pearl Luster" (they're a pewter color)
• SuperDuo beads "Opaque Baby Blue Star Dust"

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• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Silver-Nickel" (711)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Silver-Nickel" (711)
• SuperDuo beads "Pearl Luster" (pewter color)
• SuperDuo beads "Opaque Baby Blue Star Dust"

First I went to Beadoholique but all they had were "Full Labrador", which is a very bright silver, and some just called "Silver" which were about as bright as the Labrador but with a slightly different color tint. I already have some "Full Labrador" SuperDuos and had tried them in a sample and they're much too bright.
 
Next I went to 1960 Beads because I knew that they have a great selection of SuperDuos. They had two options: "Full Labrador" and one other silver called "Jet Old Silver", which is what I bought. The "Jet Old Silver" ones look like they might work well but I won't know until I've had a chance to make a sample. The beads look mainly silver but, if you look very closely at them, you can see spots where the black bead color underneath the silver coating shows through giving them an antique look.

I also made a pair of earrings that will go with a "Toying with Tiles" bracelet that I made. The bracelet is made with CzechMates tile beads and I happened to have some Silky beads in almost exactly the same color for the earrings. I used the Silkies to make an adaptation of Sam Wescott's "Diadem Bracelet" pattern, which you can buy HERE. You can buy the "Toying with Tiles" pattern HERE. I've made earrings with the "Diadem" motif before but the Silky beads are in a horizontal position because I made the motif according to the bracelet instructions. That's fine for the bracelet but I really wanted the bumps on the Silky beads to be vertical in these earrings so I figured out how to change the pattern to do just that.

Here is a photo of a pair of "Diadem Earrings" with horizontal Silky beads that I blogged about HERE:

Below is the pair that I made yesterday with my tweaked version of Sam's motif:

• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Silver-Nickel" (711)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Silver-Nickel" (711)
• Silky beads "Oil Rubbed Bronze Copper"
• SuperDuo beads "Jet Iris Luster"

Here is the bracelet that I made to go with the earrings:

• 15/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Silver-Nickel" (711)
• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Silver-Nickel" (711)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Silver-Nickel" (711)
• CzechMates "Metallic Amethyst Luster"
• SuperDuo beads "Jet Iris Luster"

While I was at 1960 Beads, I took a look at the Silky beads and found a couple of pretty colors that I didn't have. They are "Chalk Light Green" (aka Chalk Mint Green) and "Green Blue Luster" (aka Alabaster Teal Luster). I also bought a tube of "Crystal Violet Luster" SuperDuo beads. I'm not sure if I've seen that color for sale online anywhere either. They're transparent amethyst color beads with a gold luster coating on them. I couldn't find a good photo of the violet SuperDuos online but here are photos of the two Silky bead colors:

 
I just checked my stash of Silky beads and I've actually got some that are called "Alabaster Teal Luster" but they look very different than the ones I just bought today. The new ones are much darker and a lot more "teal" than the older ones. Also, the luster coating on the new ones looks slightly metallic. They're a much prettier color than the other ones, which I would call "Chalk Green Luster" rather than teal.