Clara Bracelet with Kheops beads sample

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Kheops® par Puca® beads "Jet Hematite"
• SuperDuo beads "Metallic Suede Teal"
• 4mm Czech bicones "Hematite Luster Aquamarine"
• 3mm druks "Jet Picasso"

I just happened to see an example of this bracelet at 1960 Beads, which is a local bead shop. I can barely make out what colors Adam used to make his but I liked it so well that I took a photo of it with my iPod. The photo came out lousy but at least I can see the shapes and sizes of the beads that he used. Here is the photo:

I've seen several versions of this free pattern online but the best one, and easiest to read and follow, is the one posted on the BeadSmith site HERE. Some sites call this "Clara Bracelet" but the BeadSmith site just calls it "Puca Bracelet".

When I realized that I had the pattern that Adam used, I gave it a try for the first time using the beads that the pattern suggests. The only beads that I didn't use were the Matubo beads because I don't have any. Instead I used 8/0 seed beads. What I found is that some of the beads called for are actually too large for the design so my sample came out rather wonky and I took it apart. Now that I've tried this pattern, I can see this wonkiness in the bracelet photos the internet that I hadn't noticed before. Everything looks very crowded and crooked. So, I decided to try what Adam did with his bracelet. He used 3mm druks instead of the Matubo beads. He replaced the 4mm fire polished beads with 4mm bicones and put 3mm druks on the sides of the bracelet where the bicones would have been. Everything fits much better and the bracelet has a nice feel to it.

It can be a little confusing knowing which way to add the Kheops beads with this pattern. It doesn't help that two of the photos in the tutorial appear to have them going the wrong direction. The photos for Steps 4 and 5 are incorrect. Photo number 5 might be correct but the red arrows show the double holes to be on the wrong side of the Kheop bead. The thing to remember is that the sides of the Kheops with two holes should be adjacent to the SuperDuos wherever they appear in the bracelet.

I haven't decided yet if I like this sample well enough to make myself a bracelet. It's pretty and I like it but it's not really my style and I don't know what I'd wear it with. Perhaps I'd like it better made with less metallic colors that are more to my taste. I just ordered several more colors of Kheops yesterday, including these two:

Opaque Violet Gold Luster Mix

Opaque Rose Luster

You can buy both colors from Red Panda HERE.

Stay tuned for my next post because I came up with something that I like so much better than this particular design. I made two bracelets using a different Puca pattern and one of them has some of the same color beads that I used in this sample. I also found a nice way to use some of the Czech bicones that I blogged about recently. I know that you're going to love tomorrow's bracelets.