Gold Beads

I blogged last Saturday, HERE, about the "Bandwidth Bracelet" below that I made recently using some very bright gold seed beads. They're Toho's "Permanent Finish Galvanized Starlight" (557PF) and they're a much brighter "metal" color than I typically work with.

My sister-in-law likes this color because it goes better with her gold metal jewelry than any of my bronze seed beads do. I've been trying to find ways to use these seed beads in some of the bracelets and earrings that I make for her. I'm finding it rather challenging because most of the colored beads that I have look very blah next to them. They seem to work best with very bright, saturated colors which aren't generally the kinds of colors that I use for my own jewelry.

The photo at the top of this post shows how these seed beads compare with a few pieces of gold costume jewelry that I have. I also found a few other kinds of beads in my stash that go pretty well with the seed beads. And, I've found that 24K gold beads are about the same shade of gold as the seed beads. They're quite expensive but the price isn't so bad if they're used sparingly. You can get 24K gold in SuperDuos, druks and a variety of other types of beads.

I'm currently working on a bracelet for my other sister-in-law that also has these gold seed beads. I'm adapting the necklace that I saw on a blog, HERE, as a bracelet. I'm waiting for the 24K gold Pinch beads and the montees that I ordered to get here before I can start on it. I will be making her bracelet with black Kheops beads instead of the matte gray ones in the photo on that blog.  Below is a photo of the sample that I made using beads that I have on hand. I wanted to figure out how to make the bracelet before I invested in the expensive beads. I only had five montees in my stash and they're a little smaller than the clear "diamond" ones that I will be using. The black Kheops in my sample are "Jet Hematite" and they have a metallic finish. I will actually use shiny solid black Kheops for a more dramatic look and of course all of the metallic beads will be bright gold instead of dark bronze.  I will blog about the bracelet when it's finished.

The designer, VinJulEve, adapted this bracelet from her "Mirano" pattern which is for sale on DaWanda HERE.

 Here are the bead colors that I used in my sample:

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Kheops® Par Puca® beads "Jet Hematite"
• Pinch beads "Bronze"
• 4mm montees (no color info available)