These earrings are very elaborate, and a little over-the-top, but I like them. I think they will be fun to wear with just the right outfit. The video is in Italian but it's easy to follow along. If you're unsure of the bead sizes, just look at my material lists below. Antonella uses 12mm rivolis. The problem that I ran into is that I've only got that size in two colors; Seal and opaque black. Since that limited my color choices too much, I decided to try using 14mm rivolis and they work just fine. The only change that I had to make when using them was to add two seed beads between the SuperDuos when closing up the back of the bezel. They don't seem to affect the overall size of the earrings.
After a few experiments, I ended up making a few changes to the design to eliminate the warping that I was getting nearly every time. Wherever possible, I replaced the 11/0 seed beads with 15/0 beads. I also omitted the picots and just put two seed beads where the picots used to be. There is one step where I had to add an extra seed bead whenever I used Miyuki "Dark Bronze" beads because they're so tiny. My earrings still look almost the same as Antonella's but there's no puckering at all.
Antonella uses 3mm Swarovski bicones. If you've only got Chinese bicones, you'll have to either use 2mm bicones or 2x3mm rondelles instead. 2mm Chinese bicones are pretty close to the same size as 3mm Swarovski bicones. I tried 3mm Chinese bicones and, because they are actually 3mm long, they cause the earring to warp badly. Swarovski 3mm bicones are only 2mm long from pole to pole. When it comes to Swarovski bicones, the size refers to the diameter, not the length. That's not the case with the Chinese ones. With those, the size is the same in both directions.
I've done something else a little differently than the tutorial directs. While watching the video again, I realized that I left off the seed bead netting on the top section of the earrings. Maybe I decided that I liked them better without the extra beads but I can't recall now why I did that.
Make sure that you use FireLine when you make these. I tried making an earring using very fine Nymo B thread and it broke near the bezel causing the whole earring to fall apart. Apparently the thread wasn't strong enough to take the stress of pulling the beads snug around the rivoli. I haven't had a problem so far when using 6-pound FireLine.
I tried five different color combinations and I liked two of them well enough to make a pair of each for myself. I might make myself a pair of the "Rose Gold Topaz Luster" earrings sometime but I thought that the "Polychrome Copper Rose" ones were a little blah and the SuperDuos in the silver and amethyst earring are so glossy that I couldn't get the stitching to tighten up. That sample earring is kind of limp.
Click HERE to watch the "Tango Earrings" video.
- 15/0 seed beads Toho "Transparent Montana Gold Luster" (204)
- 11/0 seed beads Toho "Transparent Montana Gold Luster" (204)
- 12mm rivoli "Seal" (this is a vintage color)
- SuperDuo beads "Polychrome Orchid Aqua"
- 2mm bicones "Purple AB" (Chinavoski)
- 4mm rondelles "Vitral Purple - #C47" (Beads One)
- 4mm bicones "Amethyst AB - #C12 AB" (Beads One - not available online)
- 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
- 12mm rivoli "Greige"
- SuperDuo beads "Chalk Blue Picasso Luster"
- 2mm bicones "Taupe" (Chinavoski)
- 4mm rondelles "Greige - #C24" (Beads One)
- 4mm bicones "Greige - #C24" (Beads One)
- 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Bright Brown Bronze" (457P)
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Bright Brown Bronze" (457P)
- 14mm rivoli "Light Silk"
- SuperDuo beads "Rose Gold Topaz Luster"
- 3mm rondelles "Champagne - #C26 AB" (Beads One)
- 4mm rondelles "Champagne - #C26 AB" (Beads One)
- 4mm bicones "Champagne - #C26 AB" (Beads One)
- 15/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Silver - Nickel" (711)
- 11/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Silver - Nickel" (711)
- 14mm rivoli "Clear"
- SuperDuo beads "Opaque Amethyst Luster"
- 3mm rondelles "Lilac - #C12 AB" (Beads One)
- 4mm rondelles "Lilac - #C12 AB" (Beads One)
- 4mm bicones "Amethyst AB - #C12 AB" (Beads One - not available online)
- 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
- 14mm rivoli "Light Amethyst"
- SuperDuo beads "Polychrome Copper Rose"
- 3mm rondelles "Amethyst AB" (Chinavoski)
- 4mm rondelles "Amethyst AB" (Chinavoski)
- 4mm bicones "Purple Red AB" (China)
Very beautiful. Love the orchid aqua colour. Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marge. I love that color too.
DeleteLove the earrings with the solid color superduos. The mottled color superduos seem to detract from the beauty of the different bead shapes and make them look too busy. Hug Ann
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Ann, except that the spots on the Superduos don't really show up as much in real life. Close-up photos always emphasize things like that when they aren't nearly as apparent in reality. I was very limited in my color choices when it came to matching the rivolis, Superduos, bicones and rondelles. I think I was lucky to come up with this many combinations considering what I had to choose from.
DeleteOne thing that helps me decide which color combinations to choose for my final pairs of earrings is to see how they look on me from a distance. I check to see if any of the beads "disappear" next to my hair or stand out too much compared to the rest of the beads in the earring.
I am sorry if I sounded critical your color sense is wonderful. Thank you sharing this beautiful pattern with us and giving us so many samples for inspiration hugs Ann
ReplyDeleteI didn't take it that way at all, Ann. I did think the same thing that you did about the Picasso beads but I liked the blue ones well enough to make a pair in spite of the speckles.
DeleteIt's too bad that they don't make solid color beads in some of the base colors of the Picasso beads. I love that pale blue color but I've never seen plain luster beads that color. They should come out with a "luster enamel" finish in some of the pretty muted colors that I love. All they'd need to do is eliminate the speckles. I'll keep waiting and hoping.