Bracelet of the Day: Crossroads Variation

• 15/0 seed beads Toho "Metallic Bronze Antique Gold" (225)
• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Metallic Bronze Antique Gold" (225)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Metallic Bronze Antique Gold" (225)
• Half Tila beads "Matte Metallic Silver Grey" (HT-2002)

A couple days ago, I came across a photo of this bracelet design on Pinterest. The photo was posted in a review of Half Tila beads on the Artbeads.com site.

I actually have the "Crossroads Bracelet" pattern that she mentions but had never made it. It's by Pamela Klein and you can buy it in her Etsy shop HERE.

I took a quick look at the pattern to see how it's made and decided that I'd use a completely different method to make mine since I was only going to make a two-row version like Bev did. Instead of working one side of the bracelet all the way down the whole length and then going back the other direction to add the other side, I started at one end and made the inner part of each motif as I went along. When I got to the other end, I wove back down to the opposite end adding the netting and seed beads between each motif on one side then went back the other way adding them to the other side.

I ran into some trouble because of the Toho seed beads that I was using. Instead of getting neat netting along the edges, I got points on some of the motifs and curves on the rest or something in between. The beads were just too fat. Below you can see my first bracelet with the messy netting (on the left) and my final version that's "slightly" neater on the right. What helped a little was putting a 15/0 seed bead between each motif instead of an 11/0. 

 
I also made a couple of samples of the design using Miyuki seed beads and the results were much neater. I still want to play around with the bead sizes and see if I can find a way to make the netting fit better between the Half Tilas. I might try using only one or two 11/0 beads with a 15/0 bead on either side of them. Below you can see my two samples with Miyuki seed beads. I've also included a list of the beads that I used.

SAMPLE #1 (left):

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Half Tila beads "Matte Metallic Green Iris" (HT-2008)

SAMPLE #2 (right):

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
• Half Tila beads "Matte Metallic Copper" (HT-2005)