Quadretto Earrings - Mauve & Gold

QUADRETTO EARRINGS

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Permanent Finish Matte Galvanized Mauve" (556PFF)
• 8mm druks "Opaque Lilac Gold Luster"
• SuperDuo beads "Bronze Pale Gold"
• 2mm fire polished beads "Opaque Light Amethyst Luster Iris"

I bought this pattern from Legioiedikiki on Etsy last week and I thought these earrings would go well with a "Flutter" bracelet that I blogged about HERE. You can buy Sabrina's earring pattern HERE. The pattern is in Italian and English and has photo illustrations for each step.

I was hoping to be able to use the same color Toho seed beads that I had used to make the bracelet but the results weren't very good. According to the materials list in the pattern, Sabrina had used Miyuki seed beads. So I tried using the closest Miyuki color for my next sample and that was "Light Bronze" (457L). With Miyuki beads, I got a neater, more compact earring sample than I did with the Toho beads. Sample #1 below was made with Toho beads and the points stick out much too far. Plus, they were a big mess before I went back around and popped out the center point beads. I did use Toho seed beads for the accent color in all of the earrings but only because I liked the color and didn't have a similar Miyuki color.

I don't have any 4mm Swarovski bicones in a color that would match my bracelet so I had to experiment with other beads. In the process, I found that 4mm bicones are really a little too big. For my two sample earrings below, I used 3mm Chinese bicones and they seem to fit quite well between the SuperDuos. When I did try some Swarovski 4mm bicones, they kept wanting to sit at an odd angle. 3mm Swarovski bicones fit pretty well but I didn't have a matching color in that size either. In the end, I had the best luck with 2mm fire polished beads. I have some in just the right color and they have almost as much sparkle as bicones. They also fit nicely between the SuperDuo beads. 3mm fire polished beads would be too big.

Because the crystals that I used are smaller than what the pattern calls for, my earrings aren't as square as Sabrina's. I assume that "Quadretto" means "square" in Italian but I think that my earrings are just as pretty even if they're not really square. As I did with the Toho sample, I wove back around the perimeter and popped out the center point beads on my final pair of earrings to tidy things up. Had I not done that, the corners would have been too rounded.

I love the clever way that Sabrina bezeled the center pearl and secured it so that it doesn't spin around in the bezel. Because I was limited in my bead choices with this particular pair of earrings, I'm looking forward to trying the pattern again sometime using all Miyuki beads and Swarovski 4mm bicones to see if they come out looking a little more like Sabrina's. Although they look like they might be large earrings, they're actually medium size. They measure about an inch across.

Please excuse my horrible photos. For some reason this colorway was very difficult to get the colors to look right.

Sample #1:

• 15/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Bronze" (223)
• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Bronze" (223)
• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Permanent Finish Matte Galvanized Mauve" (556PFF)
• 8mm druks "Opaque Lilac Gold Luster"
• SuperDuo beads "Bronze Pale Gold"
• 3mm bicones "Purple Red AB" (China)

Sample #2:

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Permanent Finish Matte Galvanized Mauve" (556PFF)
• 8mm druks "Opaque Lilac Gold Luster"
• SuperDuo beads "Bronze Pale Gold"
• 3mm bicones "Purple Red AB" (China)

I don't have any more beadwork projects to blog about right now. Due to horrible headaches nearly every day for a couple of weeks, I haven't felt much like beading or doing much of anything else most days. I also need to work on some beadwork for a birthday gift and I've already blogged about all of those projects before. Until I can make some more stuff to blog about, I will try to at least post some free graphics now and then.