Playing with my beads...Dante Earrings

I saw these on YouTube and thought they were unusual enough to give them a try. The video is in Italian but it's pretty easy to see how to make them. Click HERE to watch Francesca's tutorial. Although this pattern isn't available there, she also has an Etsy shop HERE where she sells beaded earring patterns. She has a lot of very pretty patterns so check it out. Most of them are available in English too. If you go to THIS link on her Facebook page, there is a pretty pair of these earrings that have drop beads added. She also used rondelles in that pair instead of the bicones that she uses in the video.

When I made my sample earrings, I added an 8/0 seed bead at the top of them for attaching jump rings. I also had to change the number of seed beads in a couple of spots because I used Miyuki beads. Using rondelles or druks instead of bicones might also affect the number of seed beads that you'll need.

I don't think that this is mentioned in the video but you really need to reinforce these at least once in each round or they'll be too soft. You'll especially want to reinforce the initial circle of beads several times and also the outer perimeter. As you are reinforcing the perimeter, I suggest doing a "reverse" stitch around the two lower Candy beads to help keep the netting in place. I don't know of an official name for this technique and "reverse stitch" seems applicable. To do this, weave through the seed beads that go around the outer edge of a Candy bead then insert your needle through the outer hole of the Candy bead going in reverse direction. Then, go back through the seed beads again in the original direction. This really makes a difference and sort of attaches the netting to the Candy beads. I use this technique a lot when there is netting going around large beads like this.

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8mm 2-hole Candy Beads "White Alabaster Pink Terracotta"
• SuperDuo beads "Halo Persian Pink"
• 3mm bicones "Light Topaz AB" (Chinese)

I made this pink sample first to try out the tutorial. I've decided that I don't like the way it looks with transparent/translucent beads. It just looks like a jumble of beads. These 3mm Chinese bicones are much larger than Swarovski 3mm bicones so they kind of bulge up in the center of the earring.

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8mm 2-hole Candy Beads "White Alabaster Vega"
• SuperDuo beads "Chalk Vega Luster"
• 3mm druks "Lila Vega Luster"

For my next sample, I used all opaque beads and I think this looks much nicer. However, I think there are too many purple beads and they make it look kind of boring.

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8mm 2-hole Candy Beads "White Alabaster Vega"
• SuperDuo beads "Crystal Gold Luster"
• 3mm druks "Lila Vega Luster"

This time I used mostly the same purple beads but switched the SuperDuos out with bronze ones. It's not bad but I don't think there's quite enough purple this time and too much bronze.

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8mm 2-hole Candy Beads "White Alabaster Vega"
• SuperDuo beads "Chalk Vega Luster"
• 3mm druks "Bronze"

Lastly, I switched out the purple druks with bronze ones and went back to purple SuperDuos. This sample is my favorite. It doesn't look as cluttered as the last one and everything is nicely outlined by the bronze beads.