Bracelet of the Day: Tweaked Jolie Band - Pastel Lilac & Silver

TWEAKED JOLIE BAND

• 15/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
• 6mm 2-hole cabochons "Jet Argentic Full"
• Minos® par Puca® beads "Pastel Lilac"
• MiniDuo beads "Opaque Amethyst Luster"
• 3mm glass pearls "Lilac #19" (Beads One)

Today's bracelet is actually two bracelets in the same colorway. I made one with Miyuki 11/0 seed beads and the other with Toho beads. The bracelet at the top of this post was made with Toho seed beads in the same silver color as the Miyuki version further down below. I highly recommend using Miyuki beads with this pattern. However, if you only have Toho beads and they're not fitting well, I wanted to show you that you might be able to make them work. I used Toho seed beads in another color for a bracelet that I'll be blogging about soon and I didn't need to make any adjustments when I made that one.

Below you can see the Toho and Miyuki bracelets side-by-side for comparison (click on the photo to see it larger):

The Toho bracelet (bottom) is longer than the Miyuki one (top) and there are gaps between the seed beads and the Arcos beads on the ends of each motif. I had to use one less Toho 11/0 bead on each of the four curves of the motif and I also had to add a 15/0 bead on each corner to fill the slight gap that was too small for the third 11/0 bead.

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Nickel Plated" (190)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
• 6mm 2-hole cabochons "Jet Argentic Full"
• Minos® par Puca® beads "Pastel Lilac"
• MiniDuo beads "Opaque Amethyst Luster"
• 3mm glass pearls "Lilac #19" (Beads One)

Not only do the Miyuki seed beads produce a much nicer result with this pattern, I found that it was much easier to go through the same beads many times than with the Toho beads. Even though Toho 11/0 seed beads are quite a bit larger than Miyuki's 11/0 beads, Miyuki's have larger holes. I find that I often get stuck when going through Toho beads multiple times. I only had to use my pliers once to pull my needle through when making the Miyuki version of this bracelet colorway. I did have to use Toho 8/0 beads on the ends of the Miyuki bracelet because I don't have any Miyuki Nickel Plated #190 in 8/0.

Download the free "Linda's Tweaked Jolie Band" pattern from Around the Beading Table HERE. You can get the Arcos® par Puca® and Minos® par Puca® beads at QueenCityBead on Etsy. Red Panda has a good assortment of Arcos and Minos as well as 2-hole cabochons.