- 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
- 11/0 Miyuki Delica beads "Nickel Plated" (DB21)
- 11/0 Miyuki Delica beads "Opaque Blueberry" (DB267)
- 11/0 Miyuki Delica beads "Duracoat Dyed Opaque Jujube" (DB2119)
While browsing through the wonderful free beading charts on the Anabel-Beadpatterns blog, HERE, I was inspired to try making some of the popular Native American style earrings. I was looking for Peyote stitch charts at the time and didn't realize that a lot of Anna's color charts are actually for Brick stitch, not Peyote stitch. Then, while exploring Pinterest for ideas for making some of these earrings, I came across THIS free tutorial that shows how to make some cute fringed earrings and it actually shows how to do basic Brick Stitch. I hadn't done Brick stitch before so I was glad that the tutorial showed how to get started making the first two rows of the top part of the earring. You can find basic Brick stitch tutorials all over the internet if you want to learn more about the stitch such as making increases and decreases. I also found THIS tutorial for sale on Etsy. I haven't tried it but it says that it covers some basic stitches that are used to make these kinds of earrings.
Most of the fringe earrings that I've seen online are much too big and way too long for my taste but I like the size of these. I did shorten the fringe a little bit. And, speaking of fringe, there's a YouTube tutorial by Beadaholique that gives some good tips for making fringe. They also have a video for making some earrings similar to the ones I made. See the links to the videos below.
How to make Beaded Fringe
How to make Brick Stitch and Fringe Beaded Earrings
One tip that is mentioned in both of the Beadaholique videos is that Nymo thread works better than Fireline for making these earrings, especially for making a softly, flowing fringe. What they don't say in the videos, but I could see it marked on the spool that she used, is that you should use Nymo B thread, not Nymo D. Nymo B is much finer than D.
One thing that I noticed while wearing these earrings is that I can feel the fringe touching my neck when I wear them. It's a pleasant feeling though and nothing like how some larger earrings tend to bang against my neck. It's a gentle sort of tickling feeling.
Here are a couple more video links. One is a tutorial for making some fringed earrings using Peyote stitch. The other video is for learning how to do Brick stitch.
Beading Ideas - Ethnic Earrings with Miyuki Delica
Learn How to use Brick Stitch technique with Delica
It took almost three weeks, but the magnet clasps that I ordered from China on January 15th arrived in the mail yesterday. Although that seems like a long wait, they actually got here a few days before the earliest estimated delivery date range of February 7th through March 20th. They're very pretty and the magnets seem very strong. They're about the same diameter as the 8mm magnets that I use a lot of but they're slightly longer. I'm going to order more of the copper and bronze ones on Monday when the Chinese holiday is over. Read THIS post for info on buying magnet clasps like these.
Hi there Linda!
ReplyDeletePersonally, i prefer peyote, mainly because with brick stitch the thread is showing a bit, and the beading is not so compact as in peyote.
I simply start the schema from the middle column, with half of my thread, and complete the right side before and left side after. Its easy to decrease on the borders with peyote, and if you bead each side separately you dont have to increase!
Your beading is very very inspirating, great and nice beader!
That's an interesting idea using Peyote stitch instead of Brick stitch. I might try it sometime. However, I haven't had any issues with my thread showing at all with Brick stitch. In fact, I find that my thread shows less when navigating through the beadwork to weave in my threads with Brick stitch than with Peyote stitch. I enjoy working with both stitches but I think that it's easier to follow a chart with Brick stitch because you go row by row instead of up and down in a zigzag manner like with Peyote.
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