Playing with my Beads...Fringe Earrings #30

• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Nickel Plated" (DB21)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Black" (DB10)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Matte Opaque Turquoise" (DB759)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Light Smoke" (DB1498)

I made this colorway to go with the top below:

The earring design is by Anna Belous but she doesn't have a free pattern or a pattern for sale for it. I saw a photo of her earrings on her blog but I wasn't able to find it again or I would post a link to it. My colorway is almost the same as hers except that I replaced the white beads with pale gray ones and I used silver for my metallic beads instead of copper. I love the style of these earrings but I'm not happy with how lumpy the fringe looks with the turquoise Delicas that I used. I suspect that it came out like that because of the matte finish of these beads. I'm going to try remaking them with shiny beads in the same color and see if it makes a difference. If I'm still not happy with them, I will probably make myself a pair of Russian Leaf earrings in this colorway instead.

I know that it's not the design of the earring that's the problem because I used the same pattern to make the lovely earring down below. I did the bottoms of the fringes differently than on the turquoise earring. See how the fringe curves on the turquoise earring. I've never had that happen before and I think that maybe there's not enough weight at the bottom to keep the fringe hanging straight. Although the mauve earring's fringe looks curved in one of my photos, that's just due to the way I arranged it for the picture. I still think it's the matte beads that I used that caused the messy appearance as well as the curving fringe on the turquoise earring. I do use matte Delicas quite often but not generally as the main color like I did in this earring. I did use matte beads in the mauve earring as the main color but the galvanized ones are slightly glossy despite being called "matte".

I plan to make the mate to the mauve earring below. The fringe is a little longer than I usually like but I think it suits this design very well.

• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Metallic Bronze" (DB22)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Black" (DB10)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Galvanized Matte Berry" (DB1167)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Luster Newsprint" (DB261)