MYSTERY SUPERDUO BRACELET
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki/Czech "Vintage Copper" (55003)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki/Czech "Vintage Copper" (55003)
- SuperDuo beads "Turquoise Copper Picasso"
- SuperDuo beads "Bronze Copper"
- SuperDuo beads "Umber Copper Picasso"
I made my own SuperDuo mix for this bracelet. Creating bead mixes isn't as easy as it might seem. For this one, I started out with four SuperDuo colors that really looked great together. I thought I was all set until I realized that I needed some seed beads that would go with them. So, after quite a few experiments, I got rid of all but two of the original SuperDuo colors and switched to some in a different shade of copper that goes pretty darn well with these copper seed beads. The two colors that I kept were the turquoise and the umber. The original copper color was too dark and harsh and didn't match any of my copper seed beads. The fourth color was pretty but it was transparent and somewhat sparkly and it didn't really work well with these soft matte colors.
The free tutorial for Pascale G-Mikovic's "Mystery SuperDuo Bracelet" is HERE on my blog. You can download the free "Big SuperDuo Mandala Earrings" pattern HERE on the Matubo bead site.
BIG SUPERDUO MANDALA EARRINGS
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki/Czech "Vintage Copper" (55003)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki/Czech "Vintage Copper" (55003)
- SuperDuo beads "Turquoise Copper Picasso"
- SuperDuo beads "Bronze Copper"
- SuperDuo beads "Umber Copper Picasso"
I was originally going to make these earrings like the sample at the top in the photo below. I think you can see that it wasn't an ideal color arrangement. By switching around the umber and the copper SuperDuos, it created a much more attractive pair of earrings with a Native American look that suits the bracelet and the bead colors nicely. I decided not to do a random bead mix with these earrings because I was only using three colors. It worked out perfectly that there are three rows of SuperDuos in the design.
Something else that I discovered, while switching the bead colors around, was that it made a big difference in the outcome of my earrings when I changed the order of the beads. That sample earring came out a little warped and is quite domed. That's because SuperDuos can vary slightly in size and shape from one brand to the next and also from one color to the next. The earrings that I blogged about HERE, which were made with this same pattern, came out perfectly flat. Today's earrings are slightly domed but not as domed as the sample.
While I was at Hobby Lobby on yesterday buying more of these copper SuperDuos, I found a sheet of the same scrapbook paper that I use to photograph my beadwork. This is the third sheet that I have bought over the years and each time the color of the print looks different than the original one. The second copy that I bought is a little too light and a bit too green for my liking. The one that I just bought isn't as blue as the original one but at least it is darker than the second one.
In any case I'm happy to have a couple of back-ups should something happen to my original one and I used the new sheet for today's photos. By the time I finished editing and tweaking the colors in my photos, I sure can't tell that it's not the same one that I always use. When I edit my photos, my only concern is that I get the colors of the beadwork to look as true-to-life as possible. If that makes the background color go off, I don't worry about it. The beadwork is what matters.
Below you can see all three of them for comparison. The top sheet is the one that I just bought. The middle one is the bright one and the bottom one is my favorite original sheet.
