Bracelet of the Day: Coin Bands - Jet Bronze

COIN BANDS

• CzechMates "Jet Bronze Picasso"  
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (11-461)
• 8/0 seed beads "Metallic Chocolate" (no info available)

This bracelet has been in my "to do" pile for ages and I finally had a chance to make it a few days ago. I seem to recall that this was one of the first things that I tried with CzechMates tile beads and I instantly fell in love with this pattern in these colors. I did have to change the way the clasp is attached because adding another motif would have made the bracelet much too long for me. I added an 8/0 seed bead on either end and attached the clasp with jump rings that go through the beads. I think that one jump ring on each side might have been enough but I couldn't close the jump ring once the clasp was on it. There just wasn't room for the bead and the clasp on that little jump ring so I had to add an extra ring to each end. I could have used a larger jump ring but the length would have come out pretty much the same either way and the smaller ones suit the bracelet better.

You can buy Deb's "Coin Bands" pattern HERE.

 

Bracelet of the Day: Crystal Chain with Pearls

CRYSTAL CHAIN VARIATION

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (11-457D)
• 4mm Czech pearls "Ivory"

This is another bracelet that I'd been meaning to make for a long time. I had made two samples of it with 4mm pearls and also with 3mm pearls. At the time I thought I preferred the thinner, more delicate version with the smaller pearls but I changed my mind in the end. Although it's a very simple design, I think it looks rather elegant. I used Deborah Roberti's free "Crystal Chain" pattern but repeated the first motif for the entire length of the bracelet. Click HERE to download Deb's pattern.

One thing that I discovered while making this bracelet was that I needed to adjust some of the beads a little as I added the three seed beads above each motif. If you push them into the proper shape as you add them, the pearls will sit upright better instead of leaning slightly on an angle like beads tend to do with Right Angle Weave. It's one of my pet peeves with that stitch. The beads have a tendency to alternate leaning left and right with every other motif. At least with this pattern, I seem to have fixed that issue by just manually pushing and pulling the pearls with my fingers so that the seed beads aren't causing them to lean. Although they're still not perfectly straight up and down, I think you can see a big difference between my final bracelet and the pearls in the sample in the middle in this photo:

When you add each group of three seed beads, push center one so that it's more in line with the other two. The little arch should look softly rounded rather than pointy. Also, gently pull the current motif slightly away from the previous one to give the pearl more room. I included a shot of the 3mm sample and I think you can see that those pearls don't seem to be leaning as much as the 4mm ones, probably due to their tiny size.

While looking more closely at that photo, I just remembered something else. I used different pearls in my bracelet than I used in my 4mm sample and perhaps that's part of the reason why I was able to get the final version to look so much neater. The pearls in the 4mm sample are inexpensive Chinese pearls. I see now that they are kind of flat on the ends where the holes are. The Czech pearls that I used in my bracelet are much more round. The 3mm pearls in the top sample are also Chinese and have flat ends as well.

I'm wearing this bracelet today with my Tiny Treasures Earrings, which I posted about HERE.

 

Paint Shop Pro Tutorial - Faux Wedgwood

I thought it was about time that I posted another Paint Shop Pro tutorial. I have to confess that my beading has pretty much taken over most of my free time these days so I've been neglecting my graphics. Here's a fun effect that you can use to embellish your scrapbooking layouts and greeting cards, etc. Here are some photos of real Wedgwood pottery that I found online.

For this tutorial, choose designs that are solid black and that don't have very large solid black areas. You also want a fair amount of detail but nothing too thin or fussy. You will get an idea of the kinds of designs that work the best from the examples below.

 Download the tutorial HERE.

Included in the ZIP file are all of these example images and the line art images that I used to create them. The line art examples posted here have been reduced in size but the ones in the ZIP file are full size.

 

Bracelet of the Day: Stackers Variation - Capri Blue

STACKERS VARIATION

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• SuperDuo beads "Crystal Luster Gold"
• CzechMates "Capri Blue Gold Marbled"

This is the bracelet that I ended up making for my friend's birthday. I seem to recall that I had just decided that I didn't want to make this bracelet for her either when the idea to add some netting just popped into my head. I'm happy to say that it worked great and it almost looks like a totally different pattern. After completing the bracelet as instructed by the pattern, I went along both sides adding 5 seed beads over each CzechMate tile.

You can download the free "Tweaked Stacker" pattern HERE at Around the Beading Table.

 

Bracelet of the Day: Coin Bands - Capri Blue

COIN BANDS

• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Bronze" (TR-11-221/c)
• CzechMates "Capri Blue Gold Marbled"

This was going to be a birthday present for a friend but I wasn't wild about it once it was finished. Instead I came up with a tweak for another pattern by Deborah Roberti which I will post as my next Bracelet of the Day. I've been waiting to post these until after her birthday, which was yesterday. I'm not sure why this one didn't appeal to me but I think it might be the color of the seed beads against the blue CzechMates beads. I did use bronze seed beads for the final bracelet but not quite the same color.

This is the Coin Bands pattern without any changes except for the way that I attached the clasp. You can buy Deb's pattern HERE.

 

Bracelet of the Day: Canterbury - Stone Amethyst

CANTERBURY BRACELET

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (15-457D)
• 3mm fire polished beads "Stone Amethyst Luster"
• 4mm fire polished beads "Stone Amethyst Luster"
• 3mm fire polished beads "Montana Blue Luster"

I made this one yesterday and I finally made a Canterbury bracelet with all of the rows of embellishment that the pattern calls for. However, I scaled down the size by using smaller beads. The result is a very delicate, soft bracelet that's not too wide. Had I used the full size beads, it would have been a bit wider than I'd like and so many large fire polished beads would have been a little too overwhelming, I think. As it is, there are a lot of beads which make it look a little busy but at least the color is subtle enough that it works pretty well. I didn't even bother adding any clasp loops. I just inserted the jump rings into the ends of the bracelet and attached a toggle. I like using a toggle clasp on wider bracelets because they make them fit flatter against my arm. In the end though, this came out a little too long to stay up on my arm as a cuff so that's not an issue. I'm not sure if it would fit at all if I were to make it one motif shorter though so I'll leave it as it is. Of course I can always change my mind later and re-make it shorter.

I did have to tweak with the pattern slightly because of the smaller seed beads. In step 14, I had to add eight seed beads instead of seven. When I made my sample of this version I had used 5 seed beads in step 25 but for some reason four worked fine in my final version. I guess it makes a difference how tight your stitching is.

This pattern is by Nancy Peterson and you can buy it HERE. UPDATE 3/9/2021: Nancy is no longer selling her beading patterns but she has graciously allowed me to post her "Canterbury Bracelet" pattern on my blog as a free download. To download a copy, please visit THIS post.

 

Bracelet of the Day: Canterbury - Stone Blue

CANTERBURY BRACELET

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Antique Silver-Nickel" (11-464A)
• 6mm fire polished beads "Stone Blue Luster"
• 4mm fire polished beads "Lumi Coated Blue"

I made this bracelet ages ago but it needed to be re-made because it was too tight and I did a crummy job attaching the clasp when I originally made it. Here's how it looked before remaking it:

I think you can see how tight the centers of the motifs are, if you click to view the full size photo, and the ugly clasp loops are obvious. The funny thing is that despite using exactly the same beads, and the same size clasp but in a brighter silver, this time it came out slightly too loose. The reason it was so small before is because I'd pulled the stitching much too tight. I've very pleased with the way it came out this time and I think it's my best Canterbury bracelet to date. The netting is nice and smooth and isn't curling or flopping around like it's prone to do with this pattern.

This was always my favorite color combination of this bracelet and I'm very glad that it turned out so well. I also remade the brown one the other day that I posted about on April 5th. That one had turned out well the first time I made it except that it was much too big on me. This time I used a smaller clasp. Oddly enough, the brown one is slightly snug on me this time even though it has exactly the same number of motifs as before and has the same number of beads and the same clasp as the blue one. Although it's not obvious, I must have pulled my stitching a little tighter on the brown one or maybe the bronze seed beads are slightly smaller than the silver ones. I could tell a difference in the seed beads while working with them. The silver ones seemed fatter and rounder and they fit around the other beads a little differently than the bronze seed beads did with the brown one. 

Here are photos of the new brown Canterbury:

In case you haven't noticed, I make my clasp loops different than Nancy Peterson's pattern suggests. I also add them at a different stage of the process, or at least I did that when remaking these two this time. I added the clasps after adding the netting on both sides and after I'd reinforced it once. After the clasps were added, I reinforced the netting two more times. That really makes a difference in how neat it turns out. Using FireLine is also very important with this pattern and Nancy does call for it. You can buy the pattern HERE. UPDATE 3/9/2021: Nancy is no longer selling her beading patterns but she has graciously allowed me to post her "Canterbury Bracelet" pattern on my blog as a free download. To download a copy, please visit THIS post.