Easy Earrings - Periwinkle

EASY EARRINGS

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Antique Silver-Nickel" (15-464A)
• 4mm rondelles "Lilac Matte AB - #C69" (Beads One - not available online)

I posted a sample in this color back on November 12th HERE. Read that post for more info on Nunzia's YouTube video tutorial and some of the tweaks I made to her pattern. This is another pretty color that I bought at Beads One that they don't sell online.

Bracelet of the Day: Quick SuperDuo Bracelet

QUICK SUPERDUO BRACELET - MY VARIATION

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Tourmaline Gold Luster" (15-307)
• 3mm druks "Jet Copper Picasso"
• SuperDuo beads "Opaque Olive Bronze Picasso"

I did something a little different, and a bit outside my comfort zone, with this bracelet that I sent to Teejay for Christmas. I used some greenish metallic seed beads this time, instead of my usual dark bronze, because they went very well with the SuperDuo color I used. Read THIS post from last February for more information about the free pattern that I adapted to make this bracelet.

NOTE: The druks that I used in this bracelet have been discontinued. You might still be able to track some down in an Etsy shop perhaps, but I've bought up most of the ones I've come across. Sorry about that.

Bracelet of the Day: Lace Flowers Variation - Mauve

LACE FLOWERS VARIATION

• 11/0 "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 6mm rondelles "Opaque Purple AB - #C90 AB" (Beads One - not available online)

The bracelet is a variation of Ellad2's "Lace Flowers Bracelet" pattern which you can buy HERE. This is a gorgeous mauve color but unfortunately, Beads One only sells this color in their store and not online. I gave this bracelet to my sister for Christmas along with the matching "Cipollotti Earrings" below. The color looks a little too dark in this photo. The color is more like in the next photo with the black sample earrings.

I blogged about the YouTube video tutorial for the earrings HERE back in December.

Bracelet of the Day: Nouveau SuperDuo Chain - Suede Pink

NOUVEAU SUPERDUO CHAIN

• 15/0 seed beads - Miyuki "Olivine" (15-458)
• 11/0 seed beads - Miyuki "Olivine"  (11-458)
• 8/0 seed beads - Miyuki "Olivine"  (8-458) (2)
• SuperDuo beads "Metallic Suede Pink"
• 3mm round dyed jasper beads - "Plum" (Beads One - not available online)

I LOVE this bracelet in this color. Although the druks look black in the photo, they're a very dark purple/plum color. They're also made of stone, not glass. I gave this bracelet to my cousin for Christmas and I really need to make one for myself.

You can buy the pattern from Jewelry Tales, HERE. It's really a necklace pattern but you can easily turn it into a bracelet by omitting the extra motifs in the necklace design and alternating the main motifs.

Playing with my beads...Silky bead experiments

As I mentioned in an earlier post HERE, I spent some time trying to come up with ideas for bracelets to make with my Silky beads. I have them in three colors at the moment and I should have enough to make several bracelets if I choose designs that don't use too many Silkies. I love the diamond shape but I'm not keen on designs that are chock full of Silky beads. My goal was to come up with ways to use them that treated the Silkies as accent beads. I'm pleased with all of my samples and it will be tough choosing which ones to make.

I started out by looking through my stash of bracelet patterns and photos from Pinterest for ones that I might be able to adapt to work with Silkies. I had to keep in mind that the thread path might be different than stated in the directions. Unlike SuperDuos, Tilas and CzechMates, you can only go directly through the holes of Silky beads to connect them to your beadwork. There are no edges on them where you can cross your thread over from one hole to the other to change direction. I did find though that it's possible to outline them with seed beads and the seed beads seem to stay put and don't flop over the edge.

I based most of my samples on a bracelet that I saw in The Beadnurse Shop on Etsy. She doesn't sell patterns, just ready-to-wear beaded jewelry. You can see an example of the bracelet that I mean HERE. Her design was easy to figure out and it works well with Silkies without too many changes. However, I did end up embellishing many of my samples so they're hardly recognizable as the same design. The four samples below were all based on the Beadnurse bracelet design:

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Silky beads "Alabaster Lazure Blue"
• SuperDuo beads "Opaque Green Senegal Matte"

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Silky Beads "Alabaster Blue Luster"
• SuperDuo beads "Crystal Gold Luster"
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Silver Lined Milky Montana Blue" (2102PF)

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Silky beads "Alabaster Lazure Blue"
• SuperDuo beads "Opaque Green Senegal Matte"
• 3mm druks "Jet Copper Picasso"

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Silky beads "Alabaster Lazure Blue"
• 3mm druks "Jet Copper Picasso"

The sample below is based on the "Lattice Gates" bracelet pattern that I saw in an Etsy shop, HERE. That bracelet also has CzechMates in it and it works quite well with Silkies. Since I don't have that pattern either, I had to work out from the photo the best path for connecting the SuperDuo motifs with the Silkies in between them. It turned out to be rather complicated. I don't even have written notes because it would be difficult to put the procedure into words. I like the design so I will try write down the steps so that I can make myself a bracelet sometime. Besides using Silky beads instead of CzechMates, I changed one other detail. Norma Jean puts three seed beads along the side of each SuperDuo bead and I found that I liked the look of it better with only two beads. If you look closely at my sample, you can see one motif where I used three seed beads and it looks a little wonky because they're too crowded.

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Silky beads "Alabaster Lazure Blue"
• CzechMates Bricks "Light Beige Copper Picasso"
• SuperDuo beads "Opaque Green Senegal Matte"

The inspiration for my last string of samples came from Sidonia's "Losange Bracelet" YouTube video, which you can watch HERE. I replaced each inside "diamond" of beads with a Silky bead. As you can see in my samples below, there are a lot of possible variations for this design. Just omitting the druks/pearls gave it a whole new look. I also played around with the number of seed beads in each motif. I think my favorites are the motif made according to Sidonia's tutorial (far left) and the fifth one from the left. Because it's so wide, the original motif would be very economical for making my Silky beads go long way. I think it would only take four or five Silkies for a bracelet in my size.

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Silky Beads "Alabaster Blue Luster"
• 3mm druks "Bronze"
• 4mm druks "Bronze"

Pattern Review: Diadem Bracelet

DIADEM BRACELET

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• Silky beads "Alabaster Lila Vega"
• SuperDuo beads "Purple Iris Matte"
• 2mm bicones "Purple AB" (from China)

I made this pretty little bracelet and earring set from Sam Wescott's "Diadem Bracelet" pattern, which you can buy HERE in her Etsy shop. I used bicones as directed by the pattern but I also tried a few other options for accent beads for times when I don't have any matching bicones in the required size. Note that the 2mm Chinese bicones that I used are about the equivalent of 3mm Swarovski bicones. I haven't tried them but I'm pretty sure that 3mm Chinese bicones would be too large. The other things I tried in place of the bicones were some 8/0 seed beads, 2mm pearls and more of the same 11/0 seed beads that I used in the bracelet. The pearls and 11/0 seed beads worked great but I don't like how much the holes show on the 8/0 seed beads.

I changed Sam's clasp loop slightly by replacing the two center 11/0 seed beads with an 8/0 seed bead so that I could insert a jump ring for the clasp. When I went around to reinforce the loop, I popped out the 8/0 bead by skipping it the first time around.

Although Sam calls for FireLine, I used Nymo D thread and it worked just fine. You'll need about 3 yards for pretty much all bracelet sizes.

The pattern is quite easy to follow and you'll quickly get the hang of the motif after making the first one. The first one is actually a little more tricky because you don't have a complete motif to build off of.

Below are some tips that will help you get the best results:

When you make the inner circle of SuperDuo beads, be sure that you pull them snug or they might end up a little loose and have gaps where they come together in the center of the motif. In fact, make sure that you pull the beads good and tight after each step for neater results.

Also, if you're omitting the small "in-between" motif, like I did, make sure that you add the "X" of seed beads with the bracelet right side up (so that you can see the bump in the center of the Silky beads) so that the "X" will be raised up and not go underneath the motif. As you'll read in Sam's comments at the end of the pattern, you will need to alternate between going clockwise and counter-clockwise with every other motif when not adding the small motifs. It's while switching the direction that you will be working from the back of the bracelet with every other motif and should keep this tip in mind.

In Step 14, pull the 5 seed beads tight to form a little "v". This will help keep your "X" beads snug and neat.

For my earrings, I omitted the bicones and replaced them with 11/0 seed beads. I also added an 8/0 seed bead at the top for a jump ring and added an 11/0 seed bead at the bottom to create a point. I added the extra 11/0 bead after creating the initial ring of beads. I added it while going around the perimeter again to reinforce the earring.

Below are some samples that I made before making my final bracelet. I bought all of the Silky beads from Aria Design Studio. Lisa has the best selection of colors that I've seen online.

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457D)
• 8/0 seed beads "Light Purple" (410C - no other info available)
• Silky beads "Alabaster Lila Vega"
• SuperDuo beads "Purple Iris Matte"
• 2mm bicones "Purple AB" (from China)

• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Metallic Bronze Antique Gold" (225)
• Silky beads "Alabaster Lazure Blue"
• SuperDuo beads "Opaque Olive Copper Picasso"
• 2mm bicones "Taupe" (Chinavoski)

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Silver Lined Milky Montana Blue" (8-2102PF)
• Silky Beads "Alabaster Blue Luster"
• SuperDuo beads "Chocolate Bronze"
• 2mm pearls "Bronze Satin" (Aria Design Studio)

Bracelets of the Day: Lace Flowers Variation in Two Colors

Here are two more colors of my adaptation of Elad2's "Lace Flowers Bracelet" made with just one row of the pattern and tweaked a bit. I'm not going to list the rondelle colors because I don't have any info on them. They're from China and Teejay sent them to me. I used Miyuki "Dark Bronze (457D)" seed beads in the red bracelet and Miyuki "Light Bronze (457L)" in the green one.