Last night I tried a couple more things with Sidonia's "Little Dots" and "Sweet Romance" tutorials. I've decided that I'm not keen on "Sweet Romance" as earrings. I think it's because the motif is so flat. Either that or I didn't use the right colors perhaps. I chose topaz bicones because I had drop beads to go with that color. I've got a few other colors in drop beads so maybe I can come up with a nicer color combination. The topaz is pretty but the color is a bit too pale against my dark hair.
SWEET ROMANCE
- 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (15-457D)
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (11-457D)
- 4mm bicones "Light Smoked Topaz AB" (#C29 - Beads One)
- 4mm bicones "Light Colorado AB" (#C26 - Beads One)
- 6x12mm drop beads "Champagne" (#C26 - Beads One - not available online)
I do like the sample of "Little Dots" below. The color is also pale and muted but in a grungy sort of way that I love. I'm still not certain if I'd like this as a bracelet because of the fat motifs but I came up with a slight variation that fills the gaps between them a little more. I think that my tweak helps balance the tiny connectors and large motifs a little better than just the "X's". All I did was go back around them and added three 15/0 seed beads on each side of the X to turn them into diamond shapes. I was using cheap Nymo D thread last night so I didn't risk trying to go through the diamonds again to shape them up better but I would do that when using FireLine or Nymo B thread. I'd also skip the point beads of each diamond to pop them out. I had a heck of a time editing this photo to get the color right but this is pretty close:
LITTLE DOTS BRACELET
- 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Matte Bronze" (15-2006)
- 11/0 seed beads Toho "Metallic Bronze Antique Gold" (225)
- 3mm fire polished beads "Champagne" (Nirvana Beads)
- 4mm fire polished beads "Smoky Topaz Luster"
- 6mm fire polished beads "Champagne" (Nirvana Beads)
I could have used "Metallic Matte Bronze" 11/0 seed beads in my sample but I decided to try the "Olive Bronze" ones to break up the monotony of all those matte beads a little. The difference is subtle though and I'm not sure if they made a difference or not. Below is a photo of those "Champagne" fire polished beads from the Nirvana site so you can see what they're supposed to look like. I actually edited the color of their photo a little to get it closer to how they look in real life.
Click HERE if you want to see how the photo looks on their website.
I may make myself a bracelet (I've got just enough of the 6mm fire polished beads for one) and wear it a few times to see how I like it. One great thing about beadwork is that you can always take things apart and recycle the beads into something else. I will at least make myself a pair of earrings from the Little Dots motif.
DRAGONFLY BRACELET
- 15/0 seed beads "Metallic Chocolate" (no info available)
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (11-461)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Transparent Seafoam Picasso" (8-4506)
- Miyuki Tila beads "Light Autumn Jasper" (TL-4505)
- SuperDuo beads "Chocolate Bronze"
- SuperDuo beads "Crystal Lazure Blue"
The pattern is from Eridhan Creations on Etsy. You can buy it HERE for $5.00 (Unfortunately, this pattern is no longer available). As I mentioned in my review of this pattern on March 21st, I really love this pattern. So far this is the only one that I've made but I hope to try it in other colors very soon. I love the look of it as well as the feel of it when I'm wearing it. It has the feel of "real" jewelry, if you know what I mean.
It was very difficult to get nice photos of this bracelet because of the dark beads that I used as well as the dimensional quality of the weaving. I hope that you can tell how lovely it really is in spite of the picture quality.
I made a pair of Kelly Dale's "Corundum Earrings" to go with this bracelet. I think they work very well together, don't they? You can watch Kelly's free YouTube video tutorial HERE. If you'd like to buy the pattern, she's selling it in her Etsy shop HERE for $4.00. I did change the pattern slightly by leaving off the little top motif.
CORUNDUM EARRINGS
- 15/0 seed beads "Metallic Chocolate" (no info available)
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (11-461)
- 8/0 seed beads "Metallic Chocolate" (no info available)
- SuperDuo "Chocolate Bronze"
- SuperDuo "Crystal Lazure Blue"
Below are the samples that I made last night from Sidonia's video tutorials. The earrings were made from her "Art Deco Style Earrings" tutorial. I made those a while back and put them in the picture so you can see that they're similar to the "Little Dots" motif as she mentions in that video. You can watch the "Art Deco Earrings" video HERE. I used fire polished beads in my earrings because I liked how they looked better than bicones.
The blue "Sweet Romance" sample at the top was made with 4mm bicones and 11/0 seed beads. As you can see, it works perfectly fine in that size. I may even like it better than the smaller size. The sample below that has the sizes that are called for in the tutorial.
The bottom sample is Sidonia's "Little Dots". The motifs seem a little too fat for a bracelet but they'd make cute earrings.
If you view the photo full size (click on it), I think you can see that the netting in the center "Little Dots" example as well as the one just to the right of it, is a little neater than on the others. That's because I went back through it to tighten it up. She doesn't mention that you should do that but I think it's important. You can see how messy it looks in the two left examples. I found that it's easiest to do that right away as you add each "arch" of seed beads rather than going back through the whole bracelet later. Simply circle back around through them before proceeding as directed.
TALLULAH TILA BRACELET
- Tila beads “Metallic Mauve-Green Iris Matte”
- SuperDuo beads “Crystal Pink Luster”
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki “LIght Bronze” (11-457L)
If you recall, I posted about my sample of this bracelet on March 20th HERE. When I found the "Crystal Pink Luster" SuperDuo beads at Aria Design Studio on Etsy, I thought that they'd be perfect for making a bracelet to go with the my "Layered Tila Earrings". They are very close to the same color as the fire polished beads in the earrings. The bracelet pattern is my friend Teejay's creation. When I have a chance, I will write up a tutorial and post it here on my blog.
For my earrings, I adapted the free bracelet pattern that you can find HERE.
I use two stacks of square Snapware containers to store most of my "special" beads. By special, I mean pretty much anything other than seed beads. In them I store beads that are in little bags rather than in tubes. As you can see, some of the trays are getting very full but I've got six more trays on the way from Amazon. They should get here sometime next week.
SuperDuo beads (green and turquoise):
SuperDuo beads (everything else):
Both of those trays are getting too full so I need to add a third one.
6mm fire polished beads
I've got the transparent ones in one section and the opaque ones in another.
4mm fire polished beads
These will probably get a second tray when they get here.
3mm fire polished beads
Again, divided into transparent and opaque.
Bicones (all sizes)
I may split these up into two trays because this one is very full.
Rondelles
3mm in one section and 4mm in the other.
Specialty Beads
This tray has several different kinds of extra special beads: Rulla beads, Tila beads, Half Tila beads, CzechMates and CzechMates Bricks. I've got enough Tilas now that I think they deserve their own full tray.
4mm druks and pearls
I don't have many 6mm druks so I keep those in another location.
3mm druks and pearls
3mm druks aren't easy to come by but you can see that I've amassed a pretty nice collection of them. That required a LOT of internet searching and I also got lucky when the local shop got in a big assortment of them from Nirvana Beads a while back. They don't normally sell them in that size at Beadoholique. Please let me know if you are aware of a good source for them, mainly in opaque colors. I've seen bits and pieces here and there on Etsy but it's rarely worth the shipping cost to buy just the one color that a shop might be selling.
I just ran across Sidonia's video on Pinterest this morning and it looked like it would work perfectly as a bracelet even though she made a necklace. I omitted the large motifs and just used the small motifs and the diamond-shaped connections between them. It will make a gorgeous, delicate little bracelet. I'm also going to try making earrings with only the small motifs and a drop bead like Sidonia shows in the video. Here's a photo of my samples:
As you can see, I also tried the pattern using 3mm pearls and 3mm fire polished beads, and they both work quite well, but the bicones are my favorites. I will also try the pattern using 4mm bicones and 11/0 seed beads and see how that looks.
Click HERE to watch Sidonia's YouTube video. I also watched her "Little Dots Bracelet" video this morning and I'm going to try it out tonight. It took me a couple of hours this afternoon to get all of the instructions written down for both tutorials.
DIAMOND CHAIN
- 11/0 seed beads Cousin "Antique Bronze" (AJM61215018)
- 4mm bicones "Amethyst" (#C12 - Beads One)
This is another one of the very first bracelets that I made when I learned to bead. I can tell because I was still using the cheap Walmart seed beads. They actually work very well with this pattern. Because it's such a plain bracelet, the slightly larger sized seed beads give it a bit more character, I think. You can get the free pattern at Fire Mountain Gems HERE (this pattern is no longer available).
