Bracelet of the Day: Canterbury - Brown

CANTERBURY BRACELET

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (11-457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Caramel Ceylon" (11-593)
• 4mm  fire polished beads "Brown Picasso"
• 6mm fire polished beads "Brown"

I don't have the color numbers or the actual names of the fire polished beads that I used in this bracelet. I bought them at Beadoholique and they don't label them there. They just give them a generic tag with the bar code and price on it. Once again, I added an accent color bead in between the larger motifs. Otherwise I think that the brown and bronze might have been a little boring. The 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.

Organization Inspiration - Part 5: My Beading Patterns

 This is the last post in my series on how I organize my beads and beading supplies. I don't have an elegant way to store my pattern folders. They're just stacked on top of a small shelf in the bedroom. The four black file folders hold all of my printed patterns.

On top of those I have two green 3-ring binders which I use as a sort of catalog of my patterns. Whenever I print out a pattern, I create and print out a single page that includes the name of the pattern, the necessary supplies to make that pattern and a photo or two so that I can see what the project looks like. There's also space on the page where I can jot down notes later. At the moment, they're sorted into three categories: Earrings, Necklaces and Bracelets. 

 I find this cataloging system very useful when I'm trying to get an idea for something to make using a particular type of bead. Rather than having to take out all of my patterns, and look through them, I can quickly page through the catalog and pull out the pages for the patterns I might consider using. I file them alphabetically by pattern name in the binders, by the way.

As far as the file folders, these are the contents of each of them:

On the tabs inside the folders, I've got them labeled alphabetically with a few extra sections for idea pictures and a few other odds and ends. As you can see, Deborah Roberti has a whole folder to herself because I've got so many of her patterns. And, those are just her bracelet patterns. I've mixed her earring and necklace patterns in the other folder with the other necklaces and earrings.

Bracelet of the Day: Duo Bobble Band - Pewter & Blue

DUO BOBBLE BAND (LIZBETH BAND)

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
• 4mm rondelles "Blue-Green AB" (Chinese)
• SuperDuo beads "Pastel Light Brown/Coco"

This is another rondelle version of this pattern and I love the color. Unfortunately, I need to take this one apart and put on a different clasp. I foolishly used a magnet clasp from Walmart and it's too weak. The bracelet keeps falling off my arm.

UPDATE 1/24/18: A free pattern is now available and the new name for this pattern is "Lizbeth Band". Visit THIS post to download the free pattern.
 

New Group Pinterest Board

UPDATE 6/27/17: I've decided to close the group board. The purpose of the board was to be a place where my blog readers could post examples of their own beadwork. Things went well for a while but over time fewer and fewer members were using the board for that purpose. I was spending too much time every day editing the board to remove spam and pins that were being re-pinned from my own boards as well as from all over Pinterest. Although I've closed the board, I will leave all of the old pins intact.
 
Being new to Pinterest, I just learned yesterday that you can create "group" boards and invite others to pin things on your board. I thought it would be fun to have a special group board for my blog where those of you who visit my blog can post examples of your own beadwork and craft projects, especially if you've tried any of the patterns and projects that I've blogged about. I will act as moderator and delete anything that's not appropriate and that sort of thing.

The group board is for visitors of my blog to share examples of your own crafty projects. Please do not use the group board for advertising items for sale.

What you will need to do to join my board, is post your Pinterest user name in the comments and say that you'd like to join the board so that I can send you an invitation. You'll receive an email with a link you'll need to click on to accept the invitation. Once you've joined, you can pin your project photos from your own website or blog, from your Pinterest board or upload them from your computer directly onto the board.

Obviously, you'll need to create a Pinterest account if you want to join the group. Click HERE to learn how to join Pinterest.

Once you've joined the group board, if you'd like to pin photos from your computer, go to your Pinterest profile page and click the "+" sign in the upper right corner of the page as shown below:

During the upload process, you'll be asked which board you want to pin the photo on and you'll need to choose "Linda's Crafty Inspirations" from your board list.

I've added a button to the right side of my blog that will bring you to this post if you decide to join my board later. That way you won't have to hunt through all of my posts to find this one.

When you pin your photos on the board, please add a description of your project. Everyone should feel free to comment on anything that is pinned on the board. 

Bracelet of the Day: Duo Bobble Band - Spring Green

DUO BOBBLE BAND (LIZBETH BAND)

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 3x4mm rondelles "Celery AB" (Chinese)
• SuperDuo beads "Luster Gold"

For this one I used 4mm rondelles instead of 3mm druks for a different look. I made this bracelet for my step mother's birthday. My Dad asked me to make the "India" bracelet that I posted here on February 16 for her and I decided to throw in a bonus bracelet for free. It turned into a rather funny story that had me very puzzled until just a couple days ago. My Dad told me later that Penny loved the black and gold bracelet but he never mentioned anything about the green one. When I asked him what she thought of that one, he said he had no idea that there was a second bracelet in the box. I had sent them both in one of those little gift boxes with a pad of cotton in the bottom of it. He asked Penny if she had two bracelets and she said she only had the one. Finally the other day my Dad asked Penny to check under the cotton pad and there was the green bracelet! I was afraid that she had thrown out the box without ever finding the second bracelet. So, what was meant to be a nice surprise turned into a mystery. It would have been very interesting had the black and gold one slipped under the cotton and Penny had only seen the green one when she opened the box. She actually knew that I was making the black one for her birthday because I'd emailed my Dad a photo of a sample in advance. My Dad wanted to be sure that she would like it before I made the final bracelet and sent it.

Because my Dad was paying me to make the black and gold bracelet for Penny, I had to calculate the cost of the materials I used to make it. While I was at it, just out of curiosity, I also figured out the cost to make the green one. The black and gold "India" bracelet used about $7.00 worth of materials and the green one about $2.80. Of course my Dad paid me more than that plus the cost of the postage to mail it to Michigan.

By the way, I don't really know the color name for the rondelles since they don't come named or numbered where I bought them. It was a toss-up between "Spring Green" and "Celery". I bought those at Beadohlique from a bin where you have to dig through a pile of Chinese crystals that they call "Chinavoski". They have a large variety of rondelles, rounds and bicones in all sorts of pretty colors. I've learned though not to expect to find the same colors again the next time I go there. This week they're having a "Make your own Sale" as their weekly special. You choose a category of beads and get 20% anything that you buy from that category. I may go by there later today and see if they've got any 3mm Chinavoski bicones and get them 20% off. I found a few pretty colors last time I was there but I really had to hunt for that size.

UPDATE 1/24/18: A free pattern is now available and the new name for this pattern is "Lizbeth Band". Visit THIS post to download the free pattern.

Bracelet of the Day: Crystal Flower Bracelet - Ivory

CRYSTAL FLOWER BRACELET

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (15-457D)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (11-457D)
• 4mm fire polished beads "Opaque Beige Luster"
• 4mm bicones "Golden Shadow AB" #C25 (Beads One)

This is a Deborah Roberti creation which you can buy HERE. I made one small change to the pattern to the way that the clasp is added. Rather than making a loop of beads as directed by the pattern, I came out through a fire polished bead on the end, added 3 seed beads then the clasp. I went back through the last seed bead added and then added 2 more seed beads and went through the fire polished bead on the other side. Here is a close-up showing you how it looks:

Bracelet of the Day: Double Diamond - Coral Pink

DOUBLE DIAMOND

• 4mm fire polished beads "Coral Pink"
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (11-461)

This was one of the very first beading patterns that I learned and is a combination of two different free patterns that I found online. I mainly follow Robyn's pattern, which you can find HERE, but there is something I didn't care for in her version that I like better in THIS pattern from Interweave. When Robyn adds the seed bead diamonds between the fire polished beads, she only puts three beads instead of four in each corner so the thread shows where it jumps across to the adjacent fire polished bead. But, I prefer the smaller, in-between motifs of Robyn's pattern over the jumbled beads between the Beading Daily version. I may have also made some other small changes to the way I make this pattern.

UPDATE 5/27/23: I removed a link in this post because it went to an infected website.

Here are some samples that I made to illustrate the difference between the Beading Daily connector motifs and how I made mine:

The top example shows a couple of ways that I sometimes make my motifs. The bottom one shows the problem I ran into when I followed the Beading Daily tutorial. There is no distinct design to the cluster of seed beads between the main motifs.

I should mention that if you want to copy and paste Robyn's tutorial into a text document to print it out, there is text that you can't see on the website because of the large black ReoCities banner that covers up most of the page. If you drag your cursor over the black area, the text will appear white when highlighted and you can copy it. There are three pages to that tutorial so don't forget to click the arrow at the bottom of the page to get to the next page.

By the way, I made a very pretty bracelet last night to go with the "Little Dots" earrings that I posted about yesterday. I'll post details and photos once I've had a chance to make the final pair of earrings. I think they'll make a lovely set.