Playing with my Beads...Fringe Earrings #70 & #77

• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Metallic Light Bronze" (DB22L)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Duracoat Opaque Fennel" (DB2123)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Mulberry" (DB662)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Matte Opaque Blue Grey" (DB792)

Today's earrings evolved from my attempt to make a smaller version of the gorgeous earring that I blogged about HERE. Below is a photo of the earring from that post. I still haven't made the other earring to go with that one but I probably will eventually. It's too pretty not to even though it has a very long fringe and takes hours to make.

I made the purple and blue sample above first. My goal was to shrink down the size of the top section without affecting the overall design too much. I'm pleased with the way the top came out. However, I'm not that keen on my adaptation of the fringe design. What I don't like is the part of the fringe at the top just below the top section. The shape of the design looks messy and random with those light green beads. Unlike the original earring that I was adapting, there aren't as many beads in this smaller version so the outline isn't as well defined in that spot.

In the colorway below, I used all one color for the outline and I think that works better. However, I think that part of the design bulges out a little too much so I'm working on a slightly different version.

• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Duracoat Galvanized Pewter"(DB1852)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Rosewater" (DB1906)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Dyed Opaque Maroon" (DB654)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Glazed Luster Teal" (DB264)

Here's a sneak peek at what's on my beading mat at the moment. It's what I'm hoping will be the final version of my adaptation of this earring design. I usually make these earrings with four colors but I added a fifth one this time for a very colorful look. I did have to make some tweaks to the design of the top section in order to make it work well my new fringe design.

You can buy Delica beads at Red Panda, Aura Crystals, Supply Emporium and Baubles & Beads.
 

Playing with my Beads...Fringe Earrings #30

• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Nickel Plated" (DB21)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Black" (DB10)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Matte Opaque Turquoise" (DB759)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Light Smoke" (DB1498)

I made this colorway to go with the top below:

The earring design is by Anna Belous but she doesn't have a free pattern or a pattern for sale for it. I saw a photo of her earrings on her blog but I wasn't able to find it again or I would post a link to it. My colorway is almost the same as hers except that I replaced the white beads with pale gray ones and I used silver for my metallic beads instead of copper. I love the style of these earrings but I'm not happy with how lumpy the fringe looks with the turquoise Delicas that I used. I suspect that it came out like that because of the matte finish of these beads. I'm going to try remaking them with shiny beads in the same color and see if it makes a difference. If I'm still not happy with them, I will probably make myself a pair of Russian Leaf earrings in this colorway instead.

I know that it's not the design of the earring that's the problem because I used the same pattern to make the lovely earring down below. I did the bottoms of the fringes differently than on the turquoise earring. See how the fringe curves on the turquoise earring. I've never had that happen before and I think that maybe there's not enough weight at the bottom to keep the fringe hanging straight. Although the mauve earring's fringe looks curved in one of my photos, that's just due to the way I arranged it for the picture. I still think it's the matte beads that I used that caused the messy appearance as well as the curving fringe on the turquoise earring. I do use matte Delicas quite often but not generally as the main color like I did in this earring. I did use matte beads in the mauve earring as the main color but the galvanized ones are slightly glossy despite being called "matte".

I plan to make the mate to the mauve earring below. The fringe is a little longer than I usually like but I think it suits this design very well.

• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Metallic Bronze" (DB22)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Black" (DB10)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Galvanized Matte Berry" (DB1167)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Luster Newsprint" (DB261)

 

Playing with my Beads...Fringe Earrings #51 & #74

 
I made these earrings to go with a top that I've blogged about before. I have Delicas in most of the colors in the top except for the green. I thought that it wouldn't matter if there was no green in the earrings but I'm having second thoughts. I think that a touch of green would make the earrings pop more. I have ordered some green Delicas and will see if they are close to this shade of green. The color that I ordered is DB2127 "Spruce" and this is the photo that I went by when I ordered it:

DB2127

I had some trouble getting the blue beads to look the correct color in the photos without adversely affecting the other bead colors. Below is a swatch of the bead color:

DB2143

This navy blue color isn't easy to find but I found some at Bello Modo.

I made the sample earring below first. I like the fringe on it but I wasn't happy with the transition between the top section and the fringe. 

I went back to the drawing board and came up with the design below. I'm very happy with this one and will probably use this design in other colorways.

• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Nickel Plated" (DB21)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Matte Opaque Black" (DB310)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Dyed Blue Grey" (DB652)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Dyed Navy" (DB2143)

 

Playing with my beads...Fringe Earrings #48 & #49

I thought I was going to make complete pairs of earrings from the samples that I've been busy making these past several days. The thing is that I kept wanting to try new designs and it seemed like there was always something that I wasn't happy with or that I want to change in some way with just about all of the samples that I'd made. So, instead of waiting until I have some finished pairs of earrings, I've decided to show you my work-in-progress samples instead. I've got several more to show you over the next few days.

One thing about earrings of this type is that they are time-consuming to make. It can easily take a couple hours to make one of the larger designs and then there's still a second earring to make. I've designed or adapted 78 fringe earring charts and it's hard to tell by looking at a chart how a design will look once it's made. Some are hits and some are misses and the only way to know for sure how something will look is to try making one. Sometimes I end up liking only the top or the fringe or just a segment of a design which might then evolve into a completely different earring design. It's a lot of fun to experiment with different patterns and colorways but I'm finding that I don't seem to accomplish as much in a day compared to other kinds of beading projects. I may need to set these aside for a while and catch up on some birthday beadwork before I run out of time.

Both of today's earrings are tiny versions of the Native American style fringe earrings that I've been making. Although they're cute, I think they're a little too small so I probably won't make the mates to either of these. I do like the small earring tops but I think I'd prefer them to have longer fringes.

• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Metallic Light Bronze" (DB22L)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Matte Asparagus Aqua Glazed" (DB391)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Opaque Dyed Matte Medium Blue" (DB798)

• 8/0 seed beads "Bright Brown Bronze" (no info available)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Galvanized Tarnished Copper" (DB461)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Matte Opaque Blue Grey" (DB792)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Duracoat Opaque Dyed Sienna" (DB2142)
• 11/0 Delica beads "Duracoat Opaque Dyed Fawn" (DB2107)

The bead colors in this sample earring didn't turn out quite right in my photos. What looks like peach is actually a tawny tan color. The blue is also a little brighter and bluer. Here are swatches of the actual bead colors:

DB2107

DB2142

DB0792

You can buy Delica beads at Red Panda, Aura Crystals, Supply Emporium and Baubles & Beads.
  

Free Graphics - Before & After

Here is another Victorian postcard image that I've cleaned up to use on greeting cards. If you download the picture, you'll see that it is a very large, high resolution image.

 

Free Graphics - Before & After

I'm still trying to get some beadwork projects made so that I can blog about them. I have made some earrings over the past few days but I still need to make the second earring to each pair before I can take photos of them. In the meantime, here is a pretty vintage postcard picture that I've cleaned up to use on greeting cards.

 

April 2017 Calendar

I don't have any beadwork to blog about at the moment so I will try to post some free graphics in the meantime. For now, here is the calendar for April.