Linda's Crafty Inspirations

These are the pretty earrings that I mentioned HERE in yesterday's post. I found a way to make them come out flat by using 15/0 seed beads instead of 11/0 beads on either side of the 4mm fire polished beads. You might not need to do that though. It will depend on the sizes of the beads that you use. I haven't tried to make these with Toho seed beads but I think they might cause warping problems and I know that Sam uses Miyuki beads.

One other thing that I changed was that I used bicones in a different size than called for. They don't really have an effect on how the beads fit together though because of the way they sit between the ZoliDuos. I tried 4mm bicones but they looked too bulky in the space. Having said that, Swarovski 4mm bicones might fit fine and 3mm Swarovski bicones might actually be too small. I used Chinese crystals which tend to be larger. In any case, the ones I used fit perfectly and I like how they look.

You can buy Sam Wescott's "Buta Bracelet & Earrings" pattern in her Etsy shop HERE. If you're wondering how Sam came up with the pattern's name, she explains it HERE on her blog. Or, do a quick Google image search for "buta" and you'll instantly understand why she chose the name.

Queen City Bead on Etsy has ZoliDuos and everything in the shop is on sale through Wednesday, October 18th. Also, with the coupon code "Bead10" my blog readers get an additional 10% off.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Playing with my beads...ZoliDuo beads

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY BRACELET

11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
ZoliDuo beads "Alabaster Blue Luster"
ZoliDuo beads "Alabaster Lila Vega"
IrisDuo beads "White Lila Vega Luster"

I saw Akke Jonkhof's gorgeous "For Your Eyes Only" bracelet pattern in her Etsy shop, HERE, and decided to give it a try. Although this looks like a complete bracelet, it came out horribly warped so I have taken it apart. I should mention that I wasn't actually following the pattern even though my bracelet does look pretty much like Akke's photos. I didn't connect the motifs the same way she did with hers. My motifs were so wonky that I just did the quickest thing I could think of to connect them so that I could take some photos.

You see, I wasn't really keen on the new ZoliDuo beads until I saw Akke's pattern and another one that I thought were pretty enough to tempt me to give them a try. The other pattern that caught my eye is a bracelet and earrings pattern by Sam Wescott which you can see in her Etsy shop HERE. I have Sam's pattern but I'm having some trouble getting my earrings to lay flat. I will blog about them as soon as I have some completed earrings to take photos of.

ZoliDuos are funny beads to work with because they come in left and right facing beads. Sam gave me a tip for remembering which is which. When they are right side up (they are flat on the back and rounded on the front), with the bulgy end at the bottom and the skinny end at the top, a left-facing bead will look kind of like the letter "L", so think "L" for "Left". The right-facing beads form a backward "L".

I don't have a lot of experience with them yet but my impression is that they can be fussy to work with in relation to other types of beads. After I took apart my first bracelet attempt, I decided to try a completely different thread path. This time I was successful but it resulted in a smaller bracelet and I don't have enough ZoliDuos to make one that is long enough to fit me. That's why both of my examples have a purple motif in the center. I only bought 20 left and right ZoliDuos in each color. That would have been exactly enough for a five motif bracelet except that I got a broken bead which left me short by one. The moral of that story is to make sure that you buy more beads than you'll need for your project in case of broken beads or plugged up holes.

Below are a couple of photos of the sample bracelet that came out flat instead of warped. I also connected the motifs the way that Akke did hers. The only thing that I changed from Akke's pattern was to add seed beads between the IrisDuos to cover the thread. I didn't bother to attach a clasp because it's too short to go around my wrist.

Queen City Bead on Etsy has ZoliDuos as well as IrisDuos and everything in the shop is on sale through Wednesday, October 18th. Also, with the coupon code "Bead10" my blog readers get an additional 10% off.