Bethany Earrings - Rembrandt Mix Set

BETHANY EARRINGS

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Montana Matte Dark Teal Picasso" (4516)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Montana Matte Dark Teal Picasso" (4516)
• SuperDuo beads "Rembrandt Mix" (Supply Emporium)

Yesterday I blogged HERE about the "Mystery SuperDuo Bracelet" below that I'd made with a bead pack from Supply Emporium. After seeing how cute it turned out I decided that I really needed some earrings to go with the bracelet. I went with the "Bethany Earrings" because they show off the Rembrandt mix of beads the best. You'll find a link to download my free earring pattern HERE. I should warn you that it's a little tricky making these earrings with "one" bead color vs two colors because it's easy to lose track of where you are in the beadwork. I had to make one of these earrings over again because I'd messed up. 

Don't forget to use the coupon code CRAFTY15 on your purchase of over $30 to get 15% off at Supply Emporium.

 

Mystery SuperDuo Bracelet - Rembrandt Mix

MYSTERY SUPERDUO BRACELET

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Montana Matte Dark Teal Picasso" (4516)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Brown/Tan Matte Picasso" (1334)
• SuperDuo beads "Rembrandt Mix" (Supply Emporium)
• Leather slide knot clasp (Supply Emporium - see link below)

For Christmas, Claire from Supply Emporium sent me a bead pack to make this bracelet. I was eager to try it out so I made it yesterday. You can buy the "Rembrandt Mystery Superduo Bracelet" bead pack HERE in Claire's Etsy shop. Everything you will need to make this bracelet is included in the pack except for thread, needle and the pattern. You'll find the free tutorial for Pascale G-Mikovic's "Mystery SuperDuo Bracelet" HERE on my blog.

The leather slide knot clasp that comes in the kit is really cool and is perfect for this bracelet design when made with three rows of SuperDuos. Claire makes these clasps herself in several colors and you can buy them separately HERE in her shop. The one that comes in this kit is the "natural" color.

It's a little hard to see in my photos but I added two small seed bead loops on each end to attach the clasp with jump rings. I used five 11/0 beads for each loop and I'm pretty sure that's how Claire made hers as well. To fit my 6-inch wrist, I needed to use 30 SuperDuos in each row. I probably could have used one or two more SuperDuos but the slide clasp is adjustable so I can make it fit just right.

You can see the clasp loops and where they are attached in the photo below:

I thought you might like to see the beaded ornaments that I made with kits that Claire also sent to me. I made the colorful one using the exact beads that came in that kit. For the silver, gold and red ornament, I swapped what came in the kit for the red cabochons and also the green 8/0 seed beads.

 

Bauble Bracelet - Rose Gold Topaz

BAUBLE BRACELET

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
• 11/0 seed beads "Light Caramel Ceylon" (no info available)
• 7mm CzechMates 2-hole cabochons "Opaque Rose Gold Topaz Luster"

The other day I was browsing Kelly Dale's YouTube channel and came across a video for this bracelet. Since I have lot of these 7mm cabochons on hand, I thought this would be ideal for using up some of my stash. You can watch the video HERE. I checked Kelly's Etsy shop and didn't see this pattern for sale.

I tweaked Kelly's bracelet a little, mostly because I didn't want to have to put up with what she described in the video where the beads are all sort of loose on the thread. She just strung the beads on the thread and she later had to make sure that everything got tightened up properly. I decided to reinforce mine as I added each cabochon. Doing so made it much easier to handle the beadwork without fear of the beads sliding off or getting too loose. It also gave me a more secure bracelet.

Once my bracelet was finished, I decided to add some accent beads between each cab. I will probably make more of these bracelets with or without the accent beads. The bracelet is pretty without them too.

 

Petite Paisley Earrings

PETITE PAISLEY EARRINGS

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• ZoliDuo beads "Lazure Blue"

"Petite Paisley Earrings" is a new free pattern from Deb Roberti that you can download HERE on her website. The pattern calls for Paisley Duo or ZoliDuos beads. I only have ZoliDuos and I only  had enough of three colors to make these three colorways.

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4201)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4201)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4201)
• ZoliDuo beads "Alabaster Mint Luster"
• 3mm druks "Laurel Green"

I made the two sample earrings above first to try out the pattern. The earring on the left in the photo was made according to the pattern with some seed beads and a 3mm druk between the earring and the wire at the top. While I like that idea, I decided to keep mine simple so I added an 8/0 seed bead between the two 11/0s at the top to attach a jump ring for the wire on the earring on the right. I also used this method to make the other two colorways. When you download the pattern, you will see that Deb has included instructions for my method of attaching the jump rings.

• 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Nickel Plated" (190)
• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Nickel Plated" (190)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Nickel Plated" (190)
• ZoliDuo beads "Alabaster Lila Vega Luster"

 

Crystal Tile Bracelet & Hana-Ami Earrings - Pink Coral Moon Dust

CRYSTAL TILE BRACELET

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 4mm fire polished beads "Pink Coral Moon Dust"
• 4mm bicones "Metallic Bronze" (Chinese)

HANA-AMI EARRINGS

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
• 4mm fire polished beads "Opaque Beige Luster"
• 4mm bicones "Metallic Bronze" (Chinese)

After finishing up the last of my Christmas beadwork last week, I decided to indulge and make this set for myself using some of my favorite fire polished beads. Sadly, this color has been discontinued by the manufacturer. I'm wondering though if they've decided to bring back this color because I found some online on some sites that never had this color before. Aura Crystals has them HERE. Artbeads has them HERE. THIS Etsy shop has one strand in stock and so does THIS one. THIS Canadian Etsy shop has a lot of them in stock. The Bead Obsession also has them HERE. I already have a large supply of these but it's still nice to know that they're available again.

I had a difficult time editing my photos to show the true color of the fire polished beads. They're a little more mauve than pink. Here is a swatch that looks more like the actual color:

You can buy Deb's "Crystal Tile Bracelet" pattern HERE at Around the Beading Table. Her "Hana-Ami Motif" pattern is free and you can download it HERE.

YouTube Tutorial - Diamond DIY Beaded Bracelet

DIAMOND DIY BEADED BRACELET (ONE NEEDLE METHOD)

• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Bronze" (223)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Bronze" (223)
• 4mm bicones "Aqua Gold" (Chinese)

When I saw the pretty bracelet in THIS video on the Sonysree Creations YouTube channel recently, I had to give it a try. She has videos for a one-needle version and also for a 2-needle version. I hate working with two needles so I tried the one needle method. Sadly, I haven't had any luck with this design even after making several other samples that I didn't take photos of. The problem doesn't seem to be a Toho vs. Miyuki issue because neither work very well. It looks like she uses 10/0 Czech seed beads in the video and maybe that's the secret to making it work. I have some Czech seed beads that size in one color and I made a small sample with them. They did seem to work a little better but dusty rose wouldn't have been a suitable color for this bracelet.

I also tried Chinese bicones as well as Czech ones. Czech bicones only work a little better than the Chinese ones because they're smaller. The problem is that the strings of seed beads between the bicones are very unstable and go all wonky no matter how carefully I try to keep them in place. The Toho seed beads in the bracelet above do seem to look messier than the Miyuki beads in the small sample below but I think that the Chinese bicones might be part of the problem in this instance. By the time I finished making that bracelet I had tried so many other things that I decided it wasn't worth bothering to try anything else.

• 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Pewter" (4221)
• 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Pewter" (4221)
• 4mm bicones "Opaque Rosanine" (Czech)

The silver and pink sample above looks pretty good in my photo. It would probably make an acceptable bracelet if I wasn't so fussy about some of the seed bead strands sticking up and others going down under. On a different sample I tried tacking the pairs of seed bead strands together in the center but that made the motif more rounded instead of coming to a nice point.

In the end, I decided not to spend any more time on this pattern only to end up with something too wonky to wear. It's really a shame because the design would be lovely if it worked better. It's especially disappointing for me because I have a huge stash of pretty Chinese bicones that I'd like to use for something like this.

Stepping-Stone Band & Corundum Earrings - Cocoa Airy Pearl

CORUNDUM EARRINGS

• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Transparent Montana Gold Luster" (204)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Transparent Montana Gold Luster" (204)
• Mini DiamonDuos "Cocoa Airy Pearl"
• SuperDuo beads "Pastel Brown Cocoa aka Pearl Coat Brown Sugar"

STEPPING-STONE BAND

• 11/0 seed beads Toho "Transparent Montana Gold Luster" (204)
• 8/0 seed beads Toho "Transparent Montana Gold Luster" (204)
• 3mm fire polished beads "Light Sapphire Gold Marbled"
• 6mm 2-hole cabochons "Pastel Light Brown"
• DiamonDuo beads "Cocoa Airy Pearl"

I blogged before about this "Stepping-Stone Band" HERE. It's going to be a Christmas present and I really wanted to make some earrings to go with it. The beads are usual colors that I thought might be hard to match with store bought earrings. At first I thought I'd make them with all one color of SuperDuo beads but then I remembered that I have some Mini DiamonDuos. Luckily, I have some in the same color as the regular size ones in the bracelet. It was also lucky that the mini ones worked great as a substitute for the SuperDuos in the center of the earrings. They really help tie the set together.

You can buy this bracelet pattern HERE at Around the Beading Table or HERE in Deb's Etsy shop. You can watch Kelly Dale's YouTube video to learn how to make the "Corundum Earrings" HERE or buy the pattern HERE in her Etsy shop.