CRYSTAL CHAIN VARIATION
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Antique Silver/Nickel" (11-464A)
- 11/0 seed beads Toho "Metallic Hematite" (TR-11-81/c)
- 4mm fire polished beads "Iris Blue Milky Dark Peridot"
This is another bracelet made with Deborah Roberti's free "Crystal Chain" pattern but with only one of the motifs repeated for the whole bracelet. I added "Hematite" accent beads on this one to compliment the bits of dark blue on the fire polished beads. You can download Deb's pattern at Around the Beading Table HERE.
I thought I'd share a photo of the earrings that I just made to go with a bracelet that I posted here back on February 27. I like how the Art Deco shape of the earrings is similar to the shape of the motifs in the bracelet. For the earrings I used 4mm pearls and those are 3mm pearls in the bracelet but in the same color.
UPDATE 1/24/18: A free pattern is now available for this bracelet and the new name for this pattern is "Lizbeth Band". Visit THIS post to download the free pattern.
You can get the free Loretta Earring pattern by Eva Kovács HERE.
I made a few changes to the original pattern for my Deco version. Here are the beads that I used:
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki Duracoat Galvanized "Pewter" (4222)
- 4mm pearls "Light Bronze - HX17/39" (Beads One)
- SuperDuo beads "Opaque Baby Blue Stardust"
TRESTLE BANDS
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki “Dark Bronze” (11-457D)
- SuperDuo beads “Amethyst Matte”
- Half Tila beads “Dark Bronze Metallic Matte” (TLH-2006)
- 3mm fire polished beads “Rosaline Moon Dust”
I had a hard time getting a photo of this bracelet that really shows how pretty it is because the colors are very subtle and delicate. The overall look is a very pale purple with a slightly olive color from the matte bronze Half Tila beads. As you can see, fire polish beads, which are a pale mauve color in this bracelet, work quite well with this pattern and the sparkle gives the bracelet a very different look than the ones I've made with mostly opaque beads. Those have a casual look and this one is a little more elegant.
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| Rosaline Moon Dust |
You can buy Deborah Roberti's "Trestle Bands" pattern HERE.
Today you'll find out what I use the marker pens for. I have two of these large stacks of Snapware trays that you see in the above photo where I store little containers holding all my beading projects in the works. The marker is a dry-erase pen which I use to label the lids of the containers so that I'll know which pattern I'm using for each project. I have two of those markers in my kit but one of them I keep in there because it has a built-in eraser on the end of it. I got the little plastic storage containers at Dollar Tree where they come 10 per package.
Then, I use a little pieces of card stock (cut to 1 x 1.5 inches) to jot down which beads I'm planning to use for each project. If there's more than one sample in a container, I make a separate tag for each one. That's also helpful if I decide later not to make that project and need to remember which beads I used to make the samples. With all the different shades of bronze and silver seed beads that I've got, I'd rather not have to try and guess which one I used later.
HARMONY BANDS
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (11-461)
- 11/0 Toho "Hybrid Opaque Lavender Picasso" (11-Y311)
- SuperDuo beads "Jet Copper"
- SuperDuo beads "Opaque Olive Picasso"
You can get this cute little pattern, that comes with three design variations, at Around the Beading Table HERE. This one was made using version #1 of the pattern. I made this one for a Christmas present last year so I need to make one for myself one of these days.
I thought you might be interested in some inspiration of a different sort. This afternoon I took photos of my beading "studio" to give you some storage and organization ideas. My workspace is actually in our living room and I sit on the couch to do my beading. Because we live in such a small house, I keep most of my tools and supplies on and under the coffee table as you can see below:
If we have company, I can pretty quickly stash everything on the floor of the bedroom closet or out in the garage temporarily. Although all that stuff doesn't do much for the decor, I sure like having everything so handy at all times. I don't think I'd like having to drag everything out of storage every time I want to do some beading.
I will be getting more of the smaller square Snapware containers soon. I just ordered the last two sets they had in stock (3 trays in each) from Amazon today for a really good price. The ones I have are getting very full (as you'll see another day) and it will be nice to spread out my beads a little more so that I won't need to dump out a whole tray to find the color I want.
Over the next few days I'll post pictures of what's inside all of those drawers and containers. Today I'll start with the Snapware container that's sitting on top of the coffee table as well as the one under the table on the far right. I keep my tools and supplies, and basically everything other than beads, in those two containers.
This container holds the tools that I use every time I do my beading. The top tray holds my scissors, needles and thread plus a few other items such as pliers. I use the small funnel to pour seed beads back into their tubes using a teaspoon which you can just barely see on the right. I took a hint from Rachael Ray and use that little metal bowl as my "garbage bowl". As I'm working, I put thread scraps and bad beads in there. It also just happens to be just the right size for my FireLine spools when everything is packed up for the day. The empty little black plastic box in the picture is where I keep my leftover bits of thread that are long enough for making samples.
In case you're wondering why I have my spools of thread in little bags, it's because I've come up with a trick for dispensing my thread. I just reach into the bag and pull out the end of the thread and the spool unwinds inside the bag as I pull off the length of thread that I need. The bag keeps the thread from unraveling and making a tangled mess in my kit.
In the next two photos you can see the cute little plastic containers where I store needles and smaller spools of thread. I got those at The Container Store. The black area that you see under the needles is a thin sheet of self-adhesive magnet. I cut it to size and stuck it to the bottom of the case. The needles stick to the magnet so they don't fall out when I tip the container.
The thread box used to be packed full of small spools of thread but I don't buy the small ones anymore and those are all that I've got left of them. I'm sure that I'll find another use for it once those are gone.
This next photo is the bottom tray of that stack. In that one I keep little plastic zipper bags and a few other useful items. You'll find out what the markers are for another day, unless you've already guessed. Those little white pieces of paper in the clear canisters are bits of scrap card stock that I use to jot down the bead colors for my projects. More about that another day too.
A few things in that tray that you can't really see are my bracelet size templates, a metric ruler and a small notepad. There are also two plastic storage boxes with my earring wires. I got those at Hobby Lobby.
This is the large Snapware container that I keep under the table:
I keep my clasps and jump rings in the top tray of that container. There's also space along the side to keep spare empty bead tubes.
I found the small compartment boxes at Dollar Tree where they sell the tools. They come with nuts and bolts and that sort of thing in them. They're great for a buck each and I might actually find a use for the nuts and bolts one day.
I got the compartment boxes holding my clasps in the fishing department at Walmart.
The bottom tray contains storage boxes holding miscellaneous findings such as bails and necklace chains. There are also spare spools of Nymo and FireLine as well as a spare container of Thread Heaven.
FLOWER CROSS BRACELET
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (11-461)
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Caramel Ceylon" (11-593)
- 4mm fire polished beads "Montana"
- 6mm fire polished beads "Montana"
This free pattern is by Nadine Denefleh and you can download it HERE (Unfortunately, this pattern is no longer available). HERE is a link to her blog article about this bracelet but the link from there to download the pattern doesn't seem to work for me. Luckily I'd saved that other link back when I found the pattern. Here is Nadine's photo of the bracelet:
With a few tweaks, I came up with my own take on the pattern. I used fire polished beads instead of pearls and bicones and I used 11/0 accent beads instead of 15/0 beads. I don't remember after all this time but I'm guessing that 15's were too small to show up very well in my color scheme. In any case, 11/0 seed beads fit just fine as you can see.
I love the design but unfortunately, the scale of the bracelet is a bit too big for my skinny arm. My plan is to make a smaller version using beads in the next sizes down from the original. Here's my tiny sample next to the full-size version:
I made that sample a very long time ago so I'm not sure now if I'll still use those colors. If I do, these are the beads that I will use:
- 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (15-457D)
- 15/0 seed beads Toho "Opaque Lavender" (TR-15-52/c)
- 3mm fire polished beads "Amethyst AB" or "Alexandrite Celsian"
- 4mm fire polished beads "Montana"
There's a note that I wrote on the pattern that says "Add 6 beads to the arches instead of 4". It's been ages since I wrote that but I suppose that it took more 15/0 seed beads to go around than of the 11/0's in the original size.
Hopefully I'll get around to making this bracelet soon. The trouble is that I've got so many other beading projects waiting to be made that it's hard to decide which one to make next. And naturally, for every project that finally gets made, I come up ten new things to make. Anyone else have that problem?
