CLAUDIA CALI BEAD CHAIN
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
- Cali beads "Jet Capri Rose"
- SuperDuo beads "Bronze Copper"
This is another favorite. I love the dark gray metallic and pewter paired with copper.
Download my free "Claudia Cali Bead Chain" pattern HERE. You can find Cali beads at Queen City Bead on Etsy HERE.
CLAUDIA CALI BEAD CHAIN
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki/Czech "Full Labrador" (27000)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki/Czech "Full Labrador" (27000)
- Cali beads "Chalk Green Luster"
- SuperDuo beads "Crystal Bronze Aluminum"
Here's a bright silvery colorway with just a hint of mint green. You could also use Full Labrador SuperDuos. I used the Crystal Bronze Aluminum ones because I didn't have enough Full Labrador.
Download my free "Claudia Cali Bead Chain" pattern HERE. You'll find the best assortment of Cali beads at Queen City Bead on Etsy HERE. Red Panda has these silver seed beads which I haven't seen anywhere else. You'll find the 11/0 beads HERE, the 8/0 beads HERE and she also has them in 15/0 HERE.
CLAUDIA CALI BEAD CHAIN
- 11/0 seed beads Toho "Olympic Bronze" (224)
- 8/0 seed beads Toho "Olympic Bronze" (224)
- Cali beads "Jet Punch"
- SuperDuo beads "Polychrome Aqua Teal"
- SuperDuo beads "Jet Vega"
It was a little tricky choosing the beads for this colorway because these Cali beads are an "oily" mixture of colors. There seems to be very dark reddish purple as well as some dark green, teal and blue. I think these two SuperDuo colors work quite well with the Cali beads and I went with reddish copper seed beads. They're not quite the same color as the other beads but I think they suit this colorway better than either bronze or silver would have.
Download my free "Claudia Cali Bead Chain" pattern HERE. You'll find the best assortment of Cali beads at Queen City Bead on Etsy HERE.
I took photos of four more colorways yesterday and also made three more "Claudia" bracelets last night. My goal is to make at least one bracelet using each of the thirteen Cali bead colors that I got recently. My plan is to make four more bracelets. I'm expecting a shipment of SuperDuos tomorrow which will give me enough of a color that I need for the final colorway.
CLAUDIA CALI BEAD CHAIN
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Pewter" (4222)
- Cali beads "Chalk Lumi Blue"
- SuperDuo beads "Green Turquoise/Ivory Nebula Matte Duets"
This is one of my favorite "Claudia" colorways. These SuperDuo Duets don't have a distinct line down the center like most of them. The two colors are softly blended.
I was worried that this bracelet might not show up well on my usual dark background paper so I also took some shots on a different background. I think that the bracelet colors do show up nicely on the lighter background but I wasn't happy with the wrist pose on that background. With my pale skin over the light background my camera got confused and no amount of editing could get the colors right so I discarded that shot. Rather than choose which photos to post, I'm posting both sets so you can compare them.
Download my free "Claudia Cali Bead Chain" pattern HERE. You'll find the best assortment of Cali beads at Queen City Bead on Etsy HERE.
I have five more "Claudia" bracelets ready to have their photos taken today. The sun is coming and going so I quickly took these photos so that I'd have something to blog about today. If I don't get them all taken this afternoon, tomorrow looks pretty sunny too. After that we've got two rainy days to look forward to.
CLAUDIA CALI BEAD CHAIN
- 11/0 seed beads Toho "Bright Bronze" (221)
- 8/0 seed beads Toho "Bright Bronze" (221)
- Cali beads "Brown Opaque"
- SuperDuo beads "Green Turquoise/Ivory Dark Travertin Duets"
- SuperDuo beads "Opaque Light Blue Picasso"
My idea of using two SuperDuo colors worked. By doing that, I will have enough beads to make all of the bracelets that I was hoping to make. I don't think you can even tell in today's bracelet that I used two different colors because they're so similar. The SuperDuo Duets are the ones that are closest to the Cali beads. The distinction will be more obvious with most of the other colorways that I plan to make. The Cali beads in today's bracelet look kind of red but they're actually a caramel brown color.
Download my free "Claudia Cali Bead Chain" pattern HERE. You'll find the best assortment of Cali beads at Queen City Bead on Etsy HERE.
CLAUDIA CALI BEAD CHAIN
- 11/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
- 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
- Cali beads "Dark Red aka Blood Red"
- SuperDuo beads "Jet Matte"
The other day I made sample motifs of "Claudia" in seventeen colorways using the thirteen Cali bead colors that I have now. They're all pretty but I do have some favorites. I want to make bracelets in most of the colorways but I ran into a problem. I don't have enough of at least half of the SuperDuo colors to make even small size bracelets. What I plan to do is make bracelets from as many of the samples as I can and I will just post samples of the ones that I don't have enough beads to make. I might also try using two SuperDuo colors with some of them to make the beads go farther.
I will make as many of these bracelets and samples as I can over the next couple of weeks but I won't have a lot of time for beading next week or the week after. I'll be busy getting the house ready for my sister-in-law's visit the week after next when she will be here for four days.
When I got my Cali beads, I was excited to see that this wonderful red color goes perfectly with the red Delica beads that I used to make the fringe earrings below. Donna at Queen City Bead calls this color "Dark Red" but the actual name is "Blood Red". The color is really closer to maroon, which is what Miyuki calls the Delica color #DB654 that I used to make the earrings.
I blogged about the earrings HERE and made them to go the top below. Today's bracelet will complete the set very nicely.
Download my free "Claudia Cali Bead Chain" pattern HERE. You'll find Cali beads at Queen City Bead on Etsy HERE.
CLAUDIA CALI BEAD CHAIN
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
- Cali beads "Patina"
- SuperDuo beads "Matte Chalk Picasso"
I'm not usually keen to try new bead shapes and there are so many unusual shapes coming on the market these days. However, every now and then I spot a new bead that has a pleasing shape and comes in pretty colors that I like. I was ordering a few beads on Etsy recently and decided to buy some Cali beads in two colors and see if I could find a way to use them. Cali beads come in some gorgeous and interesting colors so it was hard to choose. I hadn't seen many patterns online for Cali beads so I looked through all of my bracelet patterns for ideas. I found that they work quite well with the bracelet pattern that I blogged about HERE but I was hoping to come up with more ideas.
After making a bunch of THESE "Bisaneta Bracelet" samples recently, I had the idea to try the same pattern using Cali beads. Although they don't work with that pattern, I was able to make a few changes which evolved into a new design that even makes use of the third hole in the middle of the Cali bead. The motifs look a bit like flowers so my first thought was to name this pattern "Cali-Flower" but that sounded too corny.
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| CALI BEADS |
I made one of today's bracelets with Toho seed beads and they work equally as well as Miyuki beads with this design. For some reason the one with Toho seed beads came out a little shorter than the one with Miyuki beads so I added an extra motif to that one. It's slightly loose but I find that a loose bracelet is more comfortable to wear than a snug one. The bracelets in these photos fit a 6 to 6 1/2 inch wrist measurement.
Donna from Queen City Bead on Etsy sells pretty much every Cali bead color that they make HERE.
- 11/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
- 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
- Cali beads "Chalk Lumi Punch"
- SuperDuo beads "Opaque Blue Luster"
Click HERE to download the free pattern.
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NOTE:
I don't mind if you sell the projects that you make with my patterns,
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