LEFT EARRING:
- 15/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Bronze" (223)
- 8/0 seed beads Toho "Antique Bronze" (223)
- ZoliDuo beads "Lazure Blue"
- SuperDuo beads "Opaque Green Senegal Matte"
- 4mm druks "Bronze"
RIGHT EARRING:
- 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
- ZoliDuo beads "Lazure Blue"
- SuperDuo beads "Opaque Green Senegal Matte"
- 4mm druks "Bronze"
It all started when I saw a pair of earrings on Facebook that Jeanie Callaghan had made. I hadn't seen the design before so I asked her if there was a pattern for them. She told me that she had figured out how to make them on her own after seeing THIS photo on Etsy. In Cindy's description below her photo, she mentioned that she adapted them from a pattern by Teresa Morse. So, I went to Teresa's Etsy shop and found the bracelet pattern that inspired Cindy's earrings. You'll find her "Juliet Bracelet" pattern for sale HERE. There is no earring pattern but they should be pretty easy to make if you have the bracelet pattern as a guide. I was able to figure them out by looking at the photos. Perhaps after reading this post, Teresa will consider making an earring pattern to go with her bracelet. I will let you know if she does.
UPDATE: I've been told by Jeanie that I have the sequence of events incorrect. Here is what actually happened: I saw a photo of Jeanie's earrings on Facebook. I asked her if there was a pattern available for making them. She said that she had figured out how to make them from a photo that she had seen on Pinterest. So, I wandered over to Jeanie's Pinterest board called "Beady Things" and I found the photo that she had mentioned. There is a watermark on the photo that says "Cinful Beads" and I knew that was the logo for Cindy's Etsy shop and clicking the link on Pinterest took me there. Even though Cindy has already sold that pair of earrings her listing is still visible on Etsy so I was able to read her description. In the description for Cindy's earrings, she mentioned that she was inspired by Teresa Morse. I know that Teresa Morse has an Etsy shop called "IceniBeads" so I popped over there to see if I could track down the pattern that inspired Cindy. I didn't find an earring pattern, but I did find Teresa's "Juliet Bracelet" pattern and Bob's your uncle. So now you know the true story of how these earrings came to be.
I didn't know when I started making these if they would work best with Toho or Miyuki seed beads. Cindy said that she used Toho seed beads so that's what I tried first. The earring on the left in all of my photos is the one with Toho beads. The earring on the right was made with Miyuki seed beads and you can see that they work just as well. The Miyuki earrings come out slightly smaller and the point at the bottom of the earrings doesn't hang down as much as the one with Toho beads. With either brand, don't pull the beadwork too tight or you might cause the earrings to cup. If you use a light tension, they should lay flat. They will be soft earrings but they hang nicely.
I will be blogging about three more colorways over the next few days and here is a sample of a colorway that I've decided not to make into a pair of earrings:
- 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
- ZoliDuo beads "Jet"
- SuperDuo beads "Lustre Gold"
- 4mm druks "Bronze"
LIZZIE BRACELET
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Matte Metallic Bronze" (2006)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Matte Metallic Bronze" (2006)
- 6mm druks "Etched Stone"
- 4 druks "Etched Stone"
I found these "Etched Stone" druks at Supply Emporium and just had to have them. Once I had them, I needed to find just the right bracelet pattern to make with them. The pattern had to use both 4mm and 6mm beads and Teejay's "Lizzie Bracelet" was just the thing. "Lizzie" was inspired by Deb Roberti's "Bobble Bangles" and is a variation of Teejay's "Lizbeth Band" which is a free pattern that you can download HERE. With "Lizzie", 6mm druks replace the SuperDuos that run down the center. Because the druks are so much larger than SuperDuos, they change the shape of the bracelet somewhat. I plan to make a free pattern for "Lizzie" one of these days.
If you want to buy some of these unusual druks, you'll find the 4mm ones HERE and the 6mm beads are HERE at Supply Emporium.
STEPPING-STONE BAND
- 11/0 seed beads Toho "Metallic Bronze Antique Gold" (225)
- 8/0 seed beads Toho "Metallic Bronze Antique Gold" (225)
- 3mm druks "Matte Siam Ruby Bronze Picasso"
- 6mm 2-hole cabochons "Etched Blue Luster"
- DiamonDuo beads "Chalk Lumi Green"
After posting two elegant versions of Deborah Roberti's "Stepping-Stone Band", I just had to post a grungy one. Once again, I used 6mm 2-hole cabochons and DiamonDuos because I don't have enough of any other kinds of beads to make this bracelet. And, I used Toho seed beads again. I had planned to use Miyuki Dark Bronze (457) beads but switched to these because they're a bit more grungy-looking and not as shiny.
You can buy this pattern HERE at Around the Beading Table or HERE in Deb's Etsy shop.
Red Panda has the 2-hole cabochons HERE. Queen City Bead has the DiamonDuos HERE and Supply Emporium has them HERE. Supply Emporium also has the Toho seed beads. The 11/0 beads are HERE and the 8/0 beads are HERE. Red Panda has them in 11/0 HERE but Betsy is out of the 8/0 size. Bear in mind that the pattern doesn't actually call for any 8/0 seed beads. I only used two of them for my clasp loops. Simply Beads has the 3mm druks that I used HERE. Tamara Scott Designs has one strand left HERE.
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"
Although Miyuki seed beads work best with this pattern, I had to use Toho seed beads to make this bracelet because they were the best color to go with the rest of the beads. Because Toho beads are larger than Miyuki beads, I only added two 11/0 seed beads over each pair of DiamonDuos instead of three.
You can buy this pattern HERE at Around the Beading Table or HERE in Deb's Etsy shop.
I bought these delicately colored fire polished beads at Aura Crystals but they are out of stock there. I did a Google search and found some HERE at Odyssey Cache. They also have them HERE in their Etsy shop. Theirs might be a different dye lot because mine definitely are a pale blue with gold highlights. Aura Crystals has another color that might be similar but a little more blue. They're called "Light Sapphire Suede Gold" and you'll find them HERE.
STEPPING-STONE BAND
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Gunmetal" (451)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Gunmetal" (451)
- 3mm druks "Lilac Vega Luster"
- 6mm 2-hole cabochons "Chalk White Lila Vega Luster"
- DiamonDuo beads "Hematite"
It was a challenge to come up with three different colorways to make Deb Roberti's new "Stepping-Stone Band" because I didn't have enough of most of the necessary types of beads to make a complete bracelet. Honeycomb beads and GemDuos were out completely for me but I did have enough 6mm 2-hole cabochons and DiamonDuos in a few colors. Although I had enough 7mm CzechMates 2-hole cabochons in several colors, none of them went well with the DiamonDuos that I had enough of. It took fifteen of the 2-hole cabochons to make this bracelet to fit my 6-inch wrist and I made my clasp loops differently than the pattern instructs.
You can buy this pattern HERE at Around the Beading Table or HERE in Deb's Etsy shop.
ZENITH EARRINGS
I wanted to try Deb Roberti's latest pattern but decided that I could try more colorways if I made the earrings rather than the bracelet. Both are included in the "Zenith Bracelet & Earrings" pattern which you can buy HERE at Around the Beading Table or HERE on Etsy. As you can see, I left off the drop beads and changed the tops where the earring wires are attached.
I did something else that isn't mentioned in the instructions. As I wove around to reinforce the perimeter of each earring, I connected the center seed beads of the inner and outer rows. That helps to keep the outer row of seed beads from moving around. As I went around, I exited the center bead of the outer row, circled around through the inner row center bead and back out through the center bead in the outer row before continuing on around to the next section of seed beads.
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
- GemDuo beads "Chalk Beige Lumi"
- 3mm fire polished beads "Aztec Gold"
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
- DiamonDuo beads "Chalk Lumi Green"
- 3mm fire polished beads "Champagne"
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
- GemDuo beads "Bronze Pale Gold"
- 3mm fire polished beads "Bronze Illusion"
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
- GemDuo beads "Chalk Senegal Brown"
- 3mm fire polished beads "Transparent Gold Topaz Luster"
TILA SQUARED BRACELET
- 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
- 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
- Tila beads "Metallic Mauve Green Iris Matte" (TL-2035)
- 4mm fire polished beads "Matte Luster Transparent Rosaline" aka "Transparent Smoky Topaz Gold Luster"
Although I just made this bracelet, I made these almost matching earrings way back in 2015. I blogged about them HERE. The bead colors aren't quite the same but I think they're close enough that I can wear these together as a set.
I had a little trouble making this bracelet because these Tila beads seem to have very sharp edges that kept fraying my thread. I started out using Nymo D thread because I didn't want to use 5 yards of Fireline. I was a little more than halfway finished when it became apparent that the thread was going to break soon so I stopped right there and ended the thread. I happened to have a scrap of Fireline that was just long enough to finish the bracelet without any issues.
You can buy this pattern HERE at Around the Beading Table. I made the earrings using Yvonne King's "Layered Tila Bracelet" pattern which you can get free HERE on Craftsy.
UPDATE 6/6/19: All of the previous links to this pattern are dead. You can get the free "Layered Tila Bracelet" pattern HERE on Bead-Patterns.com.
You'll find a nice assortment of Tila beads HERE at Red Panda and HERE at Aura Crystals. I bought these fire polished beads at Aura Crystals but they're currently out of stock there. Red Panda has only one left HERE but I did find a few more HERE at Bead Passion Studio. Note that this color goes by two different names: "Matte Luster Transparent Rosaline" and also by "Transparent Smoky Topaz Gold Luster". I have bought them by both names and they are the same beads.
