Saturday, April 12, 2014

Playing with my Beads...

I tried another beaded bezel pattern yesterday with mixed results. This one is the "Captured Crystal Cubes Earrings" from Beading Daily. You can get the free tutorial HERE. I like the earrings in the original photo on the Beading Daily site but their stones are a slightly different shape than the ones I used. The bezel doesn't fit quite the same on my stones. Here is the original photo:
I hadn't done herringbone stitch before so the other night I practiced the stitch on a larger stone with 11/0 seed beads instead of 15/0's. That was very easy to work but too large for an earring. 

The tutorial doesn't say what kind of thread to use but I knew that it would have to be very fine because of the number of times you pass through the tiny 15/0 beads. For my first sample, I used Nymo B thread and it was very tough getting through the beads after the first few rounds. Nymo D thread would never work for this pattern. It was such a struggle that I was going to give up on the pattern but today I gave it one more go with 6lb FireLine. That did help a bit and it gave me neater-looking stitches.

I didn't like the loop that they made for the earring wires so I tried a couple of different things. I'm not happy with either of them either. At this point I doubt if I'll make a pair of these earrings. The larger version might make a pretty pendant though if I can work out a way to add a jump ring to connect it to a chain.

In the photo at the top of this post, the sample on the far left is the one I did with FireLine. The photo below shows how pretty the design looks on the back of the bezel.



4 comments:

  1. love the earrings- Swarovski is having a trunk show today at Ben Franklin so I will drop in and pick up some of the giant beads. I have just recently happened on your blog and yesterday finished working my way backwards through all the posts.

    I am fairly new to beading as well, and I have to say if Powatomi stitch were my first, I never would have continued! Good for you for mastering that little devil from the beginning. I started with peyote and brick and then worked my way through herringbone and netting and raw.

    Your color choices are stunning. I love almost everything you have made. I followed your tutorial for the daisy superduo bracelet and found out why all your bracelets look so even and sturdy- you make a lot more passes through the beads than I do. I am a short cut taker by nature and apparently I have to stop that.

    Thanks for all the links and info.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Dolly. I'm thankful that my friend, Teejay, so patiently taught me how to do Potawatomi Weave. She told me that if I can learn that stitch, I can learn any stitch. I think she was right. I haven't been stumped by too many yet but there are a few that I didn't care for well enough to go back to. There have been a few patterns that I've tried without success and I try them again occasionally to see if more beading experience will make a difference. So far it hasn't so maybe it's the patterns and not me. I plan to post about some of those sometime to see if anyone has tips for making them work. Quite often when I come across a stubborn pattern like that, I just change it so that it works for me.

      Delete
  2. I really think these are very pretty. Please make more super duo earrings. Are you on u-tube?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Cindy. I don't have any YouTube videos. I'm keeping my eye out for more SuperDuo earring ideas.

      Delete