Saturday, October 28, 2023

Beaded Eye Glasses Chain - Champagne


EYE GLASSES CHAIN
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Matte Metallic Bronze" (2006)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Matte Metallic Bronze" (2006) (you will need 2)
  • SuperDuo beads "Opaque Grey Picasso" (you will need 37)
  • 3mm druks "Champagne" (you will need 152)

When I saw Deborah Roberti's "Beaded Lanyard" pattern recently, I immediately thought that it would work great for a glasses chain with some modifications. First, I went to Walmart and bought the only glasses chain that they had in stock so that I could determine how long to make my chain. You can see the clunky tortoise shell chain in the photo below. The Walmart chain is 25-inches long so that's how long I made mine. 


Deb's pattern was easy to adapt. I simply made one continuous length using her pattern design, starting and ending with a druk motif. I added an 8/0 seed bead on each end to attach a medium size jump ring. The eyeglass chain loops attach to the jump rings. Betsy from Red Panda Beads sent me a few loops to play with but you can buy them on Amazon. I saw a pack of 16 of them for about $5.00 there. If Betsy puts them up for sale in her shop, I will post a link to them.


You can download Deb's free "Beaded Lanyard" pattern HERE at Around the Beading Table.

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Video Tutorial - Honeycomb Earrings


HONEYCOMB EARRINGS

These cute little earrings were made by following THIS JRPDesigns video by Jigisha Patel. They are called "Honeycomb Earrings". I made sample earrings in three colorways. The sample with the turquoise SuperDuos is the same combination of colors that she used in the video. For some reason, her Duracoat Champagne (4204) seed beads look silver but they are actually a pale copper color. For that reason, I used copper jump rings and earring wires with mine.

Jigisha has the pattern for these earrings for sale HERE on Etsy.



  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Galvanized Champagne" (4204)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Galvanized Champagne" (4204)
  • SuperDuo beads "Turquoise"


  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
  • SuperDuo beads "Bondeli Matte Coral"


  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Galvanized Champagne" (4204)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Galvanized Champagne" (4204)
  • SuperDuo beads "Bondeli Matte Coral"


Friday, May 26, 2023

Free Beading Pattern - Galadriel Bracelet


I originally blogged about the "Galadriel Bracelet" above HERE in January of 2017 after receiving it as a Christmas gift from my friend, Teejay. In that post, I mentioned that I hadn't yet made a pattern for this design. I have since then typed up the instructions for making it but haven't made diagrams for the pattern yet. I've decided that I will go ahead and post the text instructions for download because I have no idea when I will get around to creating the diagrams. If I ever do make them, I will update this post. You'll find the link to download the free PDF down below.

Although this design was created to be made with Pinch beads, I had good luck substituting 4mm fire polished beads as you can see in two of the bracelets below. This is a good thing because I don't think that Pinch beads are quite as readily available as they used to be.


  • 15/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
  • 11/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
  • 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
  • DiamonDuo beads "Antique Chrome"
  • Pinch beads "Opaque Luster Picasso"
  • O-Beads "Jet Full Chrome"


  • 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • DiamonDuo beads "Jet"
  • Pinch beads "Purple Vega"
  • O-Beads "Chalk White Lila Vega"




  • 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Light Bronze" (457L)
  • DiamonDuo beads "Matte Gold"
  • Pinch beads "Opaque Blue Luster"
  • O-Beads "Metallic Flax"




  • 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • DiamonDuo beads "Chalk Champagne"
  • Pinch beads "Opaque Rose Gold Topaz Luster"
  • O-Beads "Rose Gold Topaz"




  • 15/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Metallic Chocolate" (461)
  • DiamonDuo beads "Pastel Blue Zircon"
  • Fire polished beads "Copper Teal"
  • O-Beads "Jet Bronze"




  • 15/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
  • 11/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
  • 8/0 seed beads Toho "Nickel Plated" (711)
  • DiamonDuo beads "Antique Chrome"
  • Fire polished beads "Chalk Teal Luster"
  • O-Beads "Jade Picasso"






Click HERE to download the free pattern.
 
If you like this pattern, please consider making a voluntary donation through PayPal using the DONATE button on the right.

NOTE: I don't mind if you sell the projects that you make with my patterns, but please mention that you got the pattern from Linda's Crafty Inspirations. Please contact me for information about teaching this or any of our patterns in a class.








Thursday, May 25, 2023

Beading Video - Russian Doll Earring Samples


When I saw these beautiful earrings on the Sonysree Creations YouTube channel, I had to give them a try. You can watch her video HERE. Although they are pretty, I have decided not to make the mates to these two sample earrings. I'm very fussy about neat netting and it's a struggle to keep this netting looking as orderly as I'd like. It may look fine in these photos, but that's because I manually arranged the netting as well as I could.

I also had to use a little different method to make these because she leaves thread showing on the outside of a lot of the beads. Doing that isn't acceptable to me. Instead of following her thread path, after beading each section of the netting, I right away wove my way to the other side of the earring and wove the same section of netting on the other side. This eliminated the need to leave thread showing on the outside of some of the beads. I also added an 8/0 seed bead at the top of my earrings for inserting a jump ring.



RUSSIAN DOLL BEADED EARRINGS

  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 3x4mm rondelles (Opaque Aqua - Chinese) - no longer available


RUSSIAN DOLL BEADED EARRINGS

  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Dark Bronze" (457)
  • 3x4mm rondelles (Aqua Gold AB - Chinese) - no longer available


Thursday, March 23, 2023

Bethany Earrings - Baby Blue Star Dust & Ruby Luster

BETHANY EARRINGS

  • 11/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Galvanized Light Pewter" (4221)
  • 8/0 seed beads Miyuki "Duracoat Galvanized Light Pewter" (4221)
  • SuperDuo beads "Opaque Baby Blue Star Dust"
  • SuperDuo beads "Ruby Luster"


I made these earrings to go with the top in the photo below. The colors in the photos are a little off and the earrings go quite well with this top.


In THIS previous post, I showed the same top with a pair of "Russian Leaf Earrings" in a similar colorway. You can download my free "Bethany Earrings" pattern HERE.


Here is a photo of the "Russian Leaf" earrings that I mentioned: