A Bracelet a Week: Easter Eggs

Another week has come and gone, and I am enjoying this bracelet challenge more and more. I had no idea that I could relish making new bracelets so much. Having this motivation not only helps me to come up with new ideas, but adds to the excitement of trying them out.

This week, I wanted to experiment with a technique I haven’t used in ages - graduated tubular herringbone. The very first time I ever attempted it, I was limited to just three seed bead sizes, and it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. Now that my bead stash is a little more sophisticated, I thought it was time to revive the stitch and see what happened.

In order to get a really broad range of bead sizes, I wanted my base to be smaller than an 11/o, but 15/o seed beads seemed much too flimsy for the job of holding up bigger herringbone bobbles. So I went to delicas to start my palette, and chose a tube of lovely matte transparent grays.

Since it was coming up on Easter weekend, I added different sizes and shapes of beads in cool pastels to go with the gray. Normally, I really love to photograph my bead picks in their little cups, but there are far too many to capture in this palette (I just didn‘t feel like spilling them all out at once). Instead, I thought I’d share a rare glimpse of my actual beading station, moments before I began working on this bracelet.

The palette includes: 11/o wisteria lined crystal, 11/o opaque lustered turquoise, sapphire lined light sapphire Miyuki triangles, 8/o dichroic lined cornflower blue, 8/o fuchsia lined aqua, 6/o Czech ceylon pearl, 6/o Miyuki purple lined crystal AB, 4mm opaque gray lined cubes, and 4mm light jonquil lined aqua cubes. I later added some 8/o raspberry lined crystal beads as well.

It was so fun to have all of these beads laid out on my tray at one time, especially because I almost never get a chance to use delicas or cubes, and they all looked so pretty in their little cups and coasters. The bead tray I use is actually the lid of a veggies and dip container, and at about four bucks, it’s one of the best beading investments I’ve ever made. The round shape is especially handy for projects like this one, because I can place the beads along the outer edge, and rotate the tray for easy transitions.

I was a little worried halfway through the first increase that the bobbles would be too boxy thanks to the cubes at the center, but they rounded out again as the beads decreased, and I love the shape. Sizing was a bit of a hassle, and it took a lot of pondering to decide where to stop to get just the right length. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish the pattern as smoothly as I would have liked, but I’m still happy with the bracelet overall. It actually turned out a lot more sophisticated than I had hoped it would.

Happy Easter!

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