Saturday, April 23, 2011

A Bracelet a Week: Easter Eggs

Pastel Herringbone Bracelet

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.

Cool Pastel Seed Bead Palette

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.

Easter Egg Bracelet

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!

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
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12 comments:

  1. It's beautiful!!!!!!!!!!
    Happy Easter!!!!!!

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  2. Lovely! The perfect Easter bracelet!

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  3. Ingenious! I love how inventive your designs are. And the colors - a real treat!

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  4. Gorgeous! It's perfect for Easter, but it could work for lots of other occasions, too.

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  5. I love the bracelet and have a request. Would you post a photo of the beading tray/veggie platter thing? I need a good idea like that but need to see it to know what I'm looking for! Thanks.

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  6. I am in love with this bracelet!!! What an awesome pick. I am sitting here wishing I had those colors to make one of my own and use your technique. I haven't attempted it yet!

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  7. Thanks everyone! I was SO tempted to use a brighter palette with lots of different colors to make it even more Easter-eggy. But I decided to go with something that would be really wearable, sort of chic, yet still fun.

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  8. Beautiful bracelet! I love the colour combination.
    You are truly an inspiration to beaders like me.

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  9. Wonderful, I love this technique. Do you use a core in this bracelet? I find my work collapsing a bit if I am using as much as 6 beads or more per round, and I have found something to use as a core, but never tried it out. I wonder if the most effective way to insert a "filler", is to start my work around it? Sounds tricky to me, but inserting the tubing afterwards can be tricky to, I think.... Ideas?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks, Ingrid!

    I don't use a core material, but I'm also working with Fireline. Are you using a soft thread like Nymo?

    In most cases, if you're beading something that will cover another thing, beading around the object is easiest - especially for a tubular project.

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  11. Beautiful bracelet, I just love it and all the colors,wow. Is there a pattern for this I would love to make it for myself?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Deborah! You can get a tutorial for this technique under the Beading Tutorials tab, or copy and paste this link:

      http://www.inspirationalbeading.blogspot.com/2012/09/tutorial-graduated-herringbone-bobble.html

      Delete

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