Thursday, August 28, 2014

Throwback Thursday: Spring Bead Mix

This week at Bead & Button, I shared some ideas for using bead soups and seed bead blends without doing any freeform stitching. Even if you’re working with a structured stitch, you can still get amazing, organic looking designs just by using a whole bunch of beads together.

Thinking about some of my favorite custom bead soups reminded me of a packaged seed bead blend that I was once head over heels for. Way, way back when I first started bead weaving, I had two choices for bead shopping in town. One was a small indie craft store, and the other was a dollar store that stocked such nice things it was more like a boutique. And they carried Czech seed beads, which was incredibly awesome. Both stores sold their beads in tubes, and one SKU in particular was always in stock - much to my delight.

Spring Rain Bracelet with Copper-lined Earth Mix Cuff Bracelet with Color-lined Earth Mix


The mix was called Earth, and included copper lined: transparent dark gray, crystal, Montana blue, mauve; and a gorgeous, stunning, copper lined green. If it weren’t for the metal lining, I would still be using that color today, because it is amazing. The mix that I liked also included color-lined crystal seed beads in Montana blue, pale blue, pink, and sometimes mauve. I’m a big fan of the color-lined crystal finish, and on occasion I used just the color-lined beads and left the rest of the mix for other projects. At some point, the recipe changed, and the color-lined beads were replaced with copper-lined blue and pink.

I lost access to this mix when both of the stores I shopped closed, and then I gave up using metal-lined seed beads. Even when I went back to ordering Czech seed beads online, I never thought to look this mix up and see if it was still available. It turns out you can still get the earth mix, but it doesn’t quite have that pop that I loved way back when.

Do you have a favorite bead mix or blend?

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