New Pattern and Kits: Cosmic Windows Set

My newest beading pattern, the Cosmic Windows Set, is now available at www.beadorigami.com.

Frame a Crystal with Tila Beads

I came up with the idea for this design after experimenting with using Miyuki tila beads to frame other beaded components. The Tila Garden Pendant and Cubed Tilas Beaded Beads already do this to an extent, but in this design the aim was to make the tila frames self-supporting and independent of a polyhedron. The resulting Cosmic Windows component frames an asymmetric "cosmic" Swarovski crystal with the tila beads and additional Swarovski roundelle crystals, with a few SuperDuo beads thrown in for good measure.

Cosmic Windows Bracelet - Antique Glass Colorway

A Bracelet of Windows

Several of these components easily link together to form a bracelet. This bracelet is finished with a custom beaded toggle clasp, which is fully described in the Cosmic Windows pattern.

Cosmic Windows Bracelet - Tropical Sunset Colorway

Matching Earrings

Continuing with the matching-set theme that I've been on as of late, I naturally had to make a pair of components into matching earrings. Here's a pair in teal-blue and bright silver:

Cosmic Windows Earrings - Silver Ice Colorway

Three Kit Colorways

Kits for this design are available in the three colorways shown above. Each Cosmic Windows Kit contains all the beads needed to make both the bracelet and the matching earrings, including a pair of sterling silver ear wires.

In a change from my other kits, this kit does not include thread and a beading needle. I made this change for a couple of reasons. A big part of this decision was needle quality; I personally switched over to Tulip beading needles nearly two years ago, though I was still including the less-expensive John James beading needles in my kits. Unfortunately, the production of John James beading needles has since moved from Europe to China, and the quality of these needles has decreased to the point where I can no longer recommend them for my designs. At the same time, I can't justify the expense of providing a Tulip needle in each of my kits without raising my prices. In a similar vein, the amount of time I was spending winding Fireline into little bobbins was not cost-effective.

So, to help the price of this already crystal-heavy kit, I've left out the two most readily-available components, which can be found at your local bead store or one of the recommended bead retailers at the bottom of my patterns page.

Have you ever worked with cosmic crystals? What's your favorite way to use them?