Snow White Snowflakes

After beading so many snowflake earrings in not-so-snowflake colors, I decided to weave a pair with actual snow white beads. I couldn't resist adding in silver beads too:

This pair matches the bracelet that you might have seen in the pattern in Beadwork Magazine. The two pieces have a subtle difference: the earrings use SuperDuo beads, while the bracelet uses Twin beads. I've found that these two types of two-hole beads are not always interchangeable, but in this case both of them work in the same design.

This last pair isn't in snow white colors, but I think that they're still rather festive in purple, bronze, and a hint of shiny copper:

Each item above is available for purchase in my Etsy shop. Click on the images above for more information about each one.

Snowflake Earrings for the Holiday Season

I wove several pairs of earrings based on the snowflakes featured in my Snowflakes Bracelet. Not quite in traditional snowflake colors though. Here's one in bronze, copper, and gold:

And another in dark violet, gold and pearl white:

 This one uses the same color pattern as above, only with metallic blues and less gold:

I love the combination of garnet, dark metallic purple, and silver:

Finally, this purple and silver pair reminds me of snowflakes at night:

Each pair of earrings is available for purchase in my Etsy shop. Click on the images above for more information about each pair.

Snowflakes Bracelets in Beadwork Magazine

Are you getting ready for the holidays? I'm getting ready by creating some Snowflakes Bracelets, fresh out of my newest pattern in Beadwork Magazine:

These bracelets feature the new 2-hole Czech twin beads, and they also work well with SuperDuo beads too. They're related to my Squareflake Earrings pattern, but instead of using the 4-fold symmetry seen in the earrings, they use the 6-fold symmetry seen in real snowflakes. These bracelets also use drop-shaped seed beads (either 3 mm magatamas or 2.8 mm drop beads) instead of rivoli crystals, as the sharp rivoli crystals can get caught on sleeves quite easily when used in a bracelet.

Several other design possibilities are achievable from this bracelet design. The individual snowflakes make a great pair of easy earrings, and I think they'd look great in a choker-style necklace too. 

The Snowflakes Bracelet pattern can be found in the December/January 2012/2013 issue of Beadwork Magazine.

What kinds of beadwork designs are you working on this holiday season?

New Pattern and Kits: Squareflake Earrings

Before I left for the Bead & Button Show, I wrote up the pattern for the Squareflake Earrings and put together kits in three different color combinations. Here's the original pair, with those luminous green crystals:

The earrings are about 35 mm long without the ear wires, although you could always adjust the bottom dangle for a longer or shorter pair. Here's another version with red siam crystals and some purple iris beads, with a touch of silver:

Finally, this last pair is in a wintery color scheme, with air blue opal crystals. The twin seed beads in this pair are light lavender, but they're so light that they're nearly transparent:

The Squareflake Earrings pattern and kits in these three color schemes are available at beadorigami.com. Each kit makes a pair of earrings and includes the ear wires in sterling silver.

Earrings with Twin Beads

During my brief respites from preparing for the Bead & Button Show, I found some time to play with the new Czech two-hole "twin" seed beads. Then these happened:

They remind me of snowflakes, but snowflakes have six-fold symmetry instead of four-fold symmetry. Perhaps I should call them squareflakes?

The above earrings also use the crystal luminous green shade of Swarovski crystal, another new bead. These use the traditional crystal with an AB finish, plus silver seedies:

Have you worked with twin beads before? How do you like them?