Sparkling Compass Earrings with Rizos

In preparation for the classes that I'm teaching at the 2013 Bead & Button Show, I wove a pair of Sparkling Compass Earrings with a very simple bead substitution. Can you tell?

Sparkling Compass Earrings with Rizo Beads

That's right, four of the 11° seed beads in each earring were swapped out for rizo beads! And what a difference such an easy bead substitution makes in the final design... Compare them to the original pair on the right below:

Sparkling Compass Earrings with Rizo Beads (left) and the Original Design (right)

I like this effect so much that I think I'll offer it as an option in the kit for the Sparkling Compass Set class at the Bead & Button Show (B130659, Sat. June 8 • 2:00pm-5:00pm).

Sparkling Compass Earrings with and without Rizo Beads

The Sparkling Compass Set includes this pair of earrings, as well as a matching bracelet and beaded bead. Students in the class will take home instructions on how to complete all three pieces in the set.

Check out my previous experiments with rizo beads here and here!

Tila and Rizo Charm Earrings

Have you Rizo'd? After making a Double Bubble Jacks beaded bead with these little rice-shaped drop beads, I tried them out in my new Tila Droplet Charm design. I substituted both the 2.8 and 3.4 mm drops with rizos, and came up with these purple and copper earrings:

The rizos definitely give this design a different look and shape! Though since some extra thread shows around the rizo beads when they're used in this design, I added a couple more 15° seed beads to these earrings compared to the charms described in the original pattern. Two extra seed beads sit on either side of the rizos on the sides of the charm, and four extra seed beads sit at both the top and bottom of the charm, between the circles of four rizo beads.

Would you like to make your own rizo bead earrings? The Tila Droplet Charm design is available as a free pattern on my website as a PDF download, where I explain how to weave this rizo'd variation. As always, if you find this pattern useful, drop me a line and let me know!

New Kits: Fiberoptic Duo Beaded Beads

Kits are now available for the Fiberoptic Duo Beaded Beads. Each kit makes five beaded beads, and since both the cube and octahedron versions use the same number of beads, each kit can make either five Fiberoptic Cubes, or five Fiberoptic Octahedra, or any combination in between. The first colorway is in patina green and dark bronze:

Fiberoptic Duo Beaded Bead Kit (makes 5 beaded beads) - Patina Lagoon Colorway

I liked this colorway so much that I made myself a necklace with these beaded beads. This necklace uses two Fiberoptic Cubes and Three Fiberoptic Octahedra:

The second colorway is in bronze and amethyst, and includes these gorgeous marbled purple and bronze seed beads:

Fiberoptic Duo Beaded Bead Kit (makes 5 beaded beads) - Bronze Amethyst Colorway

The last kit is in black and silver (a go-to combination that goes with everything), with just a touch of bright purple (which is an awesome color):

Fiberoptic Duo Beaded Bead Kit (makes 5 beaded beads) - Black and Silver Colorway

All three kits are available at beadorigami.com, and make five Fiberoptic Duo beaded beads. The kits include all the beads needed, a beading needle, plenty of thread, the Fiberoptic Duo pattern (automatically delivered after checkout as a PDF download), and shipping is included, even for international orders!

Tila Droplet Charm Necklace

While I was weaving the Tila Droplet Charm earrings, I experimented with stringing them on thin beading wire like I did for my Sakura Charms. They fit though the beading wire rather effortlessly, and I thought, "these would make a great charm necklace." So I made one:

This necklace features seventeen Tila Droplet Charms, all woven from the free beading pattern available on my website. I strung them with additional round and drop-shaped Japanese seed beads and the new rice-shaped rizo drop beads.

This necklace matches the lavender fields colorway that I used for this Dewdrop Bracelet:

Combined with the earrings that I posted the other day, this makes a complete set of tila bead and drop bead jewelry!

The Tila Droplet Charm is available at beadorigami.com if you'd like to make your own Tila Droplet Necklace. As always, if you make anything from this pattern, I'd love to see pictures!

Free Pattern: Tila Droplet Charm

I wrote up a pattern for the tila earrings that I posted a few days ago, and it's now available on my website as a free pattern. Presenting the Tila Droplet Charm!

I designed this charm to match the Dewdrop beaded bead. Like this beaded bead and the Dewdrop bracelet, this charm frames a tila bead with round and drop-shaped Japanese seed beads. Here it is in the lavender fields colorway:

Two Tila Droplet Charms make an easy pair of earrings, and conveniently only use a small spoonful of beads. They're the perfect design for any extra beads leftover from a Dewdrop kit.

This pattern uses the new illustration style that I've been tinkering with for the past few months. I'm very interested in your feedback on these illustrations, so drop me a line and let me know what you think!

The Tila Droplet Charm joins my other two free beading patterns at beadorigami.com, and it's the first free tila bead pattern available on my website. As always, if you make anything from this pattern, I'd love to see pictures!

New Tila Teardrop Earrings

A while back, when I was working on the Dewdrop beaded bead design, I wanted to make a pair of earrings in a matching style. I think I've finally succeeded with these tila bead earrings:

These earrings frame tila beads with the same drop-shaped and round Japanese seed beads that are used in the Dewdrop beaded bead:

I think it's a pretty good match, don't you?

Scene From the Beading Tray

I started a new beading project the other day, using bicone crystals, Japanese seed beads, and bugle beads. They got a little jostled on my beading tray, so I took a picture:

I don't usually work with bugle beads, but I'm really digging these little sterling silver-plated 3 mm bugles. I can see why they're sometimes called "liquid silver."