Confessions of a Crystal Hoarder Blog

Hooray, a box of seed beads. This month’s gonna be a breeze!

Sometimes what seems like a breeze is really the beginning of a gale. SO many ways I could take this...should it be vintage beads with new bead shapes? Should I stay true to the kinds of designs the Hoard was meant for? Quick projects? Mind boggling weaving?

How about...none of the above? I attended a bead party at my local bead shop with a bunch of non-beaders. Their efforts reminded me that sometimes it’s fun to just make something...fun. (And no, I did not make something simple that night.)

The first project I made from the box was to make these swingy earrings with two cabochons from the box, and some stampings I had in my stockpile. I love it when cabs and bezels happen to match up. My hole punch pliers are really handy, and I’ve made good use of replacement pins. (Yes, if you have Eurotool punch pliers, they sell replacement parts!) Here, I used them to add jump rings for chain.

Those simple round cabs reminded me of some recently acquired dome beads. I like the concept of dome beads...There are many projects out there that use rounds in the center of components, but when you go up in size, you could be working your way towards a piece of jewelry that wants to flop around on the body instead of behaving. That’s where I want to use dome beads. This bracelet used tiny grey rounds from our boxes, and another new bead, the O.

When Tilas debuted, we had no idea that they were going to be the first in a new wave of popular shapes. I got some, but never really felt the love. I prefer the new Czech shapes with their rounded edges. And the new shapes just keep on coming. But my Tilas were the right pairing with my mini-hank of vintage hex beads. The Tilas are ladder stitched together so that the seed bead sections didn’t require any netting.

My next combo of old with new was far more complex. This was the doozie of the month. When Suzanne asked me to describe how I made it pattern, I had to tell her that I had no idea how I’d done it. I think I started by forming the holes. But I don’t remember making three sections and tying them together. Wierd. I do know that the bracelet was really lackluster until I remembered my purple montees (#12061).

Nothing about the green iris mini-hank in my club box was lackluster. They were the first thing that caught my eye when I opened the lid. I’ve been (as usual) pouring through my Pinterest feed, and have been intrigued by the many vintage pieces that use seed bead wraps.

I decided to try my hand at a little wire and bead work in honor of the many Miriam Haskell beauties I’ve seen online. My original goal was to make a series of stacking bangles using item 23446 as a base. Each bangle would have a different size bead section. The good news is that I got the first one completed pretty quickly. The bad news is that I got distracted, so this bangle has no sisters. Yet.

Distracted? Yes, the beads I was using distracted me. They looked so nice on the mini-hank that I was spending as much time playing with the strands as loading them onto wire. Here they are used in loop fringe earrings. Each application has merits, and it was kind of fun to use them both flowing and bound.

The earrings used up the rest of my hank, so it’s a good thing that more were available on the site. A quick order session and a fresh supply was headed my way. I may get those bangles done af