AroundTheBeadingTable.com Blog: New “Mini” Silky bead!

When Linda Genaw of Linda’s Crafty Inspirations first emailed to tell me of a new smaller 5x5mm Silky bead on the market, my first response was, “Oh, dear god, just kill me now….I can understand a 4mm Silky bead—that would be cool—but 5mm? 1mm difference? 1-freaking-mm difference? It is just enough to throw off an entire pattern but serves no other real purpose that I can see, sigh.”

Then Linda measured them and determined that they are, in fact, a bit smaller than 5x5mm. Betsy Ramsey of RedPandaBeads.com hunted some down and sent samples to me and yes, okay, they are adorable!

However, the 5mm Silky beads cannot be substituted for 6mm Silky beads in any of my designs without some tweaks. At this time, I have no plans to tweak all of my patterns that use 6mm Silky beads to accommodate the new “mini” 5x5mm Silky beads but they worked so well with my Silky Squares Bracelet and Earrings pattern that I created what I am calling an “addendum” of substitution instructions.

For those of you who have already purchased my Silky Squares pattern, this one-page addendum is a free download on the pattern page here: http://www.aroundthebeadingtable.com/Patterns/SilkySquares.html.

The addendum is now (and forever) part of the PDF for purchase, which is on sale for $2.50 through next Friday at my website only, AroundTheBeadingTable.com. Betsy at RedPandaBeads.com has the new “mini” 5x5mm Silky beads for sale here: http://www.redpandabeads.com/category_s/3669.htm.

You’ll find links to exact beads used in the photo above at the bottom of the pattern page but I will also include them here. Note: One strand of 40 “mini” silky beads is enough to make a 7-inch bracelet but not enough for the earrings as well.