Free Tila bead pattern: Tila Weave Band

Tila Weave Band

©2018 Deborah Roberti

For Tila bead lovers, an easy bracelet made from size 11/0 Miyuki rocaille seed beads and Miyuki Tila beads!

MATERIALS

(for a 6.75-inch bracelet, not including clasp)
• 4-5 yards of 6 lb. FireLine
• About 225 Color1 size 11/0 Miyuki rocaille seed beads
• About 275 Color2 size 11/0 Miyuki rocaille seed beads
• About 33 Miyuki Half Tila beads
• About 66 Miyuki Tila beads (or some more Half Tila beads like I used for the turquoise and silver version)
• clasp

Step 1: Thread your needle with a length of FireLine that you feel comfortable working with and add more as you need it.

Leaving about a 14-inch tail for attaching the clasp, go through the bottom hole of a Tila bead. 

String a Color1 seed bead, a Color2 seed bead and a Color1 seed bead. Go through the bottom hole of a Half Tila bead. String a Color1 seed bead. Go through the bottom hole of another Tila bead:

NOTE: You will not be making a knot until Step 5 so keep the tension tight and hold onto this tail thread for now.

Step 2: String three Color2 seed beads, go around and through the top hole of the Tila bead that you just exited (highlighted in RED):

Step 3: String a Color1 seed bead and go across through the top hole of the Half Tila bead that you added in Step 1 (highlighted in RED):

Step 4: String a Color1 seed bead, a Color2 seed bead and a Color1 seed bead. Go across through the top hole of the Tila bead that you added in Step 1 (highlighted in RED):

Step 5: String three Color2 seed beads. Grab your tail thread and tie a tight double knot:

Step 6: Go around through the beads highlighted in RED so that you are exiting from the top hole of the left-most Tila bead:

You’ve just completed Row 1.

Step 7: To start Row 2, string a new Tila bead.

Go around and back across through the top hole of the Tila bead that you just exited (highlighted in RED):

Step 8: Go back across through the bottom hole of the Tila bead that you just added (highlighted in RED):

Step 9: String a Color1 seed bead, a Half Tila bead, a Color1 seed bead, a Color2 seed bead, a Color1 seed bead and a Tila bead:

Step 10: Go around and across through the top hole of the Tila bead in the row below (highlighted in RED).

Continue around and across through the bottom hole of the Tila bead that you added in the last step (highlighted in RED):

Step 11: Repeat the last step:

Step 12: String three Color2 seed beads.

Go across through the top hole of the Tila bead that you just exited (highlighted in RED):

Step 13: String a Color1 seed bead, a Color2 seed bead and a Color1 seed bead.

Go across through the top hole of the Half Tila bead that you added earlier (highlighted
in RED):

Step 14: String a Color1 seed bead and go across through the top hole of the left-most Tila bead in this row (highlighted in RED):

Step 15: String three Color2 seed beads.

Go around through the beads highlighted in RED so that you are exiting from the top hole of the left-most Tila bead:

You’ve just completed Row 2.

Step 16: To start Row 3, string a new Tila bead.

Go around and back across through the top hole of the Tila bead that you just exited (highlighted in RED):

Step 17: Go back across through the bottom hole of the Tila bead that you just added (highlighted in RED):

Step 18: String a Color1 seed bead, a Color2 seed bead, a Color1 seed bead, a Half Tila bead, a Color1 seed bead and a Tila bead:

Step 19: Go around and across through the top hole of the Tila bead in the row below (highlighted in RED).

Continue around and across through the bottom hole of the Tila bead that you added in the last step (highlighted in RED):

Step 20: Repeat the last step:

Step 21: String three Color2 seed beads.

Go across through the top hole of the Tila bead that you just exited (highlighted in RED):

Step 22: String a Color1 seed bead.

Go across through the top hole of the Half Tila bead that you added earlier (highlighted
in RED):

Step 23: String a Color1 seed bead, a Color2 seed bead and a Color1 seed bead.

Go across through the top hole of the left-most Tila bead in this row (highlighted in RED):

Step 24: String three Color2 seed beads.

Go around through the beads highlighted in RED so that you are exiting from the top hole of the left-most Tila bead:

You’ve just completed Row 3.

Step 25: Repeat Step 7 to Step 24 (Row 2 and 3)—ending with a repeat of either Step 15 or Step 24—until your band is the length you want it, minus about a half-inch and the length of your clasp:

Step 26: To attach one end of the clasp, go back around through the beads highlighted in RED so that you are exiting out of the Color1 seed bead next to the top right-most Tila bead:

Step 27: String two Color1 seed beads and a Color2 seed bead.

Go through the clasp and then back down through the Color2 seed bead that you just strung:

NOTE: To make your band longer, just add more beads than directed in this step and the next.

Step 28: String two more Color1 seed beads.

Go back around through the beads highlighted in RED:

Step 29: Go back around through the beads highlighted in RED and the clasp several times:

Weave back into the bracelet, knot in several places and then cut your thread.

Step 30: To attach the clasp to the other end of your bracelet, thread your needle with the tail thread from Step 1.

Go across through the beads highlighted in RED:

Repeat Steps 27-29.

New beads for old designs

Lately I've been having fun giving some of my old designs a refreshing facelift with some new beads. If you purchased a pattern before the update, you can get information on beads used and substitutions on my Addendums page here:

https://www.aroundthebeadingtable.com/Addendums.html.

Updates to free patterns have been added to the free pattern page and PDF.


Just click on a picture for more details on beads used and the pattern!


Skinny Twin Cube Band (free pattern)

Although I originally used Preciosa Twin beads, SuperDuo beads work great for this simple and easy design.



Tila Squared Bracelet & Earrings

Quarter and Half Tila beads, as well as Czech 6x6mm Tile beads (the most popular brand is called “Czechmates”) and 5x5mm “Tile Mini” beads also work great in this design.


Lacy Medallion



This design works wonderfully with 18mm round LunaSoft cabochons instead of crystal rivolis. German LunaSoft cabochons are made of lucite, which gives them an ethereal glow, and come in many different sizes and colors.


Twin Cube Wave Band

SuperDuo and MiniDuo beads work especially well as a substitute for Twin beads in this design with just a couple tweaks!


Flower Earrings (free pattern)

I have updated my free Flower Earrings pattern so that they are a little stiffer, have a prettier attachment to the jump ring and also work with 6mm Czech 2-hole cabochons instead of 6mm round beads in the center.


Tila SuperDuo Bands

Although I originally used SuperDuo beads for the Miyuki Tila bead version of this band when I designed it in 2012, the new MiniDuo beads—a smaller version of the SuperDuo bead that came out last year—actually work way better!


DiamonDuo Mini Star Earrings (free pattern)

The new DiamonDuo Mini bead measures 6x4mm, about the size of a SuperDuo bead. With a few bead substitutions and step changes, my DiamonDuo Star design works beautifully with these new beads to create some fun earrings.


Harlequin II Band



The new IrisDuo beads from Potomac Bead Company work fabulous when substituted for GemDuos and DiamonDuos in this pattern.

Tila Medallion Bracelet & Earrings

 Adapted for the new 5x5mm "Tile Mini" beads.

Silky Squares Bracelet & Earrings

Adapted for 5x5mm "Mini" Silky beads.

Swatching and Smidgens

When it comes to designing, size is everything. Just a smidgen in bead size inconsistency adds up, creating buckling and even outright failure for a design because those little smidgens really do add up.

SWATCHING

So how does one deal with this? First, when it comes to bead size inconsistencies, know that you are not crazy. More on this in just a minute. Second, practice swatching. When I first started knitting years ago, all of the patterns and books that I read, as well as fellow knitters, insisted that I swatch first before starting a project. Because every knitter knits at a different tension, by knitting up a 6- to 8-inch square and counting the stitches and rows, knitters are better able to get a more accurate stitch count and to also test out the yarn itself. I think that this is a practice beaders need take up as well, if you are not doing so already, not so much for sizing but to make sure that the beads you select for a project play well together. I have found it very handy.

So what would bead swatching entail? Basically, instead of selecting all of your beads and starting to bead an entire project, bead the first two or three motifs or an inch or so of your piece to get an idea of how the beads are coming together and whether the colors are working. If it doesn’t work, just take it apart. Sometimes a fatter seed bead or a fire-polished bead with a different coating will work better.

SMIDGENS

Now about those smidgens. Let’s use rocaille seed beads as an example and Japanese seed beads in particular. When it comes to rocaille seed beads, I am a Miyuki lover. In fact, I personally think their Duracoat line is just about as close to perfection as you can get. But oh, the Toho colors and coatings! They take your breath away. Even the product names leave you giddy: Metallic Airy Blue, Silver-lined Dragonfruit, Raku Cabernet Iris, Higher-Metallic Dragonfly.

The problem, however, is that many of the Toho 11/0 rocaille seed beads are just a smidgen fatter than the Miyuki brand—just enough to create hell and havoc on a design. This is why I often specify that Miyuki rocaille seed beads work better than Toho seed beads in certain projects and why you should always…. SWATCH!

Bead coatings can also cause size discrepancies and with all of the new coatings and manufacturers in the bead world, this is getting even more crazy, especially when it comes to fire-polished beads. I have found that 3mm and 4mm Preciosa fire-polished beads can be noticeably smaller than some of the fire-polished beads produced by other Czech bead manufacturers but even within these same manufacturers, bead size will vary a smidgen depending on the coating applied.

And crystal… if you sometimes get the feeling that 4mm Swarovski bicones and pearls are just a smidgen smaller than their Czech counterparts, you are not alone.

Lately, I have been rebeading a lot of my old designs and upgrading the pattern instructions. New Czech beads are hitting the bead market every day, or so it seems. Some of these new beads just work better than the beads I originally used way back when and for other patterns, it’s just fun to swap out older beads with new beads to give an old pattern a facelift.

Czech Preciosa Twin beads came out in 2012, shortly before the now-infamous SuperDuo beads, and I gobbled them up as fast as my friend Betsy at RedPandaBeads.com could send them to me for designing. Although Preciosa is now creating “pressed” Twin beads (made in a mold like SuperDuo beads), when Twin beads were first manufactured, they were not “pressed” and as such, very irregular in size and definitely more oval shaped.

Because of their fabulous coatings, consistent size and lovely tapered ends, Czech SuperDuo beads hit the bead scene fast and hard and are now the most popular Czech two-hole beads in the world. But are Twin beads and SuperDuo beads interchangeable? Well, sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes yes with some tweaks as is the case for my recently updated Twin Cube Wave Band where you can see the difference between the beads—Twin beads (top), SuperDuo beads (middle) and MiniDuo beads (bottom).

The design change is not at all huge, but in order to keep the SuperDuo version from bulging or leaving air between beads in the last row, you have to add size 8/0 seed beads instead of size 11/0 seed beads along the outer edge.

Of course, now there are over 50 new Czech beads on the market. Some absurd and some utterly lovely. As all of these new beads make their way into the market, I have decided to update many of my patterns. You can always find information on new tweaks and improvements on my Addendums page here:
https://www.aroundthebeadingtable.com/Addendums.html

Updated beaded Flower Earrings pattern!

Flower Earrings

(©2009, updated 2018 Deborah Roberti)

I have updated my free Flower Earrings pattern so that they are a little stiffer, have a prettier attachment to the jump ring and also work with 6mm Czech 2-hole cabochons instead of 6mm round beads in the center.

Materials:• about 2 yards of 6 lb. FireLine
• two 6mm round beads (or two 6mm Czech two-hole cabochon beads--see end steps)
• about 140 size 11/0 seed beads (Miyuki rocaille brand preferred)
• 34 size 3mm fire-polished beads
• two small (2-4mm) jump rings
• a pair of ear wires, or whichever type of earring finding you prefer

STEP 1: Thread your needle with about a yard of FireLine.

String a round bead and eight seed beads.

Leaving about a six-inch tail, go around the right side of the round bead and back up through the round bead. Pull tight:

NOTE: You will not be making a knot so keep the tension tight and hold onto this tail thread for now.

Step 2: String eight more seed beads. Go around and back up through the round bead so that this set of eight seed beads is on the left side of the round bead. Pull tight:

Step 3: Go back down through the eight seed beads on the right side of the round bead that you added in Step 1:

Step 4: Go back around through the nine seed beads highlighted in RED:

Step 5: Go all the way back around through the ring of ring of sixteen seed beads highlighted in RED:

Step 6: String a fire-polished bead, a seed bead, a fire-polished bead, a seed bead and a fire-polished bead.

Go around and back across through the two seed beads on the ring (highlighted in RED) to form your first "petal":

NOTE: To guarantee that the earring lines up right upon completion, you do want to make sure that you go through those two seed beads highlighted in RED--one seed bead on each side of the round bead hole.

Step 7: Go back around through the beads that you just added (highlighted in RED):

Step 8: Go through the next two seed beads on the ring of sixteen seed beads (highlighted in RED):

Step 9: String a fire-polished bead, a seed bead, a fire-polished bead and a seed bead.

Go around and back down through the fire-polished bead that you added in Step 6 and back through the two seed beads on the circle of sixteen seed beads that you exited at the end of the last step (highlighted in RED) to form a second "petal":

Step 10: Go back around through the beads that you just added (highlighted in RED):

Step 11: Go through the next two seed beads on the ring of sixteen seed beads (highlighted in RED):

Step 12: String a fire-polished bead, a seed bead, a fire-polished bead and a seed bead.

Go around and back through the fire-polished bead that you added earlier and back through the two seed beads on the circle of sixteen seed beads that you exited at the end of the last step (highlighted in RED) to form another "petal":

Step 13: Go back around through the beads that you just added (highlighted in RED):

Step 14: Go through the next two seed beads on the ring of sixteen seed beads (highlighted in RED):

Step 15: Repeat Step 12 to 14 four times to create four more "petals":

Step 16: Go up through the fire-polished bead highlighted in RED:

Step 17: String a seed bead, a fire-polished bead and a seed bead.

Go around and down through the fire-polished bead, across through the two seed beads on the circle of sixteen seed beads and up through the fire-polished bead highlighted in RED:

Step 18: Go back around through the beads highlighted in RED:

Step 19: Go back through the seed bead highlighted in RED:

Step 20: String four seed beads.

Go around the fire-polished bead in the first petal and through the two seed beads highlighted in RED:

Step 21: String four seed beads.

Go around the fire-polished bead in the next petal and through the two seed beads highlighted in RED:

Step 22: Repeat the last step six times:

Step 23: Go up through the two seed beads highlighted in RED:

Step 24: String a fire-polished bead and a seed bead.

Go through your jump ring and then back down through the fire-polished bead and seed bead that you just strung.

Continue down through the two seed beads highlighted in RED:

Step 25: Go back around through the seed beads highlighted in RED:

Step 26: Go back around through the beads highlighted in RED and the jump ring:

Step 27: Go back around through the seed beads highlighted in RED:

Weave your way back into your earring, knot and cut your thread. Thread your needle with the tail from Step 1, weave your way into your earring, knot and cut your thread. Attach your earring finding to the jump ring.

Czech Two-Hole Cab Version

Instead of 6mm round beads, you can use 6mm Czech two-hole cabochons. Just replace Step 1 to Step 5 with the following steps.

Step 1: Thread your needle with about a yard of FireLine.

Leaving about a six-inch tail, go up through the left hole of a 6mm Czech two-hole cabochon. String two seed beads. Go around and down through the right hole of this same cabochon:

NOTE: You will not be making a knot so keep the tension tight and hold onto this tail thread
for now.

Step 2: String two seed beads and go up through the left hole of the cabochon. Go across through the two seed beads that you added in the last step (highlighted in RED):

Step 3: String six seed beads and go across through the two seed beads highlighted in RED:

Step 4: String six more seed beads and go across through the two seed beads highlighted in RED:

Step 5: Go all the way back around through the ring of ring of sixteen seed beads highlighted in RED:

Continue on with Steps 6 to 27.