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