Managing Colors

I really like using Deb Roberti's patterns.  They are so easy to follow and very versatile.  Several of her patterns work for "any 4mm" bead.  These patterns will work with round beads and pearls, fire-polished, bicone crystals, etc.  I've recently beaded up several variations of Deb Roberti's Lilac Bracelet.

One of the reasons I like her patterns so much, is she diagrams the patterns and it is very easy to visually follow the steps in each pattern.  She uses various colors to represent each bead in a pattern.  Below is her legend for the Lilac Bracelet pattern.

When using "any 4mm" bead it can get confusing remembering which of the four different 4mm beads is Color1, Color2, etc.

I've found it helpful to "label" each bead with the color represented in the pattern.  It is much easier to bead up the pattern using the diagrams.

Happy Beading!

Betsy 

SuperDuped

My friend, Deb Roberti, from www.aroundthebeadingtable.com, recently coined a new term, "SuperDuped" to express her frustration with occasional plugged holes in SuperDuo beads.

Unfortunately the occasional plugged hole is a reality with not only the SuperDuo beads, but also the new MiniDuo beads, as I found out when I was beading up a blue version of Deb's new Infinity Bracelet.

I cannot think of anything more frustrating than having beaded to the point of going through the 2nd hole in a SuperDuo or MiniDuo only to find the hole plugged.  When faced with the only option of undoing all the beadwork, in desperation I've turned to my bead reamer.  I've found that more often than not, the tool can ream out the plugged hole and I'm quickly back to beading.

I originally purchased my bead reamer to ream out larger holes in fresh water pearls.  I found the tool so handy, I subsequently added it to my website.  For the purposes of reaming plugged holes in SuperDuos and MiniDuos, I keep one of the Diamond Replacement tips handy while beading.  The averted frustration has been such a relief!  I highly recommend that every bead stash include at least one bead reamer.

Happy Beading!

Betsy

Pearl Coat vs. Pastel Finishes

Deb Roberti's newest FREE pattern is the Berry Band.

In the example above she uses deep rich purple CzechMates® Tiles and SuperDuos.  The product codes on the Red Panda Beads website are:

CZTWN06-25032 - CzechMates® Tiles Pearl Coat - Purple Velvet

and

  

DU0525032 - SuperDuo Pastel Bordeaux

While the names seem different, they are actually the same color.  These two items are sourced from two different wholesale suppliers.  Starman calls the colors in this series "Pearl Coat" and BeadSmith refers to the series as "Pastel".  The common factor is the 25032 color.  When comparing Czech and Japanese beads it's best to refer to the product code number and not the "name" so much - as many wholesale suppliers assign different names to items, but will have the color number embedded in the product code.  So while it may appear that the CzechMates® Tile beads are a different color than the SuperDuos, they are in fact identical in color - making Deb's Berry Band perfect!  :)

Happy Beading!

Betsy

www.redpandabeads.com

Czech 2-Hole Silky Beads

Silky beads come in various finishes.  There are opaque and transparent colors.

 There are several types of coatings too.

The beads I used in the Nexus bracelet (pattern by Deb Roberti) are examples of the "vacuum" finish.  When applying a "vacuum" finish - beads are spread in a tray in a single layer and then the tray is inserted into a special machine to apply the "vacuum" finish.  Depending on the bead orientation in the tray, the finish will either be on the top of the bead or on the bottom.  The only way to get the finish consistently on the top or bottom of the beads would be to hand sort the beads in each tray - adding extra time and cost to the process. 

At first glance, beaders may prefer to have the coating all on the tops of the beads, but I rather like the contrast effect made when alternating the top finish vs. bottom finish beads, as shown above.  Bead colors with the word "Full" in the description have the finish on both the top and bottom of the bead.

Below are some examples of Deb Roberti's FREE Silky Stacker pattern, also highlighting the 1/2 coating on these beautiful Silky Stackers.