This design series was inspired by a sale at Michaels on rondelle crystals, packaged in four 7-inch strands of different sized rondelles (8x10mm, 6x8mm, 4x6mm, and 3x4mm). I bought them in several different colors (purple shown here). The packages varied slightly in the number of beads for each size, but generally all packages had a minimum of 23 8x10mm, 29 6x8mm, 37 4x6mm, and 54 3x4mm rondelles.
I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to design a matching bracelet, earrings, and necklace set, using all the beads in the 4 strands (or nearly all). Here is a sneak peak of what I came up with.
I will post patterns as I finish diagraming them out, but I’ll start with the bracelet (which is my first cuff bracelet design). This bracelet was too wide to close with a traditional lobster clasp, so I tried a 31mm 5-loop slide lock bar clasp (connecting via 3 jump rings to the outer and middle loops). The connection points did not line up perfectly to the loops, but that was solved by using a smaller jump ring to connect to the middle loop, and slightly larger jump rings to connect to the outside loops.
This pattern requires 20 6x8mm, 18 4x6mm, and 40 3x4mm rondelles, plus 11/0 seed beads and six 8/0 seed beads for the jump rings to go through at either end. To finish, you will need a 31mm 5-loop slide lock bar clasp with 2 smaller jump rings (~3mm) and 4 larger jump rings (~6mm). (I created the 3mm jump rings from my 6mm jump rings by snipping about half off and using round nose pliers to close it smaller). This design is constructed with alternating “main” and “secondary” rows, starting and ending with the “main” row. 10 main and 9 secondary rows will make a 7-1/2″ bracelet when using larger/TOHO 11/0 seed beads (like the purple and gold piece). It will be slightly shorter if using smaller Czech 11/0 beads (like the copper/aqua piece, which came out to 7″). I made the light blue piece with 9 main rows and 8 secondary rows for my own smaller wrist, which ended up being also 7″ using TOHO 11/0 beads. You can add alternating rows for length, as long as you end with a “main” row. I hope you enjoy this design series, and this free beading pattern!
Click on the photos below (or the free beading pattern) to zoom in.
If you wish to print the pattern, download it in PDF format:
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