Swarovski Beaded Heart Pendant

During one of my impulse buys from Fusionbeads.com, I had bought a giant 28mm Crystal Astral Pink Heart Pendant that I had no idea what to do with.  All I knew at the time is that I wanted it.  Close to 3 months later I was exploring Youtube for any new beading projects and I came upon this one:

 TUTORIAL: Incastonare un cuore Swarovski da 28mm

The obvious downside is that the tutorial is in Italian but I didn’t let that stop me from trying to do it.  It actually wasn’t that difficult to make out what Valentina was doing and when in doubt, I just paused the video and compared my piece with hers to make sure I was on the right track.  If anyone wants to try it, let me know and I’ll be happy to help you through it  :)

After finally finishing the beaded bezel and successfully installing the heart, I finished the design with some 3mm Crystal Bronze Bicones around the entire piece to add some extra sparkle.  I will admit that I wish I had used a more vibrant color for the bicones but I’m not complaining.

After finishing the entire pendant,  I couldn’t make up my mind on what material to use for the necklace.  I was thinking about ribbon but I didn’t have any on hand.  Gold chain seemed a little odd to pair with the beaded bezel so I landed on using 3mm brown suede cord which worked wonderfully :) 

If you’re thinking about tackling the Italian tutorial, here’s some tips that I can offer:

• The total amount of size 11/0 delica seed beads on the first row of the beaded bezel is 72.
• Use the thinnest thread possible.  I made a total of 3 beaded bezels before I finally got a good stitch that wasn’t too rigid.  I recommend Size O Nymo Thread or 4lb Fireline.  Anything thicker than that will result in a very stiff beaded bezel that will be almost impossible to pass through once you start adding the last rows of size 15/0 seed beads as there are many.
• During the video, keep close attention to the beads that she skips while making the bezel.  Due to the pendant being a heart shape,  she managed to create a bezel pattern that fits perfectly around the shape and accentuates it.  For example, if you look closely at the bottom point of the beaded bezel on the top photo, you’ll notice it has fewer beads than the other points around the bezel and yet the entire beaded bezel is symmetrical.

Materials used:

-4lb Fireline

-Size 12 Beading Needle

-Size 11/0 Delica seed beads in Galvanized Champagne

-Size 15/0 Round seed beads in Transparent Dark Amber Gold Luster

-28mm Swarovski Heart Pendant in Crystal Astral Pink

-3mm Swarovski Bicones in Crystal Bronze

-3mm Brown Suede Cord, approx 32 inches

Industrial Chic Bracelet from Beadwork Magazine

This bracelet was definitely the most time consuming that I have ever done……. it took almost 3 weeks to finish!  To be honest, there were times that I wanted to throw it in the “Take-Apart” bin and just move on to something else but just looking at Callie Mitchell’s Industrial Chic pattern in Beadwork Magazine gave me the motivation to keep it going :) 

If anyone is inspired to make this bracelet, please take note of one very important thing……use identical size 8/0 beads for the base!!  I wish I knew this before I started the first bracelet base :(  I was using some leftover beads from my Mom’s stash and while going through them, I realized how many were warped, broken, or just flat as lentils!  I didn’t think much of it at first but then I realized how much time I was spending just looking for the next semi-normal shaped bead that I could pick up next.   So finally I just gave up and ordered some awesome Hematite Toho beads from ArtBeads.com.  When I got the package, I was so thrilled to see that all the beads in the bag were almost completely identical and then it was easy-beading from then on….at least as far as the base goes.   Oh and one last important thing…..be prepared to break a lot of needles :( There were many areas that were so tightly woven and “crowded” with other beads that I couldn’t weave easily through without breaking the needle tip.  I’m not sure if I’ll do another like this again but I am pleased with the finished piece ;)

The supplies I used are almost exactly as what was listed in Callie’s pattern but I’ll include exact colors and such:

• Size 12 beading needles
• 6lb Fireline thread – Smoke
• TOHO Metallic Hematite Round Seed Beads 8/0
• Silver Round Seed Beads 15/0
• 4mm Swarovski Bicones:
  -Cyclamen Opal
  -Jet Hematite
  -Purple Velvet
  -Tanzanite AB
• 3mm Jet Hematite 2x Swarovski Bicones

Crystal Astral Pink Flower Ring!!

     

I’m obsessed with Swarovski’s new color, Crystal Astral Pink!!  The honey-colored crystal is even more vibrant with a gorgeous hot pink iridescent coating giving it a special effect that I’ve never seen before!  I’ve always loved making these flower crystal rings but when I finally received my FusionBeads.com package, I swear I finished this ring twice as fast as it normally takes!!  I couldn’t wait to wear it lol XD.

Check out my previous posts for my other Crystal Flower Rings :)

Wanna make this ring yourself?  Take a look at Kelly’s FREE tutorial on Youtube! I had originally purhcased a PDF tutorial from Ety to make this ring but over time, the seller suddenly stopped offering the tutorial so I couldn’t recommend it to others anymore :(  Suddenly, I accidently came upon Kelly’s Youtube tutorial and I couldn’t believe how similar it was to the tutorial I bought!  The finished result is exactly the same but the steps were slightly different from what I had learned :)

Kelly used slightly larger components in her video however I used the following materials to create this ring which is roughly 1 1/2 inches wide:

• (6) 10mm Crystal Astral Pink Heart Pendants
• (6) 4mm Mocha Bicone Crystals
• (6) 4mm Clear Bicone Crystals
• Size 11 Chocolate Silver Lined Round Seed Beads (less than 1 gram)
• .10” Clear Illusion Cord (about 3.5 feet”)

Check back soon for more crystal jewelry creations!

Pacific Opal and Rose Crystal Beaded Earrings

I can’t wait to go out with these! I was amazed that I had the the 18x13 Swarovski Rose Pear Stones for almost a year before this color idea came along  :( Credit for the color idea goes to Ilona’s Pink Crystal Stud Earrings on Etsy XD

Click here for FusionBeads.com’s intructions for this earring pattern!

Materials:

Size 11/0 and 15/0 Galvanized Champagne Delica Beads

18x13 Swarovski Rose Pear Shaped Stones

3mm Swarovski Pacific Opal Bicone Beads

1 pair 14kt Gold-Filled Ear Wires

Sun Drop Crystal Bezel Earrings

I just finished these yesterday and I can’t wait to wear them!  These sparkling earrings were designed using Deborah Roberti’s Antique Earrings Tutorial (only $5!). I used Pacific Opal 4mm crystal bicones along with 3mm Indian Pink AB2x bicones (super sparkly!).  I was originally going to use 12mm Rose Peach crystal rivolis however I bumped into a shop on ebay that sells custom coated crystal stones!  I ended up buying quite a few stones from this shop and I chose Rose Peach Shimmer Rivolis for these earrings.  The special coating (Shimmer) brings the crystal color and reflection to another level giving the stones a fiery radiance with a turquoise iridescence at certain angles.

Beaded Crystal Loop Earrings

After a little tiny journey, I finally was able to make these earrings!! Basically, a couple months ago I saw a youtube vid by Kelly from offthebeadedpath and she was wearing some beautiful and extremely sparkly beaded crystal earrings. I immediately fell in love with them and I began searching on Etsy and almost every other handmade jewelry site for these earrings but no such luck. However, one day I was doing some shopping at Beads n' Other Needs near my home and on their wall of picture tutorials I noticed a pattern for the same earrings that I had been looking for all this time!! The tutorial was created by Mabeline Gidez and it's super easy to follow. If you're a slightly more experienced beader, you can easily find a way to use a single needle as opposed to the 2 needles that are used in the tutorial.
Anyways, once I got the idea of how to make these, I splurged on FusionBeads.com and bought 4mm Padparadscha AB2x bicones (outline color) along with 3mm Emerald AB (main color) and Pacific Opal bicones (inner color). I was a little nervous about using such bold colors but as I started weaving, it became clear that they were an awesome combo :)
Can't wait to make these in more colors! I'll definitely be posting soon :)
P.S The pics don't do the color and sparkle of these any justice!

Swarovski Crystal Blooming Bubble Rings

  

These bubbly little ring creations were inspired by a tutorial in a book I’ve had for a very long while, “The Bead Palette” by Ondori staff.  I found Fusionbeads.com’s 4mm Escape Crystal Bicone Mix to be very helpful for the color inspiration for the second ring :)

I’ll admit I was eating a lot of chocolate when I made the first ring XD

New Swarovski Crystal Topaz Heart Ring

      

This honey colored ring was designed in the same fashion as the Jet and Cyclamen Opal Flower ring in my previous post :)

I used 10mm Topaz AB Swarovski Hearts and 6mm Crystal Bronze Drop Pendants along with some Smoked Topaz Bicones

I’m thinking of doing another with 14mm hearts instead of 10mm ;)

New Swarovski Heart and Rivoli Flower Ring

               

My newest edition to my ring collection! You can check out my previous posts for my original flower rings :)

I used 10mm Jet Swarovski Hearts layered with super cute 6mm Cyclamen Opal Rivolis XD

I’ll be making more of these soon but for now I need to find some color inspirations!  I have a bad habit of always picking black and purple :(

This ring is inspired by Cecily’s tutorial photo on Etsy :)