New Ases Style Shapes: Brick Stitch Bling Earrings, Pendant

Bling, Bling... Hello?

My latest Ases-Style earrings is this pair of black and gold sparklers.  A new pattern and color combination - as well as a new technique to hang the brick stitch components.  

I'm feeling more confident with my brick stitch capabilities - and I hope it is showing.  I'm trying to move beyond the simple rounds to drop shapes - either by changing the center bead from a round to a drop or adding different size beads on top of the round bead.

This is the largest pair of stitched earrings I have
made to date - almost 1 inch wide by 1 3/4 inches long including the ear wires.

From a materials perspective, I used black crystal glass center drop beads surrounded by 11/0 beads, then a round of Miyuki 1.8mm cube beads, and a final picot round of 8/0 and 11/0 beads.

I love, love, love the small cube beads.  They snug next to each other perfectly in brick stitch and reflect the light beautifully.  

Not hanging by a thread

What I'm most pleased with is a new technique I've discovered for hanging the beaded components. 

 Normally, I thread a jump ring into a bead or sew in a piece of chain while I am finishing the picot round.  From what I can tell, it's a fairly standard finishing technique for beaded jewelry, but coming from the world of wire work - it looks like a potential weakness to me.  

So, I decided to hang my brick stitch pendants using the technique I would normally use - a head pin.  And it works!  Isn't that cool?

I think it looks about the same, but my peace of mind is much higher.

The other thing I really like about the headpin is that it keeps the beads aligned over the center bead. That was something I really disliked in a design like the one above. In both components, the crystal is slightly off center due to the thread tension.  Putting a headpin down the center keeps that from happening.

I also used my wire skills to make coordinating ear wires for these earrings.  Not exactly Ases style - but I'm happy to be taking these components in a direction that uses all of my jewelry making skills.

Want to learn to make something similar - see this post on the basic brick stitch technique to get started.

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