Blue... Friday

I know I promised to write a bit more about the use of the bugles, but I wanted to do it with the right pictures and did not have the time. Yet.
I was in fact busy with finishing a necklace, a blue one. It stil waits for the last idea... The big tatting part is done, now the rest should come. And this is actually taking time.
Until I decide what pearls, what clasps, with chain or ribbon, I finished the thread from the shuttles. So I have a lot of small tests all with baby blue thread, with seed beads and bugles.

 

 

All here are tests. I am pretty happy with the flowers. They are actually not interlocked rings, it is simplier than this, but it has a nice effect. 

For the more "art deco" piece, I made a small pattern. It gives actually a nice pendant or earrings. If you skip the diamond beaded picot and join more of these elements, you can have a nice bracelet. I have to explore more... 

Back to the bugles... They are not as scarry as they appear. But you must pay attention: the edges of the holes are sharper as for the seed beads and sometimes they can fray the thread or cut it. Patience is needed. Or just add a seed bead at every end of a bugle bead. It does the job. 

This is the piece. It measures with my thread (like the 40 Lizbeth) 2,5 cm x 1,2 cm 

You need 1 shuttle, enough thread as for 4 small rings, 4 bugle beads and 4 seed beads. 

Fill the shuttle and string the beads as it follows: 

I marked how the beads have to be used while tatting too. Like this some of you can also follow a bit the logic af stringing the beads. Simple rule: the last ones to string are the first ones to use. 

Remember how to make the diamond beaded picot? 3 beads from the loop (or the second shuttle) + 1 bead from the core thread (the first shuttle). 

In the written pattern I used, among the usual symbols: 

|| :  bugles: one comes from the loop, the other one comes from the shuttle thread. 

 v : diamond picot, 3 beads from the loop, 1 from the shuttle. 

So... Make a loop with 1 bugle, 3 seed beads, 1 bugle. 

R1: 5 ds - || 8 ds v 8 ds  || - 5ds, close, do not turn. 

R2: 5 ds + 10ds - 5, close. 

R3: Take in the loop 2 bugles and start the ring: 5 ds +  || 16 ds  || - 5ds, close.

R4: 5 ds + 10ds + (folded join) 5ds, close.

My version will have the small pearl in the middle. And for the next ones, 2 cristal drops, more or less like this: