When we received our recent large delivery of Preciosa Czech glass beads with brand new Bugle bead in, I was very excited to have a play. I intended to make a quick example of how you could use them to feature in our newsletter. Which then turned into making bugle bead earrings in 3 different styles. I just couldn’t help myself… if it wasn’t for the fact I needed to eat and sleep this might have been a project page about 30 different styles!
My initial idea was to show case the use of bugles beads, used as simple long bead. I sometimes think jewellery makers don’t use certain beads as they think of them as a bead for weaving with – however that isn’t the case. You can use any bead for any jewellery making!
Ocean ripple earrings
For this first pair I used the 35mm twisted silver lined crystal bugle, they’re so elegant and reflective (like sunlight on water). So I paired them with the Turquoise Miyuki mixed seed beads and created a long elegant dangly pair by threads the beads on headpins… I only just had enough space to make a loop in the wire of that central headpin, but it was worth the effort.
If you want to make a version of these earrings you may find our video about how to make earrings very helpful. I did not have space on the head pins to wrap the wire, so make plain loop, you can easily trim off the excess wire as I did.
https://youtu.be/DaSaelkU5ug?si=4yUDxRIYoZjSKvC-
Golden Geometry Earrings
The second pair I kept very simple. I love the geometric shapes and I thought it’d be really effective to create a square from the beads. I chose the 20mm straight silver lined light gold bugle beads and cross over stitch (Right angle weave with just 2 beads). To ensure the thread wasn’t visible I used clear 0.25mm supplemax. To attach them to the fishhooks I simply threaded a headpin through the last bead and created a small loop at the top. I love how simple and effective these are. Top Tip – thing about how your earring will hang when you wear them, do you want the orientation of the bead to be the same or symmetrical?
Having created a tassel effect using head pins in my first pair of earrings. I decided to add fringing in the third pair andto go all black for a little drama. A mirrored asymmetric pair I thought would look great and a little twist on a classic shape. My initial thought was to use brick stitch, however I liked the idea of all my rows of beads lining up. Throughout the whole earring. So I used ladder stitch to create the right effect, with fringing at the bottom. To create the asymmetric fringing, I simply increased the number of beads I added on each new strand by 2 beads.
To see one of these earring being made in 18x speed you can watch our YouTube short here.
I hope these Bugle bead Earrings in 3 different styles helps spark some further ideas. Please do share your creations with us by tagging us on Facebook or Instagram.
It surprised me to discover that despite having created many free beading resources already we hadn't yet created one that focuses on basic Peyote Stitch....
