Accidental Peacock

I tried out the Russian leaf earrings in the latest Beadwork.  I was wearing this bracelet around the house and remembered that I bought a few extra 6mm crystals when I made it.

Medina Bird

I'm not much of a crystal girl, but I do like a little sparkle here and there.  I started stitching with delicas left from the Medina Bird, but I used deep purple thread because I wanted to give the pale, pale 4mm bicones a little more color.  For some reason I was a little surprised when I came up with peacock feathers.  I mean, I saw the pic in the magazine - what did I expect?  Little may you know, but I'm a big fan of peacocks.  One of the highlights of my day is driving by the farm that has dozens of the birds and seeing them roosting in the trees and on the roof of the house. When the leaves fall from the pecan trees, I get a great view.

Last winter

Peacock Paisley

I think I need to make these without the dangly at the bottom

I tried it with Japanese seed beads and no dangle at the bottom

¿How cute is that bunny butt?

Medina bird

2700 size 11/0 delicas...and more dog hair than I would have liked.  This pattern was designed for loomwork, but I square stitched it.  About 2/3 of the way through I discovered two-bead square stitch which would have made the work go a bit faster, but I didn't want to change the spacing.  Oh well, next time.  Being a beginner has its drawbacks. 

I learned a lot about needle and thread size on this project.  I realized that I should have been using a size smaller needle and probably size B Nymo instead of size D.  It took breaking a couple beads to come to this conclusion.  For this project, I did switch needles to John James sharps and I love them.  They last a long time and do not bend and break like the cheapo needles I was using from the big-box craft store. 

I also realized that I should have returned the Transparent Rainbow Inside Color Lined Candle Lit White (those would be the lightest color beads which form the thick scroll at the bottom) because even though these little guys are Delicas, this batch was just the slightest bit larger in diameter.  I didn't think that it would make a difference, but I can tell, particularly in the bird's eye and the scrollwork around the bird's tail.

The pattern is Medina Bird from FusionBeads.com.  I changed the clasp by square stitching two rows of beads for the base of each strappy thing to give a little more heft.  If you want to make this, don't buy the quantities they suggest.  Buy one bag of each color. That is all I needed and I have left overs of each color.