Beaded bubbles.

I saw this pattern in a magazine at Walmart of all places. As much as I despise Walmart, they actually have a pretty nice selection of beads and beading supplies. Anyway, I fell in love instantly. Never mind that I have never worked with seed beads. I had to have this pattern.
So I bought the magazine. I ordered the beads from Fusionbeads.com (they are awesome, BTW). I couldn't find the exact colors I was looking for, so I tried to substitute.
I bought the rubber O-rings at Home Depot. Something like $2 for a bag of mixed sizes.
I came across several problems. First, my mixed bag didn't list the sizes of the O-rings. And I couldn't figure out how to measure the rings to match up with the pattern. So I just separated out a small, medium, and large size from the assortment.
And I started beading. I found it to be much easier and less intimidating than I thought. I had to start over once, because I realized I had done the stitch wrong. But it worked up pretty quickly.

My first bubble looked like this.

Remember how I said I couldn't find the exact colors? Well, I needed a 1.5mm periwinkle cube.
I got a 1.5 periwinkle cube, but it wasn't the same kind as the pattern. And I somehow ordered a frosted lavender bead for round 3 instead of a light lavender. Long story short, I didn't like the way this bubble turned out. Back to the drawing board - or beading board in this case.


Attempt number 2:
I made the trip across town to Alaska Bead Company. They are so nice, and offer a 10% Military discount! Yay! On this trip I picked up 1.8mm Miyuki cubes in Lilac. That's what you see in round one of this bubble. Round 3 uses a pretty lavender I picked up on the same trip, instead of the darker frosted bead. I like this one much better. The edging is a bit shaky, but that will come with practice.




And the one I'm currently working on:
Basically the same as the first. I'm really enjoying
this project. I like the stitching of the beads. It feels
like combining several of my loves: beading, sewing,
and crocheting.