Patriotic Flower Bed Bracelet

I've been playing with the new Super Duo beads I told you about in my last post. This bracelet worked up surprisingly quickly once I got the thread path set.
I knew I was going to make something resembling the American Flag, with some stripes and some white "stars" on a blue field. When I started doodling I found that outlining the super duos with size 11 seed beads make them look like flower clusters and the bracelet design was born.

The pattern is now available at Bead Patterns Boutique, Zibbet. and The Bead Coop.

I've included a graph to help you with color placement. You can make any of the sections longer or shorter to lengthen or shorten the bracelet to fit. Some say it looks complicated, but once I got this thread path going, it worked up much faster than peyote (one of my favorite stitches) or brick.

Super Duo Two Hole Beads

You may remember in November I wrote about the New Preciosa Twin Beads And later shared my Bracelet and Earring patterns.

Recently I saw some "Super Duo" two hole beads that looked like the twins and the only difference I could see was the colors and finishes seemed to be different, but then I read a review on them. One person said they were very uniform and even called them the "Delicas" of Twin beads, so I had to order some to see for myself. I'm planning to work up some patterns for Independence Day, so I ordered red, white and turquoise from Gail Devoid of Need For Beads. I got them today. The red ones are Super Duos and the green iris are Twins. Laying on the mat you can't tell much difference, but when I strung some of each color, you can definitely see how much more uniform the red ones are.

I'm really looking forward to designing with these Super Duos, but I have another project to finish first.

I have an 1897 (the year my father was born) Morgan silver dollar.  It has been closed up in a plastic case since my sister and brother in law gave it to him 35 or 40 years ago.  I got it out and put a bezel around it and spruced it up a bit.  Before I even got it finished I had a request for a pattern.  Here's a picture of the original, but it needs a little tweaking.  You can't see the irregularities, but I know they're there and need to smooth them out before I make a pattern, so it's back to the bead table/computer and work, work, work.  What was I thinking? I'm supposed to be getting ready to put up a booth at Pow Wow this year.