It's no secret that I love SuperDuos. I have shared before that I had taken a hiatus from beading for several years, mostly because I felt like I had done everything I wanted to do with seed beads. I was at an impasse. And then I discovered all of the new two-hole Czech glass beads on the market. These beads have changed my life, y'all. 
The first colors I bought were those that became the palette for my Tucson Vista necklace and bracelet. Much like the day I brought my son home from the hospital, I had a total "they're here, but now what?!?" moment when my new beads arrived. So I took to Pinterest and Instagram to see what others were doing with these magical beads. I loved that people were creating pieces with depth and dimension that really hadn't been conveyed with more traditional seed bead jewelry in the past. I loved the shapes I was seeing: flowers and diamonds and geometrics... Oh my!
If you have followed my career or are familiar with my work at all, you know my two favorite techniques are the two-needle right angle weave (or cross weave) and good old fashioned even count peyote. So I whipped up my Starlight bracelet using those two techniques. At first, I used two colors. One to highlight the the central rows up the center and one to highlight the peyote strips along the outer edges. That's cool and all, but I wanted more. More color. More of a challenge. More beads. I started playing with adding color along the edges and then I wanted more color in the middle. I went from the Royal to the Sunset versions you see below in no time at all.
To date, the Starlight bracelet is still one of my favorite. Every time I get new SuperDuo colors, that bracelet is the first thing I make with them. (It is also a customer favorite, as well, so I try to design color palettes with people in mind.) While I was cranking out these bracelets in every color combo my overly obsessed brain could dream about, I started to wonder if maybe I shouldn't simplify the design. Maybe a more traditional peyote stitch would look great. Don't ask me why, but I hadn't learned my lesson the first time. I started by making the Second Skin bracelet in a single color with complementary seed beads along the outer edges. I then started playing with color more. Eventually, the color palettes of these bracelets mirrored those of the Starlight bracelets. And even though they use the same beads, I love that they have a completely different feel.
So which one is your favorite? Do you like the look of the Second Skin bracelet in the Earthen palette, but prefer the Canyon color palette in the style of the Starlight bracelet? Whichever one you choose, you can now learn how to make them yourself. You can purchase the Starlight Bracelet Project PDF or the Second Skin Bracelet Project PDF and instantly download either one. Want to try out my pre-made color palettes and take the guesswork out of the design process? There are bracelet project kits available for sale as well!
Happy beading, everyone!