14-17.8.12 Zoe Earrings by Maggie Meister

I have recently encountered a Beadshop seller in my city wearing beautiful and very delicate earrings. I patiently waited her to be available for answering my question and asked "what are the earrings?" (probably badly asked...) "what do you mean" she said surprised. "Is this your design?" I asked hesitating. "Yes, it is". So, I added "They are beautiful and very delicate".  I went out the store and was a bit thoughtful. Coming back home I had a flash and immediately opened the last book by Maggie Meister. Zoe earrings. "Proper design of  the beadshop seller". She made a slight variation and took herself generously all the credit that comes to Maggie. 

It made me quiet cross for her dishonesty!

The earrings were so beautiful, I decided to make a pair as well.

The instructions appears in Maggie Meister's Classical Elegance, under the Zoe Earrings project, pp. 59-61.

Though they seem to differ in 4 ways from the picture shown in the book:

1 - the 15/0 beads fringe number, 

2 - apparently 15/0 Delica beads are used for the smaller square in the pictured earrings, whereas round ones are used in the written instructions, 

3 - decorations next to the join area between the squares, 

4 - the earwires hanging loop

The materials I used are: Japanese 15/0 and 11/0 seed beads, 4 mm Czech multicut beads and 5/16 mm Czech Daggers.

In the pair I made, there is a slight modification to Row 7 when embellishing the large square, which seems to be mistakenly omitted from the instructions (pick up 2 beads instead of one and then pick up 4 beads. In Row 8 insert one bead between the pair of beads from Row 7 etc...).

Hanging on a tree

Reminding me of Muslim Tiles

On the way taking pictures, look what I found:

Reflection on Amber