When I first poured out a tube of Miyuki mini drop beads I was dismayed at the varied widths at the top of the bead, around the hole. It didn't matter what the color, all of them had the huge size differences. I didn't think of it at the time, but I eventually figured out a way to take advantage of the non uniform sizes.
I have a friend who is wild about berries. These raspberries were made with her in mind. I had originally been trying to make flower centers out of yellow drops, but I ended up with more of a berry. They are made with five rows of 4 beads each in tubular peyote, gathered at the end with a size 11 seed bead. For the bracts I used size 15 beads to make a simple peyote star with the stem attached. The secret is to use the drops with small tops for the first and last rows and the drops with the widest tops for the middle rows.
I was surprised I hadn't seen berries made with drops before, it seemed so logical. Then I saw the issue of Beadwork magazine for August/September and it contained instructions for berries that were similar, using drops, but the method wasn't as simple as the ones I made.
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