Hello, my dear friends! Are you having a nice fall? Things are finally cooling down around here and I am LOVING it.

So, quick story time. Back when I was a wee babe working at Beads Direct USA when it was still a brick-and-mortar store, I developed this earring pattern.

SuperDuos were still a brand new phenomenon at this point (we’re talking, like, what? 2011 or 2012?), so the design is really simple, but I loved the clean lines and the perfect points of the stars. When I opened up my etsy shop, it was probably one of the first five patterns I put up for sale.

So, what’s the problem? Well, this pattern calls for 4mm top-drilled bicones and guess what you can’t find anymore.

Hmph.

Turns out, Swarovski crystal only makes top-drilled bicones in 6mm and 8mm. But! When I was developing these earrings, we sold a generic Chinese crystal that was top-drilled and 4mm. I assumed since we sold them that they were easily available elsewhere. That was several years ago, though, and we’ve since discontinued our Chinese crystal line at Beads Direct USA and, despite extensive Googling on my part, I cannot find another retailer who carries those tiny top-drilled beads.

What’s a girl to do? I tried using 6mm Top-Drilled Swarovski crystal, but that made the earrings floppy and ruined the star shape. GemDuos and DiamonDuos weren’t quite right either. Nothing made that crisp, pointed star that I loved so much. I was fairly certain about two months ago that I was going to have to discontinue my SuperDuo Star Earrings and, for the first time as a designer, retire my pattern. I was heartbroken.

But then, a miracle occurred!

Kite beads to the rescue!

We got some Kite Beads in at work and I was suspicious that they might fit my endangered star earrings and they worked perfectly.

Look at my beautiful pointed babies! I love them so much!

So, I took this opportunity to re-write the pattern from scratch – it was one of my first patterns and wasn’t quite up to my current standards as far as illustrations and layout go. So I scrapped it and wrote and illustrated a brand new version. The pattern is now up on my etsy shop and you can purchase it here.

Now, what about you guys that purchased the pattern already and want the updated version? Well, I’m going to do the same thing I did for my Toying with Tiles update. Just shoot me an email or a Convo through Etsy and let me know you want the new version and I’ll send you the new PDF free of charge. However! Be sure to include the order number from the original pattern purchase, so I know you already paid for it. You can find that number in your Etsy order history.

So, what do you guys think of my updated little stars? Got any color combos you wanna try out? I have a few more ideas in mind and can’t wait to whip them out. It’s such a simple pattern that you can stitch them up extremely quickly (perfect for all those last-minute Christmas gifts I know I’ll be making mid-December, haha).