Let’s Talk About Beads! Rullas
Rullas are another one of those kind of unique two hole beads. It’s also one of the other unique beads I highly recommend trying out!
Unlike Nib-Bits, I was a little more willing to try Rullas. They reminded me of very featureless SuperDuos and that meant I was more likely to find other things to do with them. My first real encounter with them happened when I was trying to put together a Pattern of the Month activity at the Blueberry Storefront and came across a free pattern from Matubo called Rolling Rivoli by Nela Kábelová. While I questioned some of the color choices, the way Rullas were being used as a Rivoli Bezel had my undivided attention!
I liked this pattern so much I even ended up teaching a class on it at our local bead society! Then afterward, I started experimenting with every chaton and rivoli I had. Some of the pattern doesn’t translate to different sizes as well, but everything I tried with a Rulla bezel WORKED! I’ll be blunt, once I found this out 90% of my bezels are made with Rullas now.
Photos above are pictures of my creations inspired by the Rolling Rivoli pattern linked above. These are an 18mm Rivoli and an 18mm German Glass Cabochon. I can’t encourage folks to try this really fun and surprisingly versatile 2 hole bead.