Beading Babes Project 5

For Project 5, Karyn chose two wonderful patterns designed by the same person, Helena Tang.  I have been in awe of Helena's designs for some time and was so excited to try two.  If you are not familiar with Helena's designs, check out her website.  There is a wonderful gallery and many beautiful patterns for beaders of all skill levels.

Our first project was Echos of Nefertiti, published in the June/July issue of Bead and Button.  I first saw this issue at the bead store and started paging through it.  When I came to Echos of Nefertiti, I started walking around the store, issue in hand, looking for disc beads.  I talked myself out of some beautiful green stones of some sort, promising myself I would come back to the necklace.

A few days later, Karyn, the mind reader that she is, announced the projects and I was overjoyed to see this necklace included.

I started looking in my stash and, with the exception of the 14mm round beads, found all sorts of things that would work.  Unfortunately, everything I tried didn't seem right.

Then, I found these jasper beads and fell in love.

I thought it would be easy to find the right colors.  I won't bore you with the details, but I went through quite a few tries to find the perfect "fit."  As it happened, though, I had all the right beads in my stash and once I got going, the components were a cinch to make.

I was lucky enough to have delica beads that matched the tila beads.  I used those with size 11 seed beads to make a twisty spiral herringbone rope.  

I omitted the smaller components on either side of the necklace.  I also used beading wire to string all the components together.  I love the way it turned out.

The toggle is a wonderful component by itself and I can envision it as a bracelet or necklace focal.

This was a fun pattern and I can see how even one component can have several different uses.  I can see earrings and bracelets in my future.

Our second project was Helena's Four Leaf Clover Cuff.  As I was digging through my stash for the first project, I found a few hundred 3mm heliotrope bicones.  I have no idea why I bought these, but I loved the dark blue/black color and decided to use those in place of the pearls.  I also found matching seed beads in my stash.

At first I was a bit scared about using a bicone instead of a round bead, but I love the little diamond shape the bicones make in contrast to the open circle between the clovers.

I even found these 6mm pyrite rounds that I was able to use for the clasp.  I was on a roll!  I created this bracelet purely from my stash.  (*beading high five*)

This was a fun bracelet.  The pattern is easy to pick up and once I started the first row, I didn't need to reference the pattern until the end.  This is a good thing when you want to watch Dr. Who on netflix in full screen mode.

Helena, thank you again for allowing us a discount on your pattern.  For more of Helena's designs, check out her website.

Karyn, thank you for putting this together.  I always look forward to the Beading Babes projects and reveal day is such a treat.

Please visit Karyn's blog, Releases by Rufydoof, for more information on our Beading Babes group.

If you would like to see other versions of these projects, please take a few minutes (hours) to see the beady goodness that will be listed soon on Karyn's blog.