Beading Babes Reveal 5

Today is the reveal for the Beading Babes Project 5.  This time around Karyn chose two designs by the fantastic designer, Helena Tang-Lim.  Helena designs beautiful jewerly which you can see, and purchase patterns and kits for, on her website.  The first project was Echoes of Nefertiti from the June issue of Bead and Button.  When Helena heard that the Beading Babes were working on that project she offered the members her Four Leaf Clover Cuff at a discount if the bracelet was completed.  It's a beautiful pattern and it was a very generous offer from Helena. 

I made the cuff first and found that it was an easy pattern that worked up quickly.  I used the beads the pattern called for because I wanted a light summery cuff.  I have some ideas for a second one using other beads.  But here is my version of the bracelet.

I love the way the colors turned out and it looks great with summery whites.  The green seeds have a slight blue tone that you can't see well in the picture but that look great with the blue beads.  I don't use pearls very often and I don't use the color blue very much, so this was a fun departure for me. 

The second project, Echoes of  Nefertiti, started with search for the 14mm disk beads.  Once I found some I wanted to use I was able to pull from my stash to make the necklace. 

I love this necklace!  I used matte black Tila's and drops along with gold iris seed beads.  It's very dramatic and yet fun to wear.  The matte black seed beads with the gold iris made up into a stunning twisted herringbone and I decided to used the herringbone for the toggle bar because I liked it so much.  I reenforced it with a piece of wire to give it stability and strength.  I love these disk beads, there is so much color in them, which is why I chose the iris beads to bring out some of the colors.

The toggle on this necklace is a wonderful component in itself!  I love the toggle and I think it has a lot of potential on its own as a pendant or bracelet. I love the way Helena designed it to have a loop for attaching it to the necklace worked into the toggle design. 





These two projects were so much fun to work on.  I hope you'll check out all the Beading Babes blogs to see what everyone has done.  Karyn will have a list posted on her blog so you can find everyone.

Thanks for stopping by today.