Beading Babes January Challenge

In the midst of the Earring a Day Challenge, I have also been working on the projects for the January Beading Babes Challenge, which I just joined at the end of December.

Since this is my first challenge with this group, I decided that I would make both projects and follow the directions as well as the materials list...which is something I never do. I always find something that I want to change if I am working from a pattern, even if it's just the shape or size of the beads!

But I want to play nice, and the whole point of this challenge is to try something that you may not choose to do on your own!

The projects that were chosen are Runway of Pearls designed by Barbara Falkowitz in Beadwork Magazine Dec 2011/Jan 2012:

and Ravishing Rosettes designed by Smadar Grossman in Bead & Button Magazine Dec 2011/Jan 2012:

I started with Runway of Pearls....which is complete except for the final row of embellishment Pearls and the clasp.

To make a 7" bracelet the base is supposed to be 5 rows wide by 43 rows long of RAW units stitched with size 11/0 triangle beads. Then every RAW unit is embellished with either seed beads or Pearls, the base is folded in half lengthwise so that you can zip up the remaining long edges, after which you add the final embellishment of Pearls over the zipped edge. 

After stitching 43 units, the base strip was just under 7 inches long. So I decided to add a few more units because the embellishment will shrink it by about an inch...not to mention that folding this thick strip in half lengthwise will add some serious bulk which will also alter the length of this bracelet.

I have 6 inch wrists and it is still not quite long enough so if I decide to finish the project, I will just compensate for that with the clasp. But you definitely have to play around with the measurements and understand how the embellishments and ultimate girth of the 'tube' will affect the length and the fit of this bracelet!

This bracelet is definitely not my personal style, but I still wanted to try it out since it is something I would not have chosen to do if not for this challenge. And now that it is basically done, I am liking it even less than I did before. The project itself was fun to work on, it's just really not my style!

So now I have to decide whether or not take it apart and salvage my beads! RAW is a serious bitch to rip out, so I think I will probably leave the triangle beads and just try to save my beautiful Metallic Raspberry Bronze seed beads and Black Pearls.

I think it would have been best to just stop before folding it over and zipping it up! Even though it would just be a strip of embellished Right Angle Weave, it would be more my style and I would probably even wear it!

All in all it was a good experience and most definitely not a waste of time, so I am fine with that!

I have also started on the Ravishing Rosettes project which is more my style while still being something that I would not have chosen to do if it were not for this challenge.

No pics for now...but I will post an update as I get further along with the second project!