Beading Babes Project 4 Reveal

This past week was intensely stressful for me but I have finally arrived in Michigan. My husband has been here for 4 months for work and to find housing for us, while I stayed in Virginia to finish my work and train my replacement.

Family and friends helped me pack up the house and load the truck, then my daughter and I made the 650 mile drive from Charlottesville to Ann Arbor.

I wanted to be on the road by 10am and of course we didn't actually leave Virginia until 3pm...but we finally arrived 12 hours later, with a little scenic detour through the very steep and curvy mountain roads of Pennsylvania. Once we arrived, we grabbed some pillows and blankets from the truck and passed out around 4:00 this morning.

We woke up around noon today and it took us about 8 hours to unload the truck and begin setting up our new home. It's going to take me a week or two to really get everything in order but at least I have the important things set up, like my beads, my bedroom and my Internet connection!

Now onto the latest Beading Babes project 4 reveal. I have my Trellis Necklace by Nancy Dale completed and photographed and I have one pair of the Russian Leaf earrings, and half of a second pair of earrings finished...however I do not have them photographed yet!

I didn't have time to work on the bracelet because of my work schedule and all the stress that comes with moving across the country!

I will edit this post later to include photos of the earrings, but for now I want to get photos of the Trellis Necklace up in time for the reveal...

I really enjoyed this project by Nancy Dale and I think it is extremely cool that designers are offering up their projects for the Beading Babes challenges! I love the end result, but I also really enjoyed the beading process. It is a time consuming project but it has enough variation to keep things interesting.

I made 6 rope segments that are 30 RAW units long as per the instructions. Then I made one segment that is 90 RAW units long and one that is 60 RAW units long. I used increments of 30 RAW units, as there are certain design factors and repeats that work within those parameters...and everything came together perfectly! 

I haven't measured the length but it is long enough to put on over your head and not require a clasp. I used about 30 grams of Dark Bronze size 11/0s for the base, and about 25 grams of Gold lined Green size 15/0s for the netting, plus the crystals and embellishment beads. I love the colors together and I really like the flexibility of the rope. I think I will give this one to my mom for Mother's Day this year!

I look forward to seeing everyone else's project reveal and hope to get photo's of my earrings up later tonight but it probably won't happen until tomorrow!

I am so happy to finally see this week come to a close but it is kind of bittersweet. I am excited to be in my new home and living with my husband again but I am definitely going to miss my daughter and the rest of my family. I am thrilled that she was able to come with me to see my new home and be there with me for the long drive...she has never been to Michigan before and she has to fly home tomorrow, but hopefully she will be able to return for a real visit later this year!

Beading Babes Project #3 Reveal

Well, I have been looking forward to this reveal for awhile now...I am excited to see everyone's projects, especially all the wonderful color ways everyone has chosen! It has certainly been a great experience working with so many beaders from across the globe...helping each other through some obstacles and deciphering the instructions and finding all the little things that may not have been addressed in the magazine tutorials.

I worked on both projects this month, but in the end, I really didn't like the Runway of Pearls so I took it apart to salvage my embellishment beads. I still have the RAW base of matte black size 11/0 triangle beads...maybe I will do something else with that in the future, but for now it sits in a plastic baggie in my box of samples!

But here are a few photos of my Ravishing Rosettes necklace. This is a design by Smadar Grossman beaded by me. I used 8mm Black Czech Druks, size 8/0 & 11/0 seed beads in Matte Black and Gunmetal, and Black 3mm Czech Fire Polish rounds.

Black is a hard color to photograph and my photos are either too bright or too dark, but the Matte Black beads in there help to show some of the variation in color tones so at least you can see it! I really love this necklace, much more than I thought I would...I may even do a few more in other color ways!

I look forward to the full Beading Babes reveal on the Releases by Rufydoof blog sometime later today....she is in Australia so I have no idea what time it is there or even what day it is...it could already be Monday for all I know! And I hope I am doing this correctly Karyn!