Hello!

So, a few posts back, I mentioned that I was participating in this summer’s Secret Bead-along, hosted by Jean Powers. You maaay have noticed that the bead along was almost a full month ago and I am SO sorry for keeping you all waiting. Without any more delay, here is my finished result! 

So, I did do a teensy bit of tweaking. Jean did provide a beaded rope that I decided not to do and I did leave out one or two beaded beads that I just didn’t like. I will elaborate!

The first task was to make fifteen peyote tubes, which we then turned into beaded beads. Here are all 15 beaded beads on the Harry Potter wand my best friend made me!

The beads were divided up into five days worth, doing three a day. The first day’s beads were made of all seed beads. Day two was MiniDuos and day three was Czech beads. Day four was Brick beads and the day five was crystals.

Two of the beads with MiniDuos did not work for me. Jean mentioned in the pattern that some of the beads may come out wonky because of different brands and finishes, but honestly, they were just NOT fitting together. Even the pictures in the pattern that Jean used to illustrate the steps had lots of thread showing and ill-fitting beads, so in the end, I decided to cut them apart and leave them out of the final necklace.

The other decision I made was not to make the beaded rope. I started to stitch the rope up and I must admit, I found the directions to be VERY difficult to follow – there were not enough photos and the written description was very confusing. When I finally got the rope going, I liked the look of the filled netting, but there was too much visible thread for my taste. So, I decided to try a different rope.

The other reason I wanted to try something different for the rope was because my piece was turning out to be very monochromatic. I stuck to colors I was comfortable with, since I didn’t know what the finished project was going to be when I picked them out, but the piece was coming out a little too clay colored.

I decided to use ribbon to bring some color into my finished necklace. I used sari silk in black, dark rose, and a desaturated green to string my beaded beads and then used some pewter end caps to finish it off.

Overall, I am really happy with my finished piece! There are four or five of the beaded bead designs that I absolutely love and plan on using again in future projects. I haven’t decided if I’ll participate in next years Secret Bead-along, but I am considering this year’s to be a success!