A Bracelet a Week: Royalty

I am so glad to be able to show you this week’s bracelet! I’ve been sitting on this idea for awhile, and it’s great to finally have it completed. Now that it’s done, I can’t remember how it kept getting pushed aside for other things, but it did turn out even better than I had hoped.

The palette was inspired by one of my favorite Egyptian symbols - the Nemes crown. This is the striped cloth headdress worn by many Pharaohs and their likenesses, such as Tutankhamun and Ramses. It’s also the headdress worn by the Sphinx. If you’re a Graham Hancock fan, you probably know that some scholars believe that the Nemes was added later, and that the original monument had a lion’s mane instead.

I love the different ways that stripes are used in Egyptian art and clothing, so I wanted to capture some of that look with this bracelet. I used the wavy wedges template, and started with striped panels in white and alabaster. I wanted these sections to look like the pleated linen robes that are depicted throughout Egyptian tombs.

The only thing I wish I could have done differently is the topaz stripes. They just don’t stand up to the dark cobalt as much as I would like. I really need to find a new non-metal gold seed bead that doesn’t have actual gold in the finish. The search goes on!

Copyright 2011 Inspirational Beading
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