New Beads: Tomb Treasures

I have some very exciting bead finds to share with you today! Over the past few months, my favorites and bookmarks have been filling up with wonderful beads and cabochons with an Egyptian flair. As soon as mail service opened up again, I just had to scoop up two sets of gorgeous hieroglyph tablets from Ms. Bijoux Beads.

These Czech glass beads are made in the classic Egyptian revival style that was popular in the 1920’s, and the colors are fantastic! While I was shopping, I also came across some lovely Czech glass skull beads, and didn’t hesitate to grab them. I searched high and low for some affordable skull beads last fall, and came up short. Everything seemed to be either turquoise, which I don’t use, or ceramic, which is a bit expensive, and also on the fringes of my taboo list.

The very first thing I made when my beads arrived was a Halloween inspired collage pendant. I’ve been experimenting with this necklace style a bit lately - taking a swatch of beadwork and weaving it through with fringe and dangles. This one combines skulls and rustic Christmas beads with black and brown.

The orange hieroglyph beads created a bit of a challenge. What sort of palette would work well with such a vibrant orange, and have a distinct Egyptian flair? I started with cobalt AB druks, and matching blue seed beads. A dash of light cream and parched desert wood beads rounded things out nicely.

I was really happy with how the orange pendant turned out, and then I got to work on the jade green, and actually surprised myself a little. I love this palette of turquoise, black, topaz and olive so much, I’m very tempted to use it all again in a different design.

I have a bunch more of these little hieroglyph beads, and I can’t wait to explore more possibilities. I’m hoping that they will take a peyote stitch bezel - they’d make great focals for cuff bracelets.

What’s your favorite bead style of late?

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