Reusing African beads, for a good cause.

My friend Sheryl came into these African beads. Knowing her love for beads, they were given to her by a friend, and were from the collection of that friend's sister.
Sheryl had the idea to create a necklace for her friend with the beads, as a remembrance of her sister. There were 2 large strands of beads, so Sheryl wanted me to come up with several designs. The remainder of the necklaces would be used for fund raising for "Dining For Women".

So I started to put together some necklaces. She wanted fairly simple necklaces. The necklace second from the left is my favorite, and I was asked to keep it for myself - I gladly accepted.

 

 This necklace is convertible - it can be worn as a necklace, or, with the chain removed, a bracelet.

 

 After I showed the above group to Sheryl, she had the idea about turning these beads into the fund raising, by making as many necklaces as possible (for Dining For Women, as mentioned above). So I explored more designs, keeping the bead usage per necklace low, to stretch our beads!

 

 I gave those necklaces to Sheryl, and she was going to let her friend chose one to keep. The unknown detail to me is that her friend is not able to use a clasp well, and could not manage to get any of these on! OK, no problem! These last two necklace are easy to wear. The necklace on the left is on a long chain that will slip over her head. The other necklace has a magnetic clasp. The smaller brass "bead" is the clasp! Simply pull apart, put the chain around your neck, and then put the 2 sides of the clasps near each other and they'll snap together!

Since our last meeting, Sheryl's friend has given her MORE African beads to make up necklaces for Dining For Women. She also had received some feedback from others about possibly using cord or leather instead of brass chain. I will look into that.
I'll be making these necklaces, in various beads, colors, designs for some time to come!
So many beads, so little time!!!

Thanks for stopping by my blog.