Friday, March 23, 2012

Still hopping!

I am still working my way through the 200 participants in the 5th Bead Soup Blog Hop.  I am sooooo amazed at all the incredible talent out there.  I have been so inspired. It is my goal to finish the list by the end of this coming week.  I have really enjoyed this entire process and will participate in the next bead soup blog hop. I am already thinking of what beads and focal to send. 

I would also like to say "THANK YOU" to all the wonderful and nice comments that were left about my bead soup creations.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Giveaway: Starseed Jewelry

Please visit Starseed Jewelry http://beads2die4.blogspot.com/, she is giving away some really cool vintage hearts. They are made from polymer clay and they are really beautiful! I hope I win this one since it is my favorite! 

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal Day!!!!

It is finally here....the big day to reveal all of our wonderful creations, just in case you are not familiar with what I am talking about it is the 5th Bead Soup Blog Party! This party is hosted by Lori Anderson. http://www.prettythingsblog.com/  For this party there were to be 200 participants and you were randomly chosen by lottery to join the party.  I was chosen, YEA! and was partnered with the amazingly talented Traci Zeller. http://jewellerywithatwist.blogspot.com/  If you get a chance, stop by her etsy shop and show her some love :)  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Gettagift   We were to send each other bead soup, it was to contain a focal, a toggle clasp, and anything else we wanted to send.  We are required to create something using the focal and the clasp, any other items were optional.  Traci and I were in contact with each other very quickly and even became face book friends.  It is amazing that we were paired up because we seem to have a great deal in common.

This is what I sent Traci.

 I made the focal and chose a copper flower toggle.  The round beads are snakeskin agate and then a strand of brown fresh water pearls to finish off the soup.

Traci sent me a wonderful mix of soup.  It was slightly delayed in getting to me, but it finally arrived and I managed to make a pretty decent soup.  I did have to bring it with me to New Jersey to finish as we came to welcome my Brother-in-law home from Afghanistan! 

What a great mix!







I think this focal is just wonderful, I love the colors!

I managed to make two sets to include: necklace, bracelet, and earrings.  I have not used the beautiful boro lamp work bead or the Czech glass bead yet, but I will!

Although I love the focal it proved to be a bit of a challenge, what is the best way to showcase such a great piece?  I just kept thinking about the bird nesting.  I also did not know how I was going to create two strands since the toggle Traci sent me was for a double strand.  I was able to solve that dilemma by using jump rings and connecting them to one ring, essentially making a single stranded necklace.  Since the bird made me think of a nes, that is what I tried to create.  I used a metal base that I colored with Gilders Paste and wrapped in Sari ribbon.  I then used the faceted agate to be "eggs in the nest"  they are wire wrapped onto the base, as is the bird.  I finished off the base by wrapping vintage brass around the edges.  I then wrapped Sari ribbon and wire to create the stands of the necklace.  I am really pleased with how this turned out.
I made little bird earrings that were vintage brass that I again colored with Gilders Paste. 
The bracelet followed the same idea of the nest in the necklace but I am not very good at taking pictures of my creations.  I do not think the picture looks good at all, sorry!

I love the ceramic beads I received and used them for the second set.  I really liked the red beads and used two of them to make the earrings.  I used the other red one and an orange one in the necklace, with other ceramic beads that were in my stash.  I decided I wanted the necklace to not be symmetrical with the same beads in each spot so I just did a random design.   The bracelet again followed the same randomness and I used one of the orange ceramic beads Traci sent me.


I really enjoyed the challenge of this bead soup and I am looking forward to hopping to see what everyone else has created.  I will defiantly participate in the Bead Soup Blog Party again.

Here is a list of all the particpants, please stop by their blogs and leave comments on their lovely creations!  Have fun hopping!