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!

Link to Participants