I'm so happy you're here!
So
what is the Bead Soup Blog Party? It's a huge blog hop and beading
challenge that has grown into so much more than I ever expected.
There's now a Facebook group for bead and jewelry designers and this October, a book! To say I'm honored by everyone's participation is a supreme understatement (click here to see the maps!).
As with all my BSBP reveals, this is long, but I hope it's worth it! Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and experience my pit falls, ah-ha moments, and be sure to visit the links to the many talented bead artists my partner sent me!
My partner for the first reveal was Patti Vanderbloemen. Patti sent me two royal helpings of soup...
As with all my BSBP reveals, this is long, but I hope it's worth it! Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and experience my pit falls, ah-ha moments, and be sure to visit the links to the many talented bead artists my partner sent me!
My partner for the first reveal was Patti Vanderbloemen. Patti sent me two royal helpings of soup...
After the giddiness wore off, I thought I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do, and even ordered some extra beads for my plan. But as best laid plans often do, the plan changed.
I knew the blue Bead Soup would be my easiest, so I started on the black, red, and white one first. I knew I didn't want to mix Donna Millard's lampwork with Marsha Neal's focal, and that focal was my first stumbling point. I sat there at the table, beads everywhere, and idly picked up a bronze headpin, bronze bead cap by Lesley Watt, and a gold Swarovski crystal pearl from Bead Soup #2. And guess what? Brilliant.
I sat with the pendant for a few days and tried to figure out what else to do. I ended up mixing part of Bead Soup #1 with Bead Soup #2 -- the clasp by Leann Weih became the focal ABOVE the focal, and I pulled out my newest favorite, bronze wire from Objects and Elements, to wrap around an olive green Lucite bead from my own stash. I also wrapped the link that goes through the clasp with 22-gauge wire for a more substantial and interesting link.
I
had bought that wonderful mother of pearl bead at the Bead and Button
Show this year and it seemed destined for this piece -- but for some
reason, I HAD to use the extra headpin and decided to drill a hole in it
to make a link to the (poorly) wrapped Lucite bead. And remember the
gold tangle beads in Soup #2? They were too bright for this necklace,
so I did a QUICK dunk in Jax Brown, praying I wasn't going to ruin them. I left them in a rustic state because that seemed to work for this necklace.
I wanted to add some color to the necklace, so used multi-faceted dyed red jade from LimaBeads
from my stash and square Czech glass beads, also from my stash. I made
a couple of bronze wire cages and stuffed one with white sari silk and
captured a jade bead in the other. I've been super-interested in
texture in jewelry lately, so that's what drove the decision.
And here's the finished necklace...
NOT the best photo, but it was 105 degrees outside when I took it and that just had to be that! I'm rather fond of this.
So that was the first piece, and it made me feel I could actually DO something!
On
to the second piece, with Donna Millard's distinctively patterned
lampwork beads. When working with beads that have a strong pattern,
it's important to let the beads do the talking and not have too many
other conversations going on in the background.
I made a pendant for this one with a piece of etched copper from an old project (I
save EVERYTHING) and a larger piece of nickle silver. I stacked a few
metal spacers between the two pieces for depth, and riveted some random
things in. The funny thing? I made this pendant a month before my soup
arrived, yet it's perfect with those red beads!
I decorated the links of the red lampwork bead links with tiny copper beads... see them up there?
Then
I let the beads do the talking and made a simple linked necklace. I
hope the relative simplicity and modernity of the pendant worked well
with Donna's lampwork. What do you think?
Since
I had plans for the clasp Patti sent, I made my own using one of the
sterling silver beads I was sent and a lot of wire....
I
had one more bead left from Donna's lampwork and the silver beads, and I
wanted to see if I could use as much of the bead soups as I could, so I
made a two-strand bracelet with bead clusters from the seed beads Patti
sent and onyx from my stash. Here's where I used the silver toggle
Patti sent (made by Lesley Watt.)
Then there were the two sets of headpins Patti sent! I made one pair into a kind of Gothic style:
And
the second set is made with some vintage rhinestone beads and
photographed against my first wedding cabinet card (I collect cabinet
cards, but never had a wedding one!). It seemed fitting.
So that took care of Bead Soup #1 and part of #2!
The
second soup, the blue soup, I was giddy over because I LOVE fat, chubby
lampwork beads. These are gorgeous substantial beads made by Lea Avroch.
I also love blue, and really need a blue necklace. I knew I wanted to
incorporate my favorite things (dangles!) but I really wanted it LUSH.
I
happened to have a charm by Lesley Watt arrive on my doorstep a couple
of days before I started work on the necklace, and since I'd already
used the bronze clasp in the earlier necklace, I found another toggle
from Lesley and went to town.
And the final piece, which took about three hours of intense wire wrapping.
I
managed to use almost everything Patti sent me. I only had a few red
seed beads, six cultured pearls, a bead cap, and a few Swarovski crystal
pearls left over, and I think that's all!
Here's what I sent to Patti, and you can click here to see what SHE made!
And the rest of the BSBP6 Reveal #1 participants!
Hostess, Lori Anderson, PrettyThingsBlog.com
Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles
Alicia Marinache, All The Pretty Things
Amanda Tibbetts, Amanda Made
Amber Dawn Goldish, Inventive Soul
Annita Wilson, AW Jewelry
Beti Horvath, Stringing Fool
Birgitta Lejonklou, Create With Spirit
Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Cassie Donlen, Glass Beadle
Cheri Reed, Creative Designs by Cheri
Cheryl McCloud, One Thing Leads to Another
Cheryl Roe, BeadRoe
Christina Hickman, Vintage Treasures Jewelry
Cilla Watkins, Tell Your Girlfriends
Cindy Wimmer, Sweet Bead Studio
Cory Celaya, Art With Moxie
Cory Tompkins, Tealwater Designs
Cris Peacock, Cris' Page
Cynthia Deis, Shiny Little Things
Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers
Cynthia Wainscott, Exotic Peru
Dana Hickey, Magpie Approved
Dana James, Dana's Jewelry Designs
Dana Lang, Tumblestone Handmakery
Debbie Price, Green Shoot Jewellery Designs
Denielle Hagerman, Some Beads and Other Things
Diane Valasek, Dragonfly Close
Doris Stumpf, Glaszwerg
Dyanne Everett-Cantrell, Dee-Liteful Jewelry Creations
Elaine Robitaille, Too Aquarius
Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life
Enikö Fabian, Perl-eni
Heather Davis, Blissful Garden Beads
Heidi Post, Ex Post Facto Jewelry
Hilary Frye, FryeStyle
Ilenia Ruzza, Ilenia's Unique Beaded and Painted Jewelry
Inge von Roos, Inge's Blog
Jami Shipp, Celebrating Life
Jayne Capps, Mama's Got to Doodle
Jean A. Well, Jean A. Wells Handcrafted Artisan Jewelry
Jean Yates, Snap Out of It Jean! There's Beading to Do!
Jennifer Cameron, Glass Addictions
Jennifer Pottner, Rock Candy Beads
Jennifer VanBenschoten, Jewelry, Art and Life
Jenny Vidberg, Shyme Design
Jessica Dickens, My Jewelry, My Life, Me
Jessica Klaaren, Beadful-Things by Jessica
JJ Jacobs, Coming Abstractions
Joan Williams, Lilruby Jewelry
Judith Johnston, Judith Johnston
Judy Riggs, Rigglettes
Judy Turner, Silver Rains
Julie Anne Leggett, The Peaceful Bead
K Hutchinson, Jumbled Hutch
Karen Meador, Dreamcatcher Ranch
Katja Benevol Gabrijelcic, Slovonske Technobe
Kelli Jacobson, Creative Moon
Kelly Ramstack, Adventures with Kelly
Keri Lee Sereika, Pink Lemonade
Kim Ballor, Vitamin C... A Daily Dose of Creativity
Kim Bender-Hora, KimmyKat
Kirsi Luostarinen, Kirsi Luo Korut
Kitty Bozzini, Kitty Lampwork
Laurie Hanna, Laurie's Jewelbox
Leah Curtis, Beady Eyed Bunny
Lesley Watt, The Gossiping Goddess
Linda Inhelder, Must-Haves Jewelry
Linda Landig, Linda's Bead Blog and Meanderings
Lisa Liddy, Metal Me This
Lori Dorrington, Lori's Adventures in Etsy Land
Lori Poppe, Adventures in Creativity with Lorillijean
Mallory Hoffman, For the Love of Beads
Marge Beebe, Rock Creek Creations
Marianna Boylan, Pretty Shiny Things
Marion Simmons, Shade Tree Studio
Marti Conrad, Marti C's Clay Blog
Maryse Fritzsch-Thillens, GlassBeadArt, Lampwork Beads
Melanie Brooks, Earthenwood Studio
Michelle Hardy, Firefly Visions
Mikala Coates, Maybe Just Perhaps
Nan Emmett, Spirit Rattles - Spirited Earth
Nancy Boylan, Snazzy Doodle Designs
Nancy Peterson, Beading From the Heart
Nicole Rennell, Nicole Rennell Designs
Niki Meiners, 365 Days of Craft
Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas
Paige Maxim, Paige Maxim Designs
Pamela Gangler, She Always Loved Pink
Paige Maxim, Paige Maxim Designs
Pamela Gangler, She Always Loved Pink
Patricia Johnson, Patricia L. Johnson Glass Art
Patti Vanderbloemen, My Addictions ... Handcrafted Jewelry by Patti
Perri Jackson, Shaktipaj Designs
Raida Disbrow, Havana Beads
Renetha Stanziano, Lamplight Crafts
Shannon Hicks, Falling Into the Sky
Shannon LeVart, Miss Fickle Media
Sharon Driscoll, Right Turn Art Werks
Shelley Graham Turner, Fabric of My Life
Sherri Stokey, Knot Just Macrame
Shirley Moore, Beads and Bread
Skylar Bre'z, Brising Beads
Stacie Florer, Soul to Substance
Stacie Stamper, Park Avenue
Stacy Alderson, Iridal's Attic
Stephanie Haussler, Pixybug Designs
Stephanie Stamper, Rainy Day Designs
Suzette Bentley, Ellie's Bijoux
Szarka, Magpie Gemstones
Tammy Jones, Jewelry Making Daily
Tania Tebbit, Glass, Craft, & Artful Goodness
Tanty Sri Hartanti, TJewellicious by Tanti
Terry Matuszyk, Pink Chapeau
Tina Bosh, Every Good and Perfect Gift
Tracy Bell, Copper, Glass and Recycled Trash
Vonna Maslanka, Just Vonna
Next reveal date -- August 11th!
Lori Anderson creates jewelry and bead kits as well as collaborative mixed media art with her son, Zack. Visit her shops by clicking here. She is also the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party® and author of the book Bead Soup.
Join her at the Facebook group Bead Soup Cafe for bead chat, swaps, challenges, and lots of eye candy!
