Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal Day

Good morning one and all.  Welcome to my little corner of the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party.  Thanks so much to Lori Anderson and her assistants for putting this whole shebang together!  My mind whirls at the logistics behind organizing this, and I am grateful for the time they have put into making this happen.  I am also honored to be part of something that involves hundreds of jewelry artists from around the globe.  Enjoy looking at the variety of creativity via this list of participants on Lori's blog.  I suspect I'll be drinking lots of tea and perusing for hours this weekend.

As a reminder, my partner is Kitty Bozzini of Stinky Dog Beads.  This is the wonderful bead soup Kitty sent to me (you may see it in more detail here):

Below are the pieces I made from my bead soup with a little help from my own stash.

Bracelet made from brass chain, clasp & headpins, Lucite flowers, Czech glass rounds & seed beads

The large brass chain came from Kitty, and the rest came from my own beads & findings.  As soon as I saw the chain she sent, I knew I wanted to make a spring-themed bracelet with it.  I have had the large blue Lucite flowers for years.  I thought it was about time I put them to use after picking up the other Lucite flowers at a recent bead show.

Earrings made of Czech glass, copper wire and brass lever back ear wires

I got a little loosey goosey with the wire wrapping at the top of these earrings but decided to keep it that way once I tried them on.  I like the way they dangle and how kinetic they are - lots of movement when worn.  Really liking the mossy earth tones of these glass beads.  

Necklace with lapis lazuli chain & chips, owl charm, faceted labradorite, silver spacers & Czech glass

Not sure I'm all together satisfied with my design on this one.  I like the combination of blue, silver and grey, but I feel there is something slightly off about it.  This might be a future redo.  It does remind me of the South Pole - the color of the labradorite pendant and the deep blue chunky glass bead especially.  They make me think of the weeks of twilight before the sun fully dips below the horizon and winter moves in with months and months of darkness, aside from auroras and moonlight.  I do miss the winter sky at the bottom of the planet.  Not so much the temps of - 70 F or colder, however.

Stacked pendant necklace using Czech glass, magnesite, clay round, painted clay bead, turquoise and cording from Kitty's package

This was a fun one to make.  It's a little funky, and the beads are some of my favorite colors.  The length of the cording makes the placement of the pendant adjustable; it can be worn as a choker or near matinee length.  I tied the ends together in knots so that they simply slide over the cord to easily put it on and play with the length.  I wonder if Kitty thought I would incorporate what she used to hold my bead soup package together as part of a necklace.  The clay disc feels rustic and looks like it could be a wheel from a child's toy so I wanted to find a way to use it. 

Long necklace made with glass flower button/clasp made by Kitty, Unicorne beads glass dagger & spacers, faceted seed beads, all manner of glass beads, lampwork rondelles, clay tile & a few plastic flowers

When I was finally finished with this one (at the last possible minute mind you), I said out loud "this might be my favorite necklace that I've ever made."  It's nothing complicated - it's the beads!  I love the color combination of blue and green.  I like the variety of shapes and types of beads, and I think the glass flower button Kitty made is simply spectacular.  It makes me want to get back to learning lampwork.  I made the two at the top of the photo during a class a few years ago.  While they are not very symmetrical or delicate or even what I intended, they were fun to make and add even more color.  I wish the photo was better, but the little door on the battery compartment of my camera is not latching properly.  It's very frustrating to take photos this way, and I finally just had to stop trying.  Forgive me if it makes you question if your eyes are just tired or if my picture is blurry!

I had another necklace designed and laid out to be strung but simply ran out of time.  Kitty was so generous with the soup she sent that I have enough beads to make many more pieces of jewelry.  I'll be sure to post those creations as I make them.

What I sent to Kitty:

I had St. Patrick's Day and a trip to Prague in mind when I chose her bead soup bits & pieces.  When I dug out the postcard to send along with it, I saw that it matched the soup very well.  Funny how that worked out.  Please visit her blog to see what she has created. 

 Happy blog hopping!