Welcome to the Bead Soup Blog Party!

What is a Bead Soup Blog Party?

 Each beader was paired up with another jewelry designer and tasked with sending the following:

- A focal
- A special clasp (not just a lobster claw)
- Some coordinating spacers or beads

Using the focal and the clasp was mandatory, but we could use anything from our own stash to round out the rest, and choose to use the coordinating beads or not.

You can see the picture of all the amazing beads I received from my fantastic Bead Soup partner, Nan Emmett of Spirited Earth Studio in this post.

With so many beads to work with, I barely had to add anything from my own stash, and I didn't even use up all of them!  I actually had a hard time settling my mind down enough to organize designs in my head, so I did something I never do: 

I sketched out the designs I wanted to make beforehand. Crazy - right?  

So many of my beady friends are planners who generally sketch out their designs before they make any jewelry, but I'm not that kind of artist.  I prefer the 'on the fly' method, and have rarely - if ever - sketched out my designs ahead of time, but this time I needed a way to reign in my ADHD brain and create a plan.  

Guess what?  It ACTUALLY worked!  

I was able to create a whole slew of designs, using up nearly all of the beads Nan sent to me, in an efficient but creative way, and I am SO happy with how they turned out!  

So, without further ado, here are the pieces I made with Nan's beads:

"In Flight"

When Nan sent me these butterflies, I knew that I wanted to create a statement piece incorporating all three of them in the same piece.  I felt that if I separated them into individual pieces, they wouldn't make as much of an impact as they do together, and this way they carry so much more visual weight.  I added some of the blue howlite, three of Nan's handmade rounds, some jonquil rondelles and the sweet blue and green Czech beads to bring out the various colors in the glazes of the butterflies.  I made a couple of quick handmade copper links and a handmade copper clasp and pulled the whole piece together with a dark green waxed Irish linen cord.  I decided to make a pair of earrings to go with the necklace:

The necklace hangs approximately 22 1/2", and the earrings are approximately 2" from the top of the ear wires.

I just love how these pieces turned out!

The next piece I made was a fun knotted bracelet using the same dark green waxed Irish linen cord with three of Nan's ceramic flowers:

"Triple-y"

I thought a great deal about how to best showcase these flowers, and decided to go with a simple, casual look.

I added in some small Czech rondelles from my stash and used one of Nan's ceramic rounds for the clasp.  Such a fun bracelet that will go with just about everything in my closet!

This next piece is made to wear as a wrap bracelet or as a reversible necklace.  I used the brass rounds, soapstone rounds, blue howlite roundels, white howlite rounds and focal, one of the brass shields and the brass toggle clasp:

"Elegance"

The next piece is one of my favorites.  I went back through photos of some of my old designs and decided to use simple 'stick' links (like I did in this design) with natural leather and copper to set off the beautiful tree of life bead:

"Roots"

The length of this necklace is about 17", and the focal hangs down an additional nearly 4" - quite a different kind of design for me.

The soapstone beads were a perfect compliment to the colors in the bead, and I wanted to let the simplicity of the design take a backseat to the focal.

This next piece is one I've already worn and *may* not be selling - lol!  I loved the dove pendant and wanted to find a fun way to use it, and a long tassel is what I came up with.

"Belief"

Sari silk is the perfect way to finish the cord of this necklace, while bringing in some deeper teal tones to the piece.

I was trying to figure out an unusual way to construct the tassel, and decided to cut up an antique sterling silver knife from one of my crazy collections.  The hollow handle is a perfect way to hide the innards of the tassel and also to create a matching bail.

This next design is just plain fun!  I used the house pendant, the remaining flower, the shield from HumbleBeads and a whole lot of Nan's ceramic rounds:

"Happy Home"

I used  some of my handmade enameled headpins as accents and for the wire wraps on the focal:

The antiqued copper is a fantastic finish with all of the beautiful ceramic finishes Nan used, and the olive green leather cording sets off the greens in the ceramics:

This last piece is right up my alley:

"Simplicity"

I had some of the beautiful ceramic rounds left, and wanted to use them in an organic, simple design, so I created a 'bead stick' that I did a messy wire wrap around.  I finished it off with a long piece of olive green leather and tight copper wire wraps, and I have my new weekend t-shirt necklace!

I have to say, I was VERY spoiled by my amazing soup partner.  If you only go out to see two other blogs in this hop, make Nan your first stop and our fabulous hostess extraordinaire, Lori Anderson your second:

Nan Emmett:     www.spiritrattles.blogspot.com

Lori Anderson, Hostess     www.PrettyThingsBlog.com

And then you can hop from Lori's blog to see the rest of the amazing 'soupers'!

Thank you so much for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!