Bead Soup follow up

My bead soup is in the previous post, please scroll down there to see it (or click here)!

I thought I'd post a photo of my partner's (Bridget Torres) bead soup, since her website is tricky to navigate. I could not find her photos when I visited www.shears58.com, so I thought maybe other hoppers had trouble too (or maybe I'm just too dim to figure it out!). On her website, you can view Bridget's slideshow by clicking the little boxes next to "Bridget's Creations". Her bead soup is the bottom 5 photos.

Anyway, here's her finished soup!

I think she did a great job!! Feel free to leave a comment, I'll forward it to Bridget!

 

Bead Soup Blog Party - Reveal!

It's better to be early than late, I always say - unless it's to a real party, and when you arrive, the hostess is still in her bra and pantyhose, with curlers in her hair, trying to finish her makeup. Yeah, that's embarrassing. But, for this virtual party, it's ok if you're wearing curlers, or anything you want - cause I'm a little early.

I'm sure everyone knows about the Bead Soup Blog Party by now, so I won't get into the details. If you don't know, you can visit Lori Anderson's blog here.

My partner is Bridget Torres, and here's a reminder of the soup she sent me.

I started with the focal, or shall I say focals (plural). There's a stone focal, but also a brass focal. I was going to try to make a necklace with the focals on either side of the necklace, but that did not work out. So, I layered the brass over the stone. A couple inches of wire later, and I now had a layered focal. The multi-colored strand of beads matched the focal pretty well, so I used them, with some brass cones I bought from Panda Hall. I also used one of the birds Bridget sent me. I made the "tassel" at the bottom of the focal with one of each of the colors of the round beads.

I thought the round beads were stone, but as I worked with them, they seem more like glass that's been colorized.

Next, I moved on to the clasp Bridget sent. Now, this clasp, as I said previously, is quite simply - LARGE. So, it demanded to be front and center. We compromised, and it's front and off center! ;-)

I had the ceramic flower beads in my stash. I bought these a couple years ago from Fire Mountain. I don't know what I thought I was buying, but when they arrived, they were much bigger and heavier than I imagined. (in the age of online ordering - sometimes I don't picture the millimeters accurately!) But they are just the right size and weight to go with my clasp/focal. I decided to use all the colors I bought, rather than just pick one. It's a long necklace (about 30"), due to the large size of everything. This is not for the faint of heart (or the weak of neck).
It ain't heavy....it's my brother bead soup. (a musical reference!)


I think my Mom would like this one, but she's got a bad back!!

After I finished with my focal and clasp, I was under no obligation to continue, but I just has to use the blue "balloon" beads for earrings. The Vintaj bead caps fit the skinny end of the bead perfectly - enough said?


Thank you Lori for organizing the Bead Soup Blog Party again. I know you have not been well these past weeks (months?), and I hope you are feeling better SOON!

Thank you Bridget for my soup! I had fun playing with everything! I hope you did too - I can't wait to see your creations.

Please go to Lori's blog, for the list of all the other participants (it's a long one!!)

Prima Beads Blog Partner beads

In previous posts, I mentioned I was contacted by Prima beads, asking if I'd like to be a blog partner. Of course, I said yes. My beads arrived, and I am finally able to show you what I did with some of the beads.
The kit had lots of stuff, but I used the red crystal bicones, the blue glass pearls, the little key charms, the small filigrees and the little enameled charms. I still have chain and other beads and findings to use, but here's what I made, for now.

I actually stopped into AC Moore, to look for something else, when I spotted the faceted millefiori beads in teal. I loved the color, and they had touches of red. Perfect for the Prima beads I had in my kit!! The blue glass pearls were very nice to work with. They have a nice weight and feel to them. The red bicones were just the right pop of color among the teal blue beads, and tied in the red crystal on the charm.

The little curved part in the focal was also in the kit. Meant to be used as an earring part, I used it to create a focal worthy of this necklace. The little charm is so cute, but was too small to stand alone, so I wired a bead to the curved part, and hung the charm from the bottom.

My photography does not really show it  - The dark background of the charm is transparent red.

And I made earrings, of course. One pair matches the necklace exactly. Same beads and the charm. Of course, now that I look at them, I did not use any bead caps in the earrings. Argh!

These earrings go with the necklace, but have the little keys and smaller bead. I have more of these little keys still to use. I think I'll make more earrings with them - too cute!

And last, but not least! I put a pair of my enameled flowers (red) on the Prima filigree, using the red bicones at the center. These are my new favorite earrings! I will definitely try to get more of these filigrees from Prima. They are the perfect size for earrings!

 

I was able to take lots of photos over the weekend - The sun finally came out!! So, be prepared to see lots more posts in the near future.