It is the time for the big reveal of our Bead Soup goodies. First off, mom and I want to thank Lori for putting on this wonderful party. Both of us know there is a lot that goes into this, and we so appreciate all the hard work Lori and her husband do for our party -
THANK YOU LORI!!! Now eat pie woman!
This is our fourth Bead Soup party and this time we were matched up with Karin of
BackStory Beads.
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12mm red rounds, focal and accent beads, turquoise and howlite and
a bronze clasp |
I thought I would share the goodies that
Karin sent us. Karin sent us a wonderful note explaining each ingredient.
Karin said that she fell in love with the rounds but never thought of a way to work them into her designs so she sent them for us to design something with (which we did). She went to her favorite bead store for the focal and accent beads because she loved the materials and the textures.
Karin then went back to her stash to send us the turquoise chips and howlite.
Karin sent us the bronze clasp for an extra challenge - which is good because we don't work with brass or gold color.
Here is a collage of what we ended up creating with all those goodies. I seriously didn't think we would end up creating five different pieces; I thought the max would be two, but I sort of got on a roll yesterday. Last minute inspiration hit like a bolt of lightening, and I ran with it because I usually don't get inspirations like that often.
The first piece we started on:
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| Rockin' Moroccan - Focal and Accent Beads |
This is the first piece we started on - back at the beginning of July. Mom and I both knew we wanted to use seed beads in this piece as an homage to
Karin and her wonderful seed bead creations. Let me tell you both mom and I hate to string seed beads and there was much swearing involved. I did start the piece but I only lasted for about two strands and seeded only about 5 inches up the strands before I gave up to do something else. So, this whole necklace was strung by mom - so big shout out to mom!
These are the focal beads about halfway up the necklace.
The seed beads with accent of brass spacers, which we bought at the Indianapolis Bead show a few weeks ago. Like I said mom and I usually don't work in the color gold (because I don't like gold) or with brass so this was a nice change for us. Oh, there are a total of six strands of seed beads with the brass spacers.
Mom and I wanted to use the brass clasp for this piece but when I went to finish it off the hole on the bar was too small to get all six strands through, so we improvised. We had two of our oval enameled pieces left over from another necklace and mom said connect the six strands to one side of the oval and the brass clasp to the other - mom is a genius - a genius I say!
This is the whole necklace, Rockin' Moroccan. Both mom and I love it, except for the stringing part :)
The second piece:
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| Howlin' Pop Rocks |
Before we started assembling the necklace I knew I wanted to use the red rounds, turquoise and howlite together in one necklace. Mom said she wanted her favorite beads in the necklace and I knew I wanted to have one of our pendants in this necklace too.
For the pendant I knew I wanted a lotus. So, I begged mom to saw out the pendant before she had surgery since I really don't like sawing. Mom sawed out the pendant the night before her surgery - she is such an awesome mom! The colors of the pendant I wanted to be red and turquoise like the turquoise chips and howlite. The colors aren't really in the color pallet we work with but I think it still turned out fantastic.
Here you can see the red rounds, turquoise chips, howlite and our lampwork beads.
Here is a close up of the beads I made. Mom loves these beads but I couldn't remember what red glass I used so there was some experimenting before I got the glass I liked. I think this is the third set of beads I made that I finally liked and wanted to use in the necklace.
I think Howlin' Pop Rocks is a great collaboration of components between what
Karin sent us and components we made.
Next are the last three pieces I started making yesterday and mom helped me finish today:
We had some of the red rounds and howlite left over so I thought I would make two bracelets. Usually mom and I don't make bracelets because we think they are hard to make (you would think necklaces were hard to create, but no, it is bracelets for us).
I actually did the wire loops on the bracelet! I have refused to make loops for years now, but I made mom show me how a few weeks ago. While I was waiting for pendants to cool, I started working on this piece. I used the left over lampwork beads, howlite and red rounds. I wanted to use chain in the piece so there are two gunmetal lengths and patina chain from
MissFickleMedia. Mom finished by adding the chain and clasp for me - I haven't figured out how to make the loops with the components attached to the loops yet. Just not coordinated enough :)
A closeup of the beads.
The second bracelet I created with 18gauge wire and the components on the wire. I used the focal bead I made, the brass spacers, our turquoise flamework beads and the red rounds. I made the loop on one side, but mom finished off the bracelet with the clasp for me.
Here is a full view of the piece.
Here is a picture of mom wearing the bracelets. I did have more pictures of mom wearing the bracelets but she asked me not to use them. She didn't like how her hands or skin looked - her comment was "Old people skin. Please don't use those pictures". Though I did ask her to use this one because I thought it didn't look too bad plus it showed everyone what the bracelets looked like on someone.
Now, finally the last piece. You guys have been very, very patient waiting for the end.
These were made this morning after mom's doctor visit - she is now allowed to go back to work. These were the last two flamework beads I made in that torching third session. I wanted to add the brass spacers and seed beads to the earrings. Mom and I sort of winged putting the earrings together.
After mom put the ear wires on we both weren't happy with the way the crimps ended up looking. So, I put it aside because mom was going to lay down and I was going to go home and power wash the siding. On the way home I had an idea on how to fix the earrings. After I got back to mom's house she was in the garage because she had an idea too. She thought to use thin wire and string the seed beads on the wire and wrap the wire and beads over the crimps to hide them. I thought that was a better idea than mine and I love how the earrings turned out. We do make an awesome team!!!
After making five pieces, we still have two howlite beads left, some of the turquoise chips and about 14 of the red rounds left. So, lots of fun we had with the soup ingredients that
Karin sent.
Here's what we sent to Karin, and you can
click here to see what
SHE made!
To go onto more hopping here is the list of participants:
Thanks for stopping by and checking us out. Have fun hopping!
