Soups On!!! My Bead Soup Creation- The Big Reveal!

You may remember that I recently joined a group called Bead Soup. I exchanged a group, or "Soup" of Beads with a partner who had been matched with me by the amazing Lori Anderson, the moderator extraordinaire of this group. The next three pictures are reminders of the amazing hand made lamp work glass beads that my partner Christine Brandel, sent to me. The whole object of this exchange was to give our partners something that they might not normally pick for themselves, a combination of beads that would cause their partners to stretch outside their comfort zones.

I have to tell you that when I opened the wonderfully wrapped package from Christine, I was thrilled!!!! I was so in love with the colors and the shapes and so very flattered that these beads had been created just for this exchange and just for me!!!! Some times synchronicity just happens and this was one of those times. How was Christine to know that lately whenever I work with Red I always add a touch of turquoise or bright sky blue?? This is a new combo for me, so new in fact I was not sure that I had even blogged about it!!!

Now look at the clasp!!! Spectacular , don't you agree??!!

And here are her faux Milk Glass beads, also wonderful!! I adore the rounds with bumps!!
So after opening and thinking and running the beads thru my fingers and closely studying the beauty of each bead, blogging about the soup and thinking some more, it was time to come up with a plan! What was I going to do???

I was in love with the soup, but I am not a beader who strings beads. I love to do bead embroidery and bead free form weaving and what I call bead collage. Where was I going with this particular mix. This was the part that was challenging for me.!!

So my first step was to go through my stash and pull out anything that I thought might work with my soup. I went through the reds and got several different types, found some vintage white glass beads that I had forgotten that I had and found some blue lucite flowers and the perfect color of #8 sky blue seed beads.

On the left above is the soup from Christine and on the right is what I pulled from my stash.

By this time I had decided that I wanted the wonderful clasp to be in the front of the piece as it should have a major role in the design. One of my favorites from the soup are the ruffled disks that there were three of. So I used one of those to embellish the clasp. the clasp would close the necklace on the right hand front side to the piece. Then I set about stringing and fretting!!!


And here it is! First As I wear it and then for a full display of the entire piece.







I took these pictures in the late afternoon sunlight as it was the Only sunlight we had all day. it does throw some serious shadows but it really makes the beads sparkle and come to their full beauty so I had to include them!! You just had to get a small idea of how wonderful Christine's hand made beads are. She has an ETSY shop called A Hot Piece of Glass and I would be thrilled if you would pop in and take a look at her wonderful creations!!

I also created a pair of earrings to go along with the necklace. I usually don't wear sets of things but I felt that this necklace really called for a sassy pair of earrings to accompany it!! I wanted to highlight the wonderful white hobnail beads that resemble the vintage milk glass pieces. I added a blue Lucite blossom with a red drop center and a deep ruby sparkling crystal bead to top it all off. So all of the beads in the earrings are somewhere in the necklace.

I wore the necklace for the first time today and I had three people comment on it!!! I think that this is a piece that I will be wearing often! It is bold colorful and unusual enough to go with many of my outfits and such a fun piece to wear.
There were a total of approximately 362 participants in this exchange from all over the world (5 continents and 21 countries)!!!!. The entire process was beautifully orchestrated by the amazing artist Lori Anderson. For the full list of participants with all of their blogs showing all of the wonderful pieces created just for this reveal click here.

This was a huge labor of love done with great style and a huge commitment of time and vast quantities of energy and patience and I would like to personally thank and bless Lori for doing it ALL!!!

I am planning on visiting every blog on the list but I will probably do it in groups of 6-8 at a time. I know that it will take time as I love blogging and I adore beads and I love to be inspired! I know that I will be filled with ideas and notions to bead and there is only so much that one can absorb at one time , and I MUST absorb it ALL!!!! So SLOW and STEADY will get me through all of this beady luciousness!!!

My very first stop however, will be Christine's Blog to see what magic she ahs wrought with the soup that I sent to her. Just to jog your memory and to entice you to make that Blog Hop along with me, here is the soup that I sent to her!

Remember the full list of Participants and Partner Pairs HERE. So hop on in and enjoy the Soup!

Bead Soup for My Partner Christine.

Now that I know that my partner Christine has recieved her Bead Soup, I can reveal what I sent to her!! I had such fun putting this mix together for Christine and I do hope that she finds some things to kick her creativity up a notch!!! At first I thought that I should not send Christine a glass focal bead but then I read about her "likes" in the database and the first thing that she mentioned was her love of glass. She does make beautiful glass lamp work beads but no two beader's styles are exactly the same. When I came across this wonderful focal created by a local VA artist named Linda Campbell, I knew it had to be the main stone in this Stone Soup!! ( Do you Remember reading that book as a child- It is still one of my favorite books about faith and believing in oneself, that I know of!!)

So with the focal bead chosen I added some of my own fabric/paper beads, some wonderful big cream colored and smaller blue, fresh water pearls, some glass drops in both matte and ab finishes in various blues and greens, some wonderful glass rounds made by TB patients in Tanzania that come with an extra splash of good karma ( my brother brings me a bunch of these wonderful beauties almost every year when he comes for a home visit), and some found critter drilled Quahog shell fragments that have been tumbled in the cold Atlantic ocean.

From what I have heard, Christine is very excited and inspired by her soup. Hurrah!!! that makes me so very happy!!

Bead Soup Party!!!!

Any excuse for a party and I can't think of a better one than BEADS ,at the moment !! this year I am so excited to a be a part of the Bead Soup Blog Party that is the brain child of the amazing Lori Anderson. the sign up took place in early August and there are over 300 of us form all parts of the globe participating!! We each have blogs and Lori has assigned each of us a partner who we will be mailing Bead Soups to . Then we are each to create a piece of jewelry form our soup and post the pictures and story on our blogs.

I have been paired with the lovely and talented Bead artist Christine Brandel. I have an extra bonus as Christine lives in Richmond , VA about an hour away from me!!! So the potential exists for us to meet in person at some point in our futures!!! How COOL is THAT??!!!???

Christine has a wonderful Blog and I hope that you will all take a moment to pop by and see some of her bead work that she combines with metal work and and her glorious lamp work beads!! It is amazing that I have been paired with another artist who has a metal smithing background!! I have not gone back to my metal smithing skills in along time, but I do work with wire much more often of late.

I have been rummaging thru my stash and seeking treasures to send off to Christine and plan to get her special soup in the mail tomorrow!! Our task is to send off Soups that will stretch each other out of our Comfort zones! I just hope that she is pleased with what a have chosen for her! I am trying not to fret about it too much!!!!

hen we all have till September 17 to create a work from our soups and blog about our creations and REVEAL those Creations on our blogs!!!

Bring on the BEAD PARTY!!!!!