Bead Soup Par-tay

I have already been blog-hoppin' a bit this morning before I got my post up. (Sshhh....don't tell anyone!) And already I'm blown away by some of the things that have been created. Great stuff. I'm honored to be a part of the group, and Lori Anderson did such a great job organizing everything. To see the full list of participants (and trust me, you'll want to) visit her blog.

Okay, and now for the good stuff!! My partner was Michelle Mach. Now, I must say when I found out, I was just a little intimidated, I mean, come on, this girl was Beading Daily's editor!!! But, on the flip side, I knew that that meant that whatever she sent me was destined to be awesome, and of course, it was. Here's another snapshot of the goods. Now I must confess that I racked my brain for days to come up with a necklace design that I liked and well.....

I call it XYZ. It's very geometric and because of all the wire loops, just a little outside my norm!

I started by creating the Y shape with the focal. I added one of the porcelain beads that Michelle sent me along with a beaded bead that I made. I made two more sets of beaded beads and strung them together with the other two porcelain disks and two more porcelain beads that I had on hand. Some size 11 and size 8 seed beads round finish out the necklace and the sterling silver clasp is a perfect compliment to the geometric feel of the focal. Thanks Michelle!!!

Here's a close-up of the focal.

Here's a close-up of the beaded beads. I've been making these beads like crazy lately and I love them. I even have some for sale in my Etsy shop, they make the perfect addition to stringing projects.


I hope you enjoyed this stop on the Bead Soup Party. Please be sure to keep hoppin' around. There are plenty more incredible creations to see and I know you'll love them. A big thanks again to Lori Anderson for pulling the whole thing together and here's the link again to her blog so that you can see all the participants. Have fun partying!

Oops, I forgot.

These were all Christmas presents: For my mom, a necklace with an interchangeable focal, the first is a beaded bead and the second is a locket.

For my sister, a spiral peyote bangle. (It's the first bangle she's ever owned. Looks very grown-up!)

For my other sister a bracelet made from brass rings and peyote strips as connectors. Kind of eclectic, but definitely one-of-a-kind.

I've been working on some ring designs, I'll try to get them photographed and put up tomorrow. Hopefully!

Done!

What to do when it's 100+ outside...

...why bead of course!!

Clasp Conundrum

Okay, here's my newest creation that y'all got a sneak peek of a couple of days ago..

Now, here's my conundrum...Do you see that little silver clasp dangling oh-so-precariously on the end of the first blue circle?? Yeah, that one...well, that's what I used to latch the whole thing together because I wanted a seamless kind of flow around the wrist. I knew that it wasn't perfect when I did it, but I did it anyway, and then last night as we were eating out, my brother-in-law looks at me and says..."That clasp on that bracelet looks like you stuck the Mona Lisa to the fridge door with Scotch tape." Sometimes my family says things so eloquently. Any suggestions for a new clasp? I'll let ya' know if I figure anything out.
Until then, here are some pictures of what will surely be lunch for us in a couple of days...

The benefits of a bead swap...

...are that you get entirely new products/things to play with. For example, I told you that Pam Ferrari sent me a wonderful stash of beads, in which she included a couple wonderful handmade dichroic glass cabochons. I just started doing beadweaving a couple of weeks ago, and decided to use the cabochon as the centerpiece for a hair clip that my sister has been wanting for a while. Well, here's the clip, and you can see Pam's cabochon in the center. I hope you like it and thanks again Pam.

P.S. Here are some other goodies that I've done recently:

New work...

Well, I've finally gotten around to taking pictures of some of my new things, so I thought I would take this opportunity to show you what I've been up to.

I call this Copper Bluebirds. I made it using a little connector that I found at JoAnn Fabric's. I don't normally go in there, but I needed ultrasuede to work on....

My first piece of bead embroidery. I've been wanting to try my hand at it for a while, so I made a small brooch just to get my feet wet, and whadda ya' know? It turned out great! My sister wants me to make her a headband now, so we'll see what happens!

Lastly, I'm thinkin' about taking a picture of some of my supplies that I've acquired over the last year, and I was wondering if anyone would be interested in doing a little trade? I'm calling it spring cleaning for my beading stash. Anyone interested? I'll try to get a picture of my unwanted supplies and post it by tomorrow and we'll see who bites.

Purple Inspiration

Okay, finally got around to posting my Flickr inspiration creation. I started by searching "purple" in the color group in which I'm a member because I had some purple bugle beads burnin' a hole in my pocket. So, when this popped up, I just knew that I could use it as inspiration. One herringbone beaded cuff later and here's my Flickr inspiration creation!! I decided to go with a slightly lighter shade of the colors rather than use the black because I wanted to wear it during spring and summer, however for the winter, the purple and black would be a great addition to a wardrobe...hhhmmm...may have to do that in the future. So my next question is...where's your Flickr inspiration?
You can find my inspiration picture here.

Como ya les prometí...

Like I promised, here's the picture of my mother's necklace that I made her on the drive to Atlanta. (I know this is a terribly late post, you can't imagine the past two weeks that I've had.) I hope that you enjoy it. I'm not completely sold on the design, but she really likes it, and that's what matters. I made it with herringbone stitch, and the two main colors are coral and cream with little soft green translucents thrown in for some sparkle.