Saturday, March 3, 2012

5th Bead Soup Blog Party

Welcome! Sorry for the late post, I clearly haven't figured out how to schedule a post.

Many thanks to Lori Anderson for again hosting the the 5th Bead Soup Blog Party! It's a major undertaking and Lori does a fabulous job coordinating all of it. My Bead Soup partner is Mary Govaars of MLH Designs. I LOVE the beads Mary sent to me. The three lampworked focal beads are by Sarah Moran of Z-Beads. Love, love, love! Mary also sent be a generous assortment of complimentary beads and a sterling clasp.
I used the sterling silver clasp in a bracelet that I created and shared the other day for the Challenge of Music blog hop. The clasp worked perfectly for this piece. After wearing the bracelet the other day, I love it. I wasn't sure about it initially, but I really do like it.
You can read more about this piece here if you're interested.

I knew what I wanted to do with these beads almost from the moment I received them. Putting it all together, though, was a bit of a challenge. To build the focal for this necklace I used raw copper flower components from my favorite bead store The Beadin' Path and some unique headpins I found on Etsy called Jelly Pins by Amber Hooper.
For the remainder of the necklace I used some of the complimentary beads that Mary sent to me and added some coral/orange, oval, vintage Japanese lampworked beads, copper and brass jump rings, two different vintage copper chains, a contemporary brass chain all from The Beadin' Path and a vintage brass clasp with a fuchsia rhinestone that was gifted to me by Heather Parker DeSimone (co-owner of The Beadin' Path) when I worked there. I really, really like this necklace. I wish I had better jewelry photography skills. Maybe someday.
As you can see, I wired the third focal bead as a link on the left side of the necklace. Love. The only thing I'll change with this is to find some smaller antiqued copper or brass jump rings to connect the two flower focals. I don't like the size of the rings I had on hand.
Thank you so much Mary! It was a joy to work with your ingredients! Now, time to get Hopping!

1.  Adlinah Kamsir (Singapore) and Hajer Waheed (Kingdom of Bahrain)
2. Adrienn Lukacs (Hungary) and Agata Grygiel (Poland)
3.  Agi Kiss (Hungary) and Carolien Muller-Genger (the Netherlands)
4.  Agnes Asztalos (Hungary) and B.R. Kuhlman
7.  Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu
15.  Bonnie Coursolle (Canada) and Fay Wolfenden (Canada)
16.  Carmel McGinley (Australia) and Tracy Stillman (Australia)
21.  Cheryl Brown (Canada) and Diana Ptaszynski
22.  Christina Stofmeel (the Netherlands) and Eva Kovacs (Hungary)
24.  Cilla Watkins (Canada) and Elaine Robitaille (Canada)
25.  Sabrina Straub (Switzerland) and Kathy Combs
32.  Dee Elgie (UK) and Joanne Lockwood (UK)
33.  Dian Hierschel (Germany) and Eniko Fabian (Austria)
37.  Doris Stumpf (Germany) and Eszter Czibulyas (Hungary)
39.  Elke Leonhardt-Rath (Germany) and Marjolein Trewavas (UK)
41.  Erika Nooteboom (the Netherlands) and Giorgia Rossini (Italy)
43.  Evelyn Duberry (Canada) and Gaea Cannaday
45.  Ginger Bishop (military, Okinawa) and Martina Nagele (Germany)
48.  Helene Goldberg (Australia) and Karen Vincent
54.  Joanna Matuszczyk (Poland) and Julianna Kis (Hungary)
55.  Joanne Tinley (UK) and Michaela Pabeschitz (Austria)
65.  Kristina Johansson (Sweden) and Penny Neville (Canada)
66.  Krisztina Erlaki-Toth (Hungary) and Nicole Keller (Germany)
76.  Lori Finney (Canada) and Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp (Canada)
78.  Marta Kaczerowska (Poland) and Milla Starchik (Canada)
83.  Michelle Jensen and Sandra Young (Canada)
92.  Rosa Maria Cuevas (Mexico) and Tejae Floyde
93.  Sabine Dittrich (Germany) and Sally Russick
95.  Shanti Johnson and Tracy Mok (Canada)
97.  Sonya Stille and Traci Zeller (Canada)
98.  Stefanie Teufel (Germany) and Tania Hagen (New Zealand)