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

5.  Alesha Conklin and Becki Mendivil

6.  Alice Peterson and Carol Dillman

7.  Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu

8.  Amanda Dittloff and Brandy Thomason McNair

9.  Amanda Tibbetts and Andrea Trank

10.  Amy Freeland and Kay Mallery 

11.  Andra Weber and Christine Murrow

12.  Ann Sherwood and Diane Welte

13.  Barbara Bechtel and Kerry Bogert

14.  Barbara Lewis and Cat Pruitt

15.  Bonnie Coursolle (Canada) and Fay Wolfenden (Canada)

16.  Carmel McGinley (Australia) and Tracy Stillman (Australia)

17.  Cassie Donlen and Deryn Mentock

18.  Cathie Carroll and Janel Dudley

19.  Cece Cormier and Morwyn Mullins

20.  Charlene Jacka and Christina Hickman

21.  Cheryl Brown (Canada) and Diana Ptaszynski

22.  Christina Stofmeel (the Netherlands) and Eva Kovacs (Hungary)

23.  Christine Damm and Deb Brooks

24.  Cilla Watkins (Canada) and Elaine Robitaille (Canada)

25.  Sabrina Straub (Switzerland) and Kathy Combs

26.  Cindy Cima Edwards and Eleanor Burian-Mohr

27.  Cory Celaya and Rhea Freitieg

28.  Courtney Breul and Dana Hickey

29.  Cynthia Abner and Jennifer Boreck

30.  Cynthia Tucker and Jean Peter

31.  Debbie Goering and Heidi Post

32.  Dee Elgie (UK) and Joanne Lockwood (UK)

33.  Dian Hierschel (Germany) and Eniko Fabian (Austria)

34.  Diane Cook and Lyn Foley

35.  Donna Bohler and Lisa Lodge

36.  Donna Millard and Kiersten Giles

37.  Doris Stumpf (Germany) and Eszter Czibulyas (Hungary)

38.  Elisabeth Auld and Eva Sherman

39.  Elke Leonhardt-Rath (Germany) and Marjolein Trewavas (UK)

40.  Ema Kilroy and Laurie Keefe-Cecere

41.  Erika Nooteboom (the Netherlands) and Giorgia Rossini (Italy)

42.  Erin Grant and Jean Wells

43.  Evelyn Duberry (Canada) and Gaea Cannaday

44.  Genea Crivello-Knable and Heather Powers

45.  Ginger Bishop (military, Okinawa) and Martina Nagele (Germany)

46.  Heidi Kingman and Lori Greenberg

47.  Helen Kemp and Lisa Wangeman

48.  Helene Goldberg (Australia) and Karen Vincent

49.  Jamie Hogsett and Jeannie Dukic

50.  Jeanette Ryan and Jelveh Jaferian

51.  Jennifer Cameron and Tania Spivey

52.  Jennifer Justman and Kari Carrigan

53.  Jennifer Tough and Lorelei Eurto

54.  Joanna Matuszczyk (Poland) and Julianna Kis (Hungary)

55.  Joanne Tinley (UK) and Michaela Pabeschitz (Austria)

56.  Julie Anne Leggett and Kelley Fogle

57.  Karen Hess and Linda Landig

58.  Karyn Bonfiglio and Kathleen Lange Klik

59.  Kashmira Patel and Kat White

60.  Kat Barron Miller and Kelly Morgan

 
61.  Kathy Lindemer and Rose Binoya

62.  Krafty Max and Sandra Miller

63.  Kristen Latimer and Pam Ferrari

64.  Kristie Roeder and Lea Avroch

65.  Kristina Johansson (Sweden) and Penny Neville (Canada)

66.  Krisztina Erlaki-Toth (Hungary) and Nicole Keller (Germany)

67.  Lara Lutrick and Lisa Suver

68.  Laura DeMoya and Lisa Hanna

69.  Libby Leuchtman and Melanie Brooks

70.  Linda Koch and Rosemarie Cowit

71.  Lisa Chapman and Menka Gupta

 72.  Lisa Liddy and Marion Simmons

73.  Lori Anderson and Marcie Abney

74.  Lori Bowring-Michaud and Mary Govaars

75.  Lori Dorrington and Maria Rosa Sharrow

76.  Lori Finney (Canada) and Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp (Canada)

77.  Lynn Bennett and Mandi Ainsworth

78.  Marta Kaczerowska (Poland) and Milla Starchik (Canada)

79.  Mary Harding and Shannon LeVart

80.  Mary Jane Dodd and Stacey Curry

 81.  Melinda Orr and Molly Alexander

82.  Melissa Meman and Michelle Escano-Caballaro

83.  Michelle Jensen and Sandra Young (Canada)

84.  Nan Emmett and Nicole Valentine-Rimmer (Canada)

85.  Nancy Boylan and Suzette Bentley

86.  Natasha Lutes and Patti Vanderbloemen

87.  Pam Hurst and Rebekah Payne

88.  Patty Miller and Sara Rhoades

89.  Rebecca Anderson (UK) and Lori Anderson

90.  Rebecca Sirevaag and Sharon Driscoll

91.  Rochelle Brisson and Shannon Chomanczuk

92.  Rosa Maria Cuevas (Mexico) and Tejae Floyde

93.  Sabine Dittrich (Germany) and Sally Russick

94.  Sandi Volpe and Sarah/Saturday Sequins

95.  Shanti Johnson and Tracy Mok (Canada)

96.  Skylar Brez and Theresa Buchle

97.  Sonya Stille and Traci Zeller (Canada)

98.  Stefanie Teufel (Germany) and Tania Hagen (New Zealand)

99.  Stephanie LaRosa and Vonna Maslanka

100.  Terri Wlaschin and Wendy Blum

Challenge of Music - Blog Hop

The lovely Miss Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati is hosting the Challenge of Music blog hop today. Erin is hosting quarterly design challenges for anyone who is looking for a jewelry design challenge. Boy did my piece challenge me, and not in a good way. Erin wrote this as part of her introduction to the challenge: "What song do you connect to so personally that every time it comes on the radio the beat moves you, the lyrics speak to your soul, and the harmonies make your heart sing? If you love music, this is the challenge for you! For the Challenge of Music, we will choose a song that speaks to each of us personally and translate that song into an accessory."

I love country music. There was a day, about 30ish years ago when I detested it. My husband is a plumber. He's a Project Manager now and oversees men out in the field, but back in the day he worked on commercial construction sites. They were either blaring head-banging metal music or country music. It seemed that every time I got into his truck or into my car after he used it, country music was on the radio. I immediately switched to my favorite top 40 station. However, after a period of time I would find myself switching to the country station (but if it was good weather and the windows were down - it was back to the top 40 when I'd hit a red light. Heaven forbid anyone would think I was listening to country!). Now, country is just about all I listen to. I do have a peripheral knowledge of what's going on in other genres from hearing my kids' music, and I switch it up every now and then. Country, however, has my heart. First (at almost 50), I understand the lyrics! Second, and most importantly - it speaks to my heart and soul. It's about real life. I love it.

The song I chose for the challenge was a no-brainer for me. I chose Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw (lyrics here). This song came out in August of 2004. We lost our beautiful son T.J., our oldest, in May of 2004 - Mother's Day to be exact. You can read more about T.J. if you'd like to here. Here's the official video for the song:

 "I was in my early 40's with a lot of life before me when a moment came that stopped me on a dime. I spent most of the next days looking a the x-rays, talking about options, talking about sweet time." I know these lyrics by heart and don't need to look them up. I was 42 when T.J. was injured; we spent days in the SCU (special care unit) with T.J. in a coma, with nineteen connections to different machines. He was taken for multiple x-rays, CAT scans, etc. We sat as a family and talked, and talked. Several years after T.J.'s death I was asked to speak as part of a presentation on teen death. My speech talks about the surviving family's perspective. It's something that teens don't think about when engaging in risky behavior. To be clear, T.J. didn't engage in risky behavior when he died, he was at work. I've given that speech several times now over the years. I begin my talk with these lines from the song. It's very powerful and life-changing for the students.

The video for this song is predominantly white, with Tim barefoot wearing jeans, a white shirt and a black cowboy hat. I wanted to capture that in my piece; easier to picture in my mind than create. I'm disappointed in how it turned out - in my head and with my original bead selection it came out much better. Now, there is a funny story that goes along with this as well. I'll write more about that below. So, without further adoo here is my piece inspired by Tim McGraw's Live Like You Were Dying (please excuse the pictures, I don't have the patience at the moment to edit):

So, really what I wanted was a two strand bracelet, with the strands separate from one another. I ended up with it still two stranded, but the strands are threaded through the sea glass on sterling silver SoftFlex. Why you ask? Well, I drilled the clear frosted sea glass chips and intended that strand to be separated by black seed beads. The second strand was going to be made of these lovely denim blue lucite heishi with a little bit of amethyst swirled through them, separated by Czech glass fire-polished rounds in a clear/amethyst/blue. However, in a bracelet the size of the lucite heishi and the sea glass chips separated the strands in a very awkward way. I think it would have worked in a necklace, just not the bracelet.

The focal I made from a SLK bezel filled with a picture I took at the beach of mussel shells that looks like a heart and sealed with ICE Resin (this caused me fits - I had a resin disaster on my hands last weekend - my fault). T.J. was an organ donor and his heart still beats keeping someone else alive and healthy. There is a piece of the inside of a mussel shell embeded on the reverse side (I forgot to take a picture of it). The exterior of the mussel shells are a bluish and the interior has that little bit of amethyst to it, like MOP.

This little charm is a Green Girl Studios charm that I bought at a bead show about 6 or 7 years ago. It is heart shaped and there is a daffodil on one side (you can see it in the first picture) and on the back is carved "Think of Me", fitting I think for remembering T.J. T would have been 27 yesterday (another reason it was a difficult week), he lives on in our hearts every minute of every day. Now, part of why I struggled with this piece was the construction, part because this is a difficult time of year for me and part (because I'm ready to move this post on to funny) is because of this:

This is Daisy. Daisy likes to lay on top of anything that is in this spot. The above picture happens to be of my daughter's art project. The other morning it was my beading board and three bead storage containers (with their lids off - do you see where this is going?).

6 a.m. crash, bang, boom and bellowing from my husband. This picture does not begin to encompass the true disaster. Three containers people - all of my sterling silver components (beads, crimps, clasps, earrings, bead caps, etc.) and some base metal findings. I'm not sure I can readily identify which are sterling and which are base metal, other than the fact that most of it is sterling. And prices? They were on little scraps of paper in each divided section - it's like confetti on the floor. Two of the containers had been picked up in this picture. The debris was EVERYWHERE in my dining room!

I had no spark left to work through the design issues with the bracelet after this. Yep, the bead board with the bracelet and all its components ended up on the floor too. It'll take me a flippin' year to sort it all out..... Anyhoo, hop along on this blog challenge. The participants are listed below. Thanks for visiting! Love deeper, Speak sweeter, Give forgiveness you've been denying.....

Erin Prais-Hintz
Marcie Abney
Christine Altmiller
Elisabeth Auld
LJ B
Lori Bowring Michaud (you are here)
Shannon Chomanczuk
Cece Cormier
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Malin de Koning
Beth Emery
Michelle Escano-Caballero
Erin Fickert-Rowland
Therese Frank
Amy Freeland
Tanya Goodwin
Stephani Gorman
Amy Grass
Beth Hemmila
Kristina Johansson
Jennifer Justman
Tari Kahrs
Susan Kennedy
Ema Kilroy
Kathleen Lange Klik
Kirsi Luostarinen
Paige Maxim
Beth McCord
Natalie McKenna
Alice Peterson
Cat Pruitt
Bobbie Rafferty
Johanna Rhodes
Cynthia Riggs
Sally Russick
Sarah Sequins
Amy Severino
Staci Smith
Kristen Stevens
Lola Surwillo
Stefanie Teufel
Sandi Volpe
Holly Westfall
Shaiha Williams

IN MEMORIAM

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

T.J. Michaud

On His 27th Birthday, February 28

With each experience we are reborn.

We see with new eyes,

We hear with new ears,

We touch with new hands,

And our hearts beat with a different rhythm.

With this rebirth, we become someone different.

It can be joy or sadness that recreates us,

But whatever it may be we start over.

You were reborn somewhere else.

You see with new eyes,

Touch with new hands,

And your heart beats a new rhythm.

With your rebirth, we were reborn.

We see the beauty,

We hear the joy,

We touch with kindness,

And our hearts beat a happy rhythm.

                                                      - Gabi

Happy birthday beautiful boy.

We love you and miss you every day.

Dad, Mom, Caiti, Matt and Gabi

E-Course Giveaway

Have you wanted to learn to to torch-fire enamel onto metal (I do!)? Well, Barbara Lewis of Painting With Fire...Artwear is having a giveaway on her blog for her new e-course, how exciting is that! If you'd like the opportunity to win, hop on over to her blog and follow the instructions. Maybe you'll be the lucky one! Today is the last day to enter, the winner will be chosen on Monday, February 27.

Bead Soup Has Arrived!!

I received my bead soup from Mary on Thursday. My. Oh. My! She sent me a luscious soup that has me dreaming of summer (while we've had a mild winter relatively speaking, with the wind chill it's 9 degrees here today - the sun is at least shining, thankfully)!

Look at those colors! I've spent a few minutes going through my personal stash and have pulled a few interesting things to go with them. I LOVE the focal I'm going to create! The three lampworked (torch fired, flameworked - pick a term) beads Mary sent me are GORGEOUS. They were made by Sarah Moran of z-beads. I have admired (coveted maybe?) Sarah's beads for a few years. They are beautiful - her color combinations and technical precision are AMAZING! I simply haven't been able to afford them. Don't get me wrong, they are worth every single penny - but with the raising of the children, kids in college, etc. they just haven't been in the budget (that aside, I have a rather large hoard of artisan beads that need to be dealt with).

Can I just say again that I love my beads? Thank you very much Mary! Below is the soup that I sent to Mary:

My picture is not spectacular. Mary has much better pics on her blog. Mary's soup includes mocha latte sari ribbon from Barbara Lewis of Painting With Fire, drilled sea glass fron me, lampworked chicklet beads from Jessie Harding of Burke Mountain Beads (I don't know if she's still making beads, the web address I have for her doesn't appear to be active), a bezel clasp from SLK's Industrial Chic line filled with sea glass bits and ICE Resin, and from The Beadin' Path (my favorite bead store) vintage willow green givre lucite rounds, vintage patterned copper rounds, vintage twisted copper love knots and a vintage raw brass bezel pendant filled with sea glass chips and ICE Resin. I can't wait to see what Mary makes with her ingredients. See you on March 3rd for the reveal (I'll have the list of all pairings on that day)!

5th Bead Soup Blog Party - Sneaky Peak

Well hello! Work and life have taken over for the last month and a half. Whew! January is supposed to move at a bit slower pace than the holidays. It seems as though many people have felt that January flew by at an alarming rate!

The lovely Lori Anderson of Pretty Things is hosting her 5th Bead Soup Blog Party and I was very fortunate to have the Random Number Generator gods working in my favor - I was selected as a participant (only 200 this time around - much more manageable for Miss Lori)! Yay me! I was paired with the equally lovely Mary Govaars of MHL Designs! Below is a sneaky-peak of the soup I'm sending to Mary:

I'll reveal slightly less pixelated versions of the soup as the package gets closer and closer to Mary! Be sure to check back to see what soup ingredients Mary has sent to me!

Christmas Spirit

I had so much fun with the ABS Ornament Blog Hop! It really put me in the Christmas spirit looking at all of the amazing art that was created for our Christmas trees. I received some lovely comments on my blog about my ornament. I was surprised at the number of Leos! I too am a Leo, July 27 (so are my husband and dad)! So, I decided to do a giveaway as I had an extra lion face. I placed Marie Cramp, Jewels by Ine, Diana P., and SueBeads names in a hat ('cause I'm all high tech) as they commented they they either were a Leo themselves or love a Leo, and had Hazel draw the winner. The winner is Diana of Suburban Girl Studio!

And, because I felt bad that I hadn't included everyone in the drawing because they weren't Leos and it is the season for giving and all - I did a second drawing with the names of the rest of the commenters! The winner of a surprise ornament is - Kathleen Lange Klik!

And, to add to the oh-so-funny list, I just hopped over Kathleen's blog to copy her URL and saw that she did the very same thing. Guess who the winner was?? Miss Diana, you are a lucky girl!

Thanks again to Heather Powers of ABS for hosting this fun hop!