To bead soup party or not bead soup party...

Lori recently posted the dates for this year's Bead Soup Blog Party and just as last year I'm going back and forth on whether to sign up or not. Of cause I love making a bead soup and I enjoy getting a bead soup and the challenge of using it. I love seein what others get and what they do with their soups.

It's just... Not so much the cost of shipping or of the soup (big stash, can find good things to send without shopping) even if I can't deny money is tight as always. It's stil worth it. The big issue is that, especially as the BSBP has grown, I feel overwhelmed and stressed out by the blog hopping. I know no one will dislike me for not comment on all 500+ blogs (that's how many participants there were last year, I think) and I know there's no time limit for how soon I have to get around to visiting other participants, but even a tenth of that can feel like a lot and I feel bad if I don't hop much as the hop is an essential part of the event.

Still, despite my hesitations it's hard to resist signing up. Maybe I should just be better at making friends to swap with privately or join a swap group instead. But BSBP is still a bit special as I've joined several times (no all parties, but many), there's so much eye candy to see as so many participate and just generally, it's a fun way to find someone you've never met before to swap goodies with.

Sign ups aren't until next sunday so I still have a little time to think it over, make up my mind about whether the pros outweigh the cons. I'm always very tempted and find it hard to resist -- and always feel all out of energy when it's time to blog hop. But swapping is fun and seeing what others make for the BSBP is fun... It's hard to choose...

Bead Soup Blog Party 3rd Reveal

And so it's finally here, the third BSBP reveal. I signed up for BSBP again, not having joined for for a couple of rounds. Of cause that had made me very keen to participate again and I signed up -- completely forgetting that the dates could be in the middle of spring farming season. Oops! Of cause I couldn't know that the spring farming would start unusually late this year, but as luck would have it (for me), the reveal was postponed a couple of weeks so here I am, free from the potatoes and ready to show what I made with the lovely soup I got from my BSBP partner Noemi.

First, let's take a look on that spanish soup Noemi cooked up for me to work with.

You can read more about all the different ingredients here. It was a fab soup, but due to work, a workroom I couldn't work in (= no metalwork or techniques requiring a torch this time) and everything else that came in between, I still had my struggles with it. Mostly with getting ready in time with something I wouldn't be embarrassed to show anyone and that would make Noemi's soup justice. In the end, I ended up with four piece to show you today. Haven't yet used all the beads from the soup so there might be some "leftover posts" later.
 

First a quick (and hopefully enticing) sampler of what's to come below.

First up is the necklace made for the lampwork focal. I had matching fire-polished rondelles, but they were pretty tiny (as are most my beads, being used to working with dainty jewellery and seed beads) and there were only 30 of them. After going back and forth many times, I finally decided on just stringing them with dark green silk cord (in lieu of anything matching the chain) on a gunmetal chain.

Looking back at it, I should've added something to the last portion of the chain. Ran out of rondelles, but adding, say, some gunmetal beads would've looked better than just leaving it bare in the neck. Well, something to remember for next time, then.
 
And look at that wire wrapping -- you can tell I've almost only been seedbeading and embroidering these last couple or years!

For the next piece, I wanted to do something with the sweet little copper connectors and clasp, which are made by Noemi herself. Wanted to keep it simple in order not to overpower the connectors and this is what was finally settled on. Not the best chain to use -- if you want to try something similar, I'd suggest a small rolo/belcher or cable chain -- but the only one I had that matched the copper. As it was slightly boring with just the chain, I wrapped some dusky dark purple anchor embroidery floss around the links. Don't know if it made it better or worse! *lol* I do enjoy embroidery so threads and floss is something I like to add to my jewellery nowadays.

The chain was so uncooperative I almost gave up, thinking of turning the connectors into little charms with a bead dangle in one end (it would've included a maneki neko charm, sorry all catlovers who didn't get any cat jewellery here). But I persevered.

Third piece is a silk wrap bracelet. First I thought of altering the ribbon in some way, either embroidering it, smocking it or adding a beaded edge, but in the end it all came down to my wanting to try an idea. Now, I'll say right away that it's an idea that maybe looks nice, but wasn't as practical as intended.

The idea was to lose the clasp and use the rubber o-rings to tighten the ribbon ends, then tucking them under the ribbon as with other wrap bracelets. But the wrap part made it more cumbersome than practical -- next time I'll try it with a simple bracelet that doesn't wrap around the wrist several times. (Also, the focal was supposed to be black to match the o-rings, but I hadn't time to blacken it. Some of you might prefer the antique bronze colour it has now, though.)

And so, the fourth and last piece. I wanted to use those vibrantly coloured crackle beads, but couldn't think of anything fun to do with them last minute (made it yesterday). Ideally I wanted to keep them mixed with the fw pearls in the colour combo Noemi created, but some of my teal supplies kept trying to get my attention, wanting to play with the purple beads. Finally, I caved and created this simple leather necklace with beads dangling from waxed linen cord attached to the leather using lark's head knots.

That's all, folks! My creations for this year's edition of BSBP. Now be sure to visit my BSBP partner Noemi, who had this eclectic (and somewhat boringly coloured) soup to work with:

And of cause a huge thank you to Lori for hosting this great (in fabulousness and size) event once again! You're fab!

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For a complete list of all participants in the 3rd reveal of the Bead Soup Blog Party, please visit Lori's blog here. As Lori makes her way through the blogs, she will replace the links with direct links to the reveal posts, making it easier for us who will take a long time going through all 200+ blogs in this reveal. 

You will also be able to find many of the creations from all three of the reveal on the official 7th BSBP pinboard at Pinterest.

Bead soup blog party: What I sent

Ok, so I know Sue's got my beads, which means I can go ahead and show them to you too. Have you guessed any of the beads that could been seen in the sneakpeak?

For this soup, I chose a crackled ceramic focal made in France. It's a cabochon/tile so no holes or bails attached, meaning it can be used in many different ways: stitching a beaded bezel, wire wrap it, add a glue-on bail, do some bead embroidery, frame it etc. I also added an alternative focal if the cab didn't want to co-operate, an irregular dyed stone bead.

My choice of clasp was a silver-plated box clasp with a dettachable sieve, also known as a mesh screen or perforated disc. This can be beaded, embroidered or embellished in any way you like and then adhered to the clasp using the prongs. It'll be interesting to see what Sue will make with this slightly out-of-the-ordinary clasp.

As for the rest of the soup, I gathered a little bit or this and a little bit of that from my stash, focusing on a simple white and turquoise colour scheme. There's wheat pearls, i. e. rice pearls top-drilled at an angle, pacific opal fire-polished, acrylic flowers, Miyuki drops and more.

And in the end I couldn't resist adding an Indian copper bead (is that a bear, you think?), a few glass coffee bean beads and a flower mix. The latter looks much bigger than it really is.

My bead soup -- the unabridged version

I promised a longer post on the yummy soup I received form Sue of Hello Gorgeous and here it is. I got caught up baking with my sis today (including our favourite, a unbelievably gorgeous peanut butter and cocoa kladdkaka), but better late than never.

Earlier this week I found my bead soup in the mailbox and opened the box so fast I forgot to take a picture of the pretty ribbon it was wrapped in. Inside I found a lovely heart-shaped (or leaf-shaped) fine silver clasp, a beautiful shell focal and oh so pretty semi-precious stone beads. Plus the cute dragon pin -- I love dragons, but this is actually the first Welsh one I have in my "collection" -- a dragon coaster (which I must show, if not before so on the reveal date) and a welsh candy cane. Which I've of cause eaten already.

I mentioned to Sue that I'm fond of autumnal colours, but I don't know how she knew I really like tri-colour/soo cho "jade". So I was delighted to find these big, lush beads. I rarely buy big beads. Partially because I often do dainty designs, though many times it's also a matter of either habit or big stone beads being expensive. It'll be fun to work with big beads for a change.

At first I thought I'd mix them with my likewise autumnal hessonite or vesuvianite chips, but now I'm rethinking that one. Perhaps it'd be better to add round or at least less jagged-shaped beads? I like the smooth rounded shapes in both the focal and beads.

Yes, the focal. That is also very much in my taste in that it has no hole specifically for hanging it in. The open design instead makes it possible to add cords, wire, thread, rings etc in different ways. I like versatility in my jewellery components. Right now I'm thinking about adding ribbons or cording to it. Wonder if I have any in the right autumnal colours somewhere? Time to dive into the ribbon and yarn bag again.

The clasp is of a kind I don't use very often: handmade fine silver (just saying that sounds expensive). It's stamped Shiana, a company I've never shopped from but know about not least because of their fair trade policy. The shape and size would make it a nice focal -- rather a shame to use it in the back or have it compete with another focal in the front.

The other beads that I almost forgot to mention are facetted smoke quartz. I really like the colour, but I rarely buy it. I'm pondering whether to use it all in one piece or do a seperat piece with the quartz and clasp as I'm thinking about using brown brass or "vintage coloured" wire with the focal. And because the clasp would make a nice focal too. Just writing this I got a lightbulb moment: perhaps adding a few sterling silver beads (yupp, I do have a few of those laying around) and brown flexible beading wire? Or should I add a third colour?

Seeing the hue of the silver, perhaps it would look nice together with my spun tin thread? I'm a bit of a puritan when it comes to precious metals, not always wanting to mix them with base metal (and definitely not with plated findings) -- but on the other hand: there's 4 % silver in the tin thread.

Ah, decisions, decisions. I have plenty of time to make those choices, though. But I better try out the different options already now or I'll just end up doing what I do best: procrastinate.

I hope the rest of you out there are also enjoying your soups. And if any of you still haven't got yours, I hope it'll find its way to your mailbox soon. Can't wait for the big reveal and seeing what you've all done!

My delicious bead soup

 I was going to show a few pics of my bead soup from Sue, which I recieved yesterday, but to make a long story short I've only got one pic ready right now. So I'll get back to it tomorrow instead when I've got some more time to edit the other photos and write some more about what I got in my lovely soup and how I'm thinking about using it (no definite ideas yet). As I have one pic to show, though, I'll do that already today. Looks fab, don't you think? (And, look, a dragon!)

What Joanna got

More on the bead soup blog party. Joanna just posted a pic of the beads and pendant I sent her. So I thought I'd show some pics here as well.

For a focal, I choose one of my etched onyx pendants. The bird motif comes from a peel off sticker so it's not a fancy hand-drawn picture by me. I like to try making my own motifs in the future, though. And for a clasp, I choose a swarovski crystal button. I wanted to keep the mix metal free and also leave it to my recipient to choose what colour palette she prefers when it comes to metals.

Then there's the rest of the soup, a mix of stone and glass. There's a blend of Miyuki beads featuring matte black 2,8 mm drops, jet black drops (regular size) and matte black long magatamas. Joannas pic shows the shapes much better so do read her post if you want a better look of the Miyukis. Then there's blue luster farfalles and erinite green fire-polished, both Czech.

To that I added stone beads that would match the focal: onyx chips (some of them etched), two big sodalite rondelles, a round matte blackstone bead and three large hole beads in stone. Unsure about exactly what type.

I included chips eventhough many dislike them, either because they feel cheap or because it's a shape that can be hard to use. I nurture a hate-love relationship towards them myself. In this case I included them because they remind med of leaves and that fitted the theme of the focal with the bird on a twig with leaves.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what Joanna will do with this mix. She often uses colour so will she stay with my dark and faded, almost monochromatic, palette or add more colour? What will she do with all de different bead shapes I've presented to her? Which will she use and, most of all, will she use the infamous chips? I'm looking forward to the big reveal on February 26!

My bead soup -- with pics

Ok, finally some pictures! Here's the pretty Polish present (sorry about the alitteration) I got earlier this week from my bead soup partner Joanna. My bead soup beads came in a lovely gift bag, as you can see above, and this is what I found when I unfolded the floral tissue paper inside it:


A soft, romantic mix in creme, bronze, pink and brown. Three glass cabochons, glass buttons, cotton lace, bronze-coloured wavy spacers and clasp plus ceramic beads. Though many people say I have a romantic style, neither lace nor pink is something I use very often nowadays. But I still like it, when balanced with the vintage-feel or bronze and brown (as it is here), so it'll be both a challenge and a pleasure to work with this bead soup.

I kind of already know how I want to use the angel cab and lace, just have to figure out a few details first. I think I have just the right beads to make a bezel. Hope I can make a design that will do your them justice, Joanna, and big thanks for your lovely gift!


PS! Don't miss Joanna's blog, Biżuteria z filcu. She makes lovely jewellery using colourful beads and felt (hence the name of her blog). If you're curious about what I gave her, then you can find a sketchy sneakpeak here.

My bead soup beads

I received my bead soup beads from Joanna yesterday and all I can say is that it's such a sweet and romantic mix. I'll be looking forward to doing something special with it (though I'm not sure exactly what yet). Haven't had time to photograph them and wont be able to do it today either -- handball on telly again -- but if you're curious, Joanna has posted a sneakpeak on her blog, Biżuteria z filcu.

Wondering what I've got for her? Well, I don't think she's received it yet som I'll do like Joanna and post an edited pic for you.
Don't be fooled by the shape on the left side, those beads are photographed in a heartshaped tin.


PS! Don't forget you can find the link to all participants in the Bead Soup Blog Party here. Don't know what this is all about? Read more about these parties at Lori's blog.

Bead Soup Party Sign Up

You know there's still a couple of days to sign up for the big Bead Soup Blog Party, hosted by Lori Anderson? I signed up a few days ago and it's going to be my first party so I'm both nervous and excited about it. Haven't been part of any international swaps in ages so I thought I just had to jump in this time.

If you want to participate or just read about the party, click the pic above. You can find the list of participants so far here. ( 171 people and counting.)

Turquoise & orange -- latest Monday Moodboard colours from OTTBS

Every other Monday you can get some lovely colour inspiration from the Operation Tackle That Bead Stash blog and the Monday Moodboard "series". If you feel inspired and want a challenge, you can bead something using the colours of the current moodboard and submit a photo of your creation to the blog (or via their Flickr group). Because on the following Monday, you will se work inspired by the colours published on the blog.



The colours for this week's moodboard is orange and turquoise, a colour combo I really should use more: the vibrant, energy-filled orange against the calming turquoise makes it a great summer palette, but as I've written on my other blog, turquoise is also a great autumn colour. Autumn is not just orange, brown, yellow, red etc -- it's filled with blues and greens too. But unlike the bright summer turquoise, autumn turquoise is "earthier" and shaded. Green turquoises are often a better choice that the blue nuances, but both can work.


The pic above is from the post on my other blog. Not a great pic, but I hope you can see it's light blue/turquoise blister pearls and amazonite with carnelian in many shades of oranged and a touch of copper brown pearls in the background. On the right is a bracelet made from what you might call "dark dusty teal/turquoise" and orange-brown glass chips.


The necklace in the first pic is an old one I made from swap beads a long time ago (notice the use of screw clasp and bead tips, which I rarely use today) in colours I wouldn't have chosen to pair together if it haden't been for the facetted miracle beads. I don't like miracle beads, really, but it was a good challenge: not difficult, just slightly outside the comfort zone.

The miracle beads were in apricot orange and blue turquoise -- and this combo dictated what other swap beads I choose to add to it. I picked the apricot dyed serpentine ("new jade") and a silverfoil glass bead, thinking the foil would reflect light a bit like miracle beads do. And I promise, the beads do match -- it's just really hard to get a pic where both the stone and miracle beads look good. Silver-plated spacers and findings was about all I had, but I guess it could have looked very different had I used copper, gold or gunmetal instead.



I'm not sure I'll have time to make something for the Monday Moodboard, but if I were to I'd probably embrace the autumn that seems to have already come (we've had some rainy and windy weather here lately) and do something with my aqua fired agates. They deserve being used for something soon...

My easter egg

Repeating last year's fun swap, a bunch of forum members over at Smyckestillverkning iFokus exchanged easter eggs last week. I was one of them and I received this pressie from my secret easter bunny.

Opening it, I found a yummy mix of beads and other jewellery parts -- can you tell my easter bunny knows my taste by now? Just looking at the contents of the zip-loc bags, I knew exactly who it came from too -- which she also had predicted.

Nuances are a tad too red, but hopefully you can get an idea of the colours. As you can see there's matte crystal vitrail daggers, black brass filigree, glass flower buttons, silvery leaf bead cap, a patterned brass roundel, crystal tabac squirrel pendants, cat and fairy cameos, more cameos with humans, brass end caps, bronze coloured rondelle spacer beads and delicas.


And there was also a big with two large silverfoil beads and a handmade sparkling blue fused glass cab (made by my generous giver). They seems pretty sure about what they wanted to be used for -- the text on the label says Etch us! Apparently they liked my etching experiments.

Burgundy: a favourite colour in crystal pearls

I've already said I love purple beads and these are no exception. I first got my hands on some lovely burgundy Swarovski crystal pearls in a "challenge lottery" (like a bead swap, but you don't know who will get your beads) in the summer 2009. I received a lovely mix of green stone beads, palace green opal crystal beads (more Swarovski), olivine vitrail czech glass flower beads, apricot-pink FW pearls, tiny emerald green cubes, and 8 mm burgundy crystal pearls. My old photo below doesn't really make the mix justice, but I hope some of the beauty shines through the lens. Note how the pearls take up nuances from the vitrail coating in the flowers.



Wonder what I made with them? Some of it was used for the necklaces below. The wire in the second necklace is blackened iron wire. The headpins in the first are patinated copper.





PS! If you want to see what the other participants got in the challenge lottery, check out this forum thread (it continues here).

2009 Bead advent calendar -- the last six

Yesterday I opened my last of the 24 advent calendar presents. Now it's time to start to think about ways of using my new beads and findings. I do know what I'm going to do with the MOP rings already -- decoupage of cause! I'm not a big fan om MOP and shell beads so I often jazz them up by covering them in decouapge papers or other types of paper. Perhaps I'll try using image transfers this time (got one sheet of transfers from NunnDesigns). Or is it time to learn how to engrave shell? I have a booklet on scrimshaw so if that technique work on MOP I might want to give that a try too.

I wanted to do something really icy with the clear flower beads. Just clear beads, perhaps adding silver tones. Another idea was to combine it with copper for more colour, but I think I want to stick to a winter theme.

One thing I've already done was to add a bit of sparkle to the princess crown charm I got on day one. I have these tiny 2 mm vintage glass stones (pointed backs) so I took a few of those and glued to the holes at the tips of the crown. And for once I managed to mix and apply epoxy glue without making a huge mess of it all!

I called it "holes", but it was really just round recessed areas, made especially for adding stones like this. Not sure all beaders using this type of charms and findings realize that they are made for stone setting because I do see much jewelry with dark, often pitch-black, "hollows" where stones would be -- stones that could've made a huge difference in the look of the charm or pendant. But then again, not all beaders are interested in messing with glues and tiny, tiny stones. They probably just buy charms that come with stones already attached if they want colour and/or sparkle.


PS! You'll find pics of the rest of the pressies here. Group photo might be coming up.

2009 Bead advent calendar -- six more

Since last post, I've opened six more little pressies. Hard to believe it's just half a dozen left and it's Christmas Eve... The tiger-eye chips were especially appreciated as I needed some tiger-eye to prepare a new bead project. First I have to see if the combination I had in mind works, before buying anything. Not an easy stone to combine with other beads sometimes, but I hope my idea will work. Don't want to say too much, but it also includes other beads I've had troubles combining in a good way.

2009 Bead advent calendar -- what I've gotten so far

This year I'm participating in a bead advent calendar at the Swedish bead/jewellery-making forum Smyckestillverkning iFokus. It's kind of like a swap where we've all made 24 little packages with beads or jewellery supplies (5-10 SEK a piece), which we sent to the organizer. She them redistributed the tiny parcels and sent out to us so that we got 24 new ones from other participants back. To be opened one a day from Dec 1 to Christmas Eve (in Sweden we celebrate Christmas on the 24th, not the 25th as many others do).

Well, now it's Dec 12th, meaning I've halfway through opening my little pressies. Here's a couple of photos on what I've gotten so far. First one (above) is from day 1 to 6 and the other pic (below) is of the beads from day 7 to 12. It may not always be your favourite type of beads or colours, but a little surprise every day is always fun. I do hope the others like the beads I've given...




(The colours aren't doing the shell beads justice: the red nuggets are not really that brightly christmas red.)