Bead Soup Party has begun!

In case you missed it, yesterday was the beginning of the Bead Soup Party Swap hosted by Lori Anderson of Pretty things who really out did herself with this undertaking! Thanks Lori for all your hard work!

Here's the line up and schedule of each days participant reveal. I'm sorry I don't have anything to show you just yet but that little bit above, but hopefully by Wednesday (my reveal date) I will have my piece completed, so please come back. And for now take a visit of the first two days of beading blogs, you will love the beauties I've discovered! And Don't forget about my Giveaway which I will post with my Bead soup on Wednesday, see the bottom of this post for details!

Saturday, June 19th -- blogs 1-13

1. Lori, Pretty Things

2. Lorelei, Lorelei1141

3. Norma, Moonlit Fantaseas

4. Beth, EB Bead and Metalworks

5. Katie, KatieBead

6. Kimberly, Bahama Dawn

7. Debbie, Prairie Emporium

8. Lisa, Joolz by Lisa

9. Kate, Tropical Blonde

10. Janet, Singing Woods

11. Julianna, Juls Beads

12. Erin, Treasures Found


Sunday, June 20th -- blogs 14-26

14. Jen, Jen Judd Rocks
15. Kella, Me But a Little More In Depth
16. Emanda, Artemisia Studio
17. Marie, Skye Jewels
18. Loretta, Designs By Loretta
19. Stacy, Sissy and Jack's
20. Joanna, Filcowe
21. Diane, Diane Hawkey
22. Marianna, Pretty Shiny Things
23. Anna, The Laughing Raven
24. Marcie, La Bella Joya
25. Lois, Que Onda Q'town?
26. Jayne, Mama's Got To Doodle

Monday, June 21st -- blogs 27-36

27. Lisa, Alterity
28. Dale, Dales' Flights of Fancy
29. Melanie, Kookie Designs
30. Christine, A Hot Piece of Glass
31. Nancy, Beading From the Heart
32. Laurel, Rue's Daftique
33. Sandi, Do Be Do Bead Do
34. Nicki, Nicki's Reef
35. Virginie, ViviBijoux
36. Janeen, Wild Vanilla

Tuesday, June 22nd -- blogs 37-47

37. Filomena, Pink Velvet Bird
38. Lyn, Lyn Foley
39. Tari, Pearl and Pebble
40. Rebecca, Song Beads
41. Regina, Regina's Writings
42. Nancy, The Rabbit Muse
43. Whitney, Whitney Lassini
44. Maria, Garden Path Beads
45. Michelle, Life in the Bead Lane
46. Ann, My Critical Eye
47. Lisa, Lucid Moon Studio

Wednesday, June 23rd -- blogs 48-59

48. Nan, Spirit Rattles
49. Amy, Copper Diem
50. Malin, Beading by Malin de Koning
51. Anne, Gardanne Glass Lampwork
52. Alice, Alice's Beads and Baubles
53. Barbara, Second Surf
54. Amanda, Articulations
55. Heather, Humble Beads
56. Melissa, Melissa Meman, Art, Life, Love (My Partner)
57. Kate, Organic Odysseys
58. Patti, PJ Clark Designs
59. Stefanie, Stefanie's Sammelsurium

Thursday, June 24th -- blogs 60-71

60. Carol, Carol Bradley Designs
61. Wanda, A Frayed of Fibers
62. Diana, Vintage Blue Studio
63. Marieke, Marieke's Blog
64. KJ, Silver Parrot
65. Maire, Maire Dodd
66. Shannon, Miss Fickle Media
67. Dana, Dana's Jewelry Designs
68. Charlene, The Bead Dreamer
69. Elisabeth, Beads for Busy Gals
70. Cathryn, Chile Cats
71. Missy, Melissa Rappaport

Friday, June 25th -- blogs 72-84

72. Cindy, Cindy Dolezal Designs
73. Valerie, Hot Art
74. Courtney, Beads by Breul
75. Johanna, Fire Phoenix Creations
76. Shea, gr8findings
77. Julie, Pryce Designs
78. Jeannie, Jeannie's Blog
79. Patricia, Verre Design
80. Christa, Adventures of One Beady Woman
81. Heather, My Muse
82. Susan, Night Beader at Large
83. Sonja, Drachenei
84. Jennifer, Glass Addictions by Jennifer

Saturday, June 26th -- blogs 85-97

85. Melissa, One-Eared Pig Beads
86. Rebecca, 2SistersBeadwork
87. Karyn, Releases by Rufydoof
88. Denise, Bling on the Blog
89. Doris, Glaszwerg
90. Megan, Churchy & Her Sailor
91. Jo, Daisychain Designs
92. Jen, VanBeads Jewelry and Design
93. Kristie, Artisan Clay
94. Jess, Vintaj
95. Suzann, Beadphoria
96. Sharon, Sharon's Jewelry Garden
97. Michelle, bMichelle

Next Wednesday I will be premiering my Bead Soup Swap design. This is a long week of partying many blogs to visit, so to entice more of you to come see my ' Main Dish' I am having a little giveaway.

A half a cup of Beads and a recipe for making beads and a Bead Mystery novel! How's that for an incentive? All you have to do is visit my blog and view my 'dish' from the Bead Soup Swap and make a comment, any comment will do and your name will go into a drawing for all the prizes.

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What's New? Bead Soup Ingredients!

I got my package in the mail..................

Been waiting.....................

Anticipating................................

Wondering what

Would it contain?.????????

Then it came......................

Almost opened it without a pic

but stopped and took one real quick..........................

then I couldn't wait.......................

no more need to anticipate.....................

So I opened it up to see what I would find................

And saw that Melissa had been so kind........................

The soup ingredients she did include..................................

I'm hoping my creativity won't elude................................

And now with this hokey poem I will conclude....................................

This story of my bead soup that's not about food..................

But food for the soul I have now ended my wait....................

So Off to the Studio, I can't wait to create!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My wonderful Bead Soup Ingredients

Melissa Meman made that fabulous copper clasp and the enamel bead! See close-up at top of post. Join me and all the others at the great reveal, starting June 19th~



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Bead Soup Sneak Peak

Lori Anderson has done it again, and more spectacular than before. This is her second Bead Soup event and it's bigger than the last one we had in February! You may remember we exchanged a focal, a special clasp and coordinating beads and more with our partners.

My last partner was Boot ~ C who sent me an very challenging assortment of beads which I made into a necklace and a bracelet.

From this:







To this




I posted a mini tutorial on how I created this focal pendant with my bead soup on this Bead Soup Reveal post.







And this:




This time around my partner drawn by Lori is Melissa Merman of Melissa Merman Designs.

She has two shops on Etsy, Melissa Merman Designs and Melismatic Rosaries.

I can't wait to see what she sends me, but I know she got her package of beads I sent so I won't be letting the cat out of the bag by showing the Bead Soup I sent to her here.


















I covered a little matchbox with handmade leaf and grass paper to tuck all the beads and components in. There are small and medium Peridot glass bi-cone beads, some beautiful triangular faceted gold beads. Copper Chinese lantern beads. A diachronic glass green and copper leaf focal, a copper leaf charm and a beautiful hand made piggyback leaf clasp in solid copper from Israel.

I hope Melissa can work something with these, she does beautiful wire work so I didn't send any chain or other stringing components because I'm sure she will want to work these together in her own wonderful style. I am awaiting for my package to arrive and will give you a peek as soon as I do!

Meanwhile stay tuned to the revealing starting on June 19th! With almost 100 participants this time we are having the party all week so you get a chance to visit them all! :)

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What's New Wednesday Continued

I did get a chance to find some time to make an entry into Art Bead Scene's January Challenge. It is a wonderful painting by Claude Monet, one that is different from his more familiar colorful pieces. I like this and think he did a wonderful job in this painting. The beauty is in it's simplicity, it's complexity is in it's setting. A simple magpie perched on a rustic gate is the subject and title, but the real star to me is the capturing of the snow. To me snow is even harder to paint realistically than water. Water is a living thing and snow being frozen water also takes on its own life by the light surrounding it. Because snow it made up of crystals it is highly reflective but multi-faceted giving it even more dimensions that the liquid form.

Monet has captured the colors reflected in snow, the purples, the blues, pinks, grays in so many shades and hues they can't be counted. I tried to do the same in using his painting as the inspiration for my necklace. Bright silver was the obvious choice for the base and I used a semi-oval link chain. To this I fastened it with a bit of an antiqued rope toggle clasp. Now I could move on to the fun stuff. I find attaching the clasp first on a symmetrical piece makes it easier to center the focal. And I had the perfect focal, one I had won months back on Art Bead Scenes drawing. It is from Green Girl Studio and is a pewter tube bead with a branch and two birds, one I choose to call my magpie. To this I wanted to bring out the relationship of the dark bird against the light of the snow and thus antiqued the bead. I also wanted to highlight the trees that border the building and hung from the bird bead the tree in winter Charm.

My Focal taken care of now I went through all my bead boxes and containers in search of my perfect snow mix. What I ended up with consisted of a melange of beads, from vintage to new, from plastics to crystals taken from an old Chandelier. I wanted to capture that frosty reflective look that snow has. The colors I used range from frosted white, iridescent crystal, pale blue hand blown glass, Milk glass with a slight peachy hue, periwinkle and pink with a few branch shaped pieces of Abalone thrown in to sprinkle the dark of the focal throughout like the trees that are a predominant part of the painting. If this painting moves you and you'd like to have a copy of your own you can find one here at Global Gallery , on sale right now for Only $18.00.

I have never made a piece like this before and it took much longer than I'd thought (about 4 hours to wire wrap each bead and attach to the chain), but I think it was worth it, do you?


Now I can move on to making my piece for the Bead Soup Swap I joined. These are the beads I received from my partner, I can't wait to see what I can come up with! Defiantly not the snowy theme of Monet, but a look forward to my favorite time of year, Spring! There was snow covering the ground when I woke up today, didn't hear anything about that on the weather but it is quickly melting under the sun. Still have a couple of days yet to see what Phil will think, but I sure hope it's a cloudy day that day!




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