Seasons Blog Hop Bead Mix

I am participating in the Seasons Blog Hop, hosted by Lisa at Pine Ridge Treasures.

For this hop, Lisa sent me a gorgeous set of beads in wonderful greens, which is my favorite color. Spring is definitely the season for these beads. 

To complete the spring theme: a dragonfly clasp.

As those of you who read my other blog (Bad at Being Mom) know, I just had my hip replaced a bit over two weeks ago. I decided to join this blog in early spring, and between the end of the semester and getting ready for surgery, I haven't had a chance to take more than a look at the beads until today. I sat down just to photograph the beads for this post, but found myself putting my first piece together. But I won't be showing that until July 6th :-)  I hope you'll return for the reveal on that date.

Blue Bracelets

I've been very slow, but I finally got these bracelets made, for my friend and her daughter.

Some New Earrings

I have done very little in the way of creating jewelry this semester, except for the Bead Soup. However, I did finally put together a pair of earrings with leftovers from my soup. The little silver spiral charms at the bottom were created by Emma, for me.

I also photographed a pair I made during Christmas break, with some pretty floral beads that Rob had put in my stocking.

And here is a pair Emma made a few weeks ago that I photographed for the store.

I am really looking forward to the end of the semester, when I'll have more time to play with my beads.

Bead Soup Reveal!

Today is the first reveal date for Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Hop Party --and I am so thrilled to be participating! For the past several Bead Soup Blog parties I have been an avid visitor --looking at all the wonderful soups sent and jewelry created. Lori's idea, of pairing up two people and having them send each other a group of beads (or bead soup) is such an inspired way of sparking new creativity. All the parts of this party are so much fun: choosing the ingredients for the soup you'll send, receiving a soup from your partner, and finally creating with those beads. Lori also puts in an incredible amount of work --the number of participants has increased each time, and now numbers in the hundreds; she visits each and every blog in order to pair people up appropriately.

For my first time participating, Lori paired me with Pam, who writes the blog Klassy Joolz, and has an Etsy store of the same name. Earlier, I blogged about Pam's jewelry, and about the marvelous bead soup she chose and sent to me.

As a reminder, here is a photo of the soup she sent:

I created two pieces with this soup: a necklace, and a bracelet. I added very little to the soup --just some findings and bead caps.

The first piece I created is the necklace. I love the sheep pendant, and felt that it had a casual air to it. I didn't feel that a wire-wrapped necklace, with additional beads, would really flatter it, so I kept it simple. I wire-wrapped a few little charms, using the czech glass dark-blue-flower beads, to accent the pendant. I strung this combination on a piece of brass chain. The first photo is not terribly in focus, but I wanted to include one photo with the necklace actually hanging against a shirt.

The second piece is a bit more elaborate. I love the color combinations Pam created --she doesn't know me, but it's as if she chose these colors with me in mind. For that reason I wanted to use as many of the beads together as I could. I created a two strand bracelet, stringing the smaller beads on one strand and wire-wrapping the larger ones on a second strand. The only things I added to the soup were findings and some pewter bead caps.

 I added some charms, and that wonderful czech glass maple leaf at the end of the chain.

I have already worn this bracelet several times, and I'm looking forward to wearing it more as the weather warms (I find metal to be really cold on my wrist in the winter).

I am really looking forward to heading over to Pam's blog to see what she has created with the soup I sent her, and I'd like to encourage everyone to check out her blog as well as lots of the other bead soup blogs. You can find the list of all the blogs here.

Introducing . . .

My Bead Soup partner! 

Pam creates beautiful jewelry, and sells it through an Etsy store, Klassy Joolz.  She also has a blog, and has worked in lots of different design fields before starting to create jewelry.

I've stolen some photos from her Etsy shop, to give you an idea of her style.

I really love her style --the pieces are beautifully designed, and she has chosen some wonderful art beads to work with. I would love to wear any of them!

Since she has received her bead soup, I'm going to share a photo of what I sent her here :-) (To see the wonderful beads she sent me, see this post.)

Our reveal date is 3/30, so check back then!

My Soup Has Arrived!

So, yesterday the mailbox had more than just the normal catalogs and bills --my bead soup from Pam at Klassy Joolz arrived!

I have taken some photos here to show you the wonderful pieces she picked out for me.

First, here is the adorable box it all came in:

The focal is this wonderful sheep pendant from Nature's Adornments Pottery on Etsy --I am extremely fond of sheep, actually, because my mother worked with them doing some research in graduate school, and they became like family. We heard stories around the dinner table :-)  The strand of tiny blue Farfalle beads matches the pendant flower, and the other beads here are beautiful lampwork beads by Mandrel, also on Etsy.

Pam also picked out a beautiful flower clasp, and other flower beads that pick up so nicely on the flower on the sheep pendant. Here is a photo of the soup ingredients, separated out. Do you see the beautiful little green czech glass maple leaf? These colors are so fabulous --blues and greens, in an earthy palette.

And here is a photo of them all mixed together, because I just can't resist mixing the ingredients together --there's just something so fun about it.

I am so excited to get started working with these beads!

I'm hoping that the soup I sent to Pam will arrive soon, and that she enjoys it as much as I'm enjoying hers :-)  Our Reveal date is March 30th, but between now and then I'm going to do a post on Pam's jewelry, so my readers can get to know her a bit more.

Here are two cards/tags Pam sent as well, which do a nice job of illustrating her creativity:

Bead Soup Update!

Today I mailed Bead Soup out to my partner, Pam Traub, of Klassy Joolz.  Here's what it looked like:

I hope she enjoys the soup, I had a great time putting it together :-)