Saturday, May 10, 2014

8th Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal

Welcome to the reveal!!! If you've not heard of the Bead Soup Blog Party, brainchild of Lori Anderson, you can check out all the details here.
This is a huge blog hop, over 500 reveals, so I will keep it short and sweet. Well, for me anyway...
My partner, Rebekah Payne, of TreeWingStudios, is an incredibly talented polymer clay artist. She also creates some fantastic leather goodies, which I am so lucky to get to play with one of her newest styles!
Just a quick remind of my fab soup...
 A softly romantic bead palette. Not my usual style! 

 And my oh-so-fab focal and clasp.
The rules state that you are only required to use these babies...but, of course, I was in happy land with all my other goodies!

My daughter was very involved in this Bead Soup. She requested a specific style for the necklace. I had created a necklace for a Seam Binding Challenge for Artisan Whimsy in an asymmetrical style. Half kumihimo braid, half filled netting. Let's see what you think....
 Soft and delicate. Yes, I'm so going to wear this Sunday for Mother's Day!

 I wove a short strip of chenille stitch to connect the two ropes. The netted section has part of the soft burgundy print fabric inside, while the kumihimo is braided with one strand of 4mm lavender AB firepolish beads, chocolate bamboo yarn, and burgundy sparkle yarn.

I am so stoked over these coiled wire ends! If you want to make some of your own, head over to the Cerebral Dilettante for the tutorial.

Next up is actually the piece I created first. I've recently become obsessed  enamored of loomwork. I knew when I saw that strand of fabric covered beads that Rebekah's mom had stitched, that I wanted it to be in a loomed cuff. I had an absolute blast creating this cuff.
Soft and romantic again, with those fire polish beads showing up in the dangling fringe, and some of the new brick beads in the mix as well. I used hex beads in a metallic iris to create loops to hold the fabric rope in the cuff, and a simple RAW edging for the top. The clasp is from The Beading Room, and the wide ribbon crimps are from Twilight Fancy.

Isn't that a beautiful clasp?Sorry, I couldn't help modeling it. Just ignore the freckles, k?

This last piece I just finished last night. Not because I was running late, but because I didn't think I was going to be able to do justice to Rebekah's heirloom buttons, so I had decided I would create something later. But they just kept talking to me....so this is what happened.
I had enough of the fabric left to create a soft cuff.

Flat netting this time, in a soft matte amber, accented with metallic Czech seed beads and edged with a buttermilk cream to pick up the color of the buttons. And I got to use one of Rebekah's rose petal beads as the closure!

 I used the Czech rondelles Rebekah sent as the toppers for the buttons. This cuff is super soft, and oh-so-special to me. It will be a sweet memory of her precious gift, and this fabulous blog hop!

There were several things I didn't get to incorporate, like the petal beads, and the MOP chips. Rest assured, they will be used! As will this little guy that I beaded for the fabric cuff, then decided it didn't work.
 I've got a couple of ideas brewing, but for now, have fun hopping!
And a huge thank you to my partner Rebekah, and to Lori Anderson for such a wonderful experience!!!

Here's the link for the participants: