Bead Soup Blog Party

It’s here! For the past several weeks, about 200 people have been creating jewellery with “bead soups” that have been swapped from partner to partner around the globe, all part of the wonderful Lori Anderson’s 5th Bead Soup Blog Party. My partner for this event is Karen Vincent, who lives in Nevada, IA, USA, where she moved in 1996 from the Cotswolds in England. I’ve been there, and frankly, it’s gorgeous! I would never have left Together with her daughter, Emma, she runs a jewellery business called Swallowtail Jewellery (being an Aussie, I love that she’s kept the UK English spelling!) You should check out her blog, as well as her Etsy store. She makes beautiful pieces, and I’m so glad to have had her as my partner in this new adventure!

Remember I showed you the bead soup that Karen Vincent had sent me about a month ago? Well, I’ve spent most of the past month biting my nails, lying awake at night worrying, emailing Lori for help, and generally fretting over the fact – yes, fact! I was convinced I was right – that I’d taken on more than I could do. Again. The little brass findings, like the pins and other bits, made me quite uncomfortable, because although I absolutely love brass findings like these, I’m used to using them in scrapbooking pages, not jewellery, and I didn’t have a clue what to do with most of it. Still, I wasn’t going to give up, and I kept pushing through.

And then, after threading and unthreading several (ie. heaps of) times, in the final hours of the past couple of days, I put together some pieces that, I have to say, I’m really happy with.

my little pliers from Dad

See, I’ve never made any jewellery before. And I don’t have any tools, other than these little pliers that my father had given to me years ago for my scrapbooking pursuits. And even though I have plenty of jewellery, and have spent much time browsing the net for more ideas, I couldn’t get past first base. Which looked like me sitting at the table, staring at my soup.

Well, enough of my ramblings, here’s what I made. Oh, one last thing. I actually sent Karen some of the same beads that I ended up using in one of my pieces. I can’t wait to see what she created! Bet it’s completely different from what I came up with. Probably a much more professional item than my fairly simple piece.

So, again, here’s what I started with. Remember to click on any of the images to enlarge them. Hope you enjoy!

fabulous brass hardware

selection of beads, ribbon, & focal Karen embellished herself

And here are my pieces…

my first pieces - a long necklace and matching earrings

For these pieces, I used only things I’d received in my soup. Oh, um, no. I also used some recycled hooks, since I didn’t have any new ones in brass.

I attached the little butterfly to the front of the beautiful focal that Karen made with a small jump ring, and hooked beads to the bottom using one of the pins

this is one of the clasps Karen sent me - she made this one herself!

I carefully (ie. not so professionally) wound the top of the pin around the jump ring and bead

it's quite long, which I like

I like its simplicity and lightness

So that’s my first set. I was so excited about it that I wore it out to lunch yesterday. My daughter Gita said she loved it. I can see myself wearing it heaps!

So now, on to my second necklace. I had so much left over still, and felt that I hadn’t done really heaps with the generous amount of soup Karen had sent me, so I began playing around with some beads I had in my stash. I’d actually forgotten completely that I’d sent Karen much the same as I ended up using for this necklace, but thems the breaks, as they say.

beaded necklace with brown flower focal

I've dangled the little brass finding in the centre of the large jump ring - looks good, don't you think?

can you see how clumsily I've attached the wire to the clasp? I really have to learn how to do this bit properly

I used these tiny gold beads in between as spacers

I mixed the stranded beads I'd bought with some of Karen's soup mix

I like long necklaces. can you tell?

think I'll wear this today

I should tell you the details about the beads themselves, like what they’re made of, etc. First, from Karen’s soup mix:

• the green focal is a brass piece, embossed with a butterfly that Karen inked, painted, and then sealed with wax
• the chain is brass, as are the pins and other findings
• Karen made one of the brass clasps, as I’ve shown above in the first set of jewellery

Then, my additions:

• the little gold seed beads are from a stash of very old millinery beads given to me by my step-mother years ago
• the blue beads in the second necklace are from strands of faux turquoise and I’m not sure what the brown beads are
• the flower focal is a brown resin rose

I learned so very much through this, and have really enjoyed myself. Thank you so much Karen! Thanks for the wonderful things you sent me – I can say “wonderful” now with happy certainty, now that we’re on this side of the party! I’m going to enjoy wearing my jewellery, and will probably keep making things, now that my confidence is boosted. Thanks Lori, for organizing this amazing blog party!

You can click on any of the images below, and you’ll get to the participant’s blog. However, you’ll notice that not all 200 blogs are showing up. That’s because the Linky thing didn’t work so well. To get the full list of 200 links, click here.