MMMMMmmmmm Bead Soup!

Welcome to Lori Anderson's 5th Bead Soup Blog Party. This time around, Lori randomly picked 200 participants and I was one of the lucky 200! I got paired up with Canadian Jennifer Tough, from Toronto. I was thrilled because I had seen Jennifer's shop on Etsy and had long admired her components and beads. Above is a picture of what Jennifer sent to me. I KNOW! She totally spoiled me! You can get a glimpse of what I sent to Jennifer at her blog post here.
Be sure to also check out what Jennifer made today, here's the link to her post!

She sent me 3 LARGE vials of seed beads in 3 colors. Some of her own lampwork glass beads, a couple of lucite leaves, a strand of faceted glass rondelles, some lampwork glass from Unicorne Beads, a strand of chartreuse glass leaves, a couple of her own handmade bronze metal clay components including a toggle. She also sent a little bag of offset lentils, and some brass disc components. Love it all! The color palette she picked was beautiful! To me, it screams Fall or Autumn.... so I wondered how I would create using the beads but keep the finished pieces all-season. That was probably the biggest challenge for me. I usually can work with any types of beads, so I wasn't too scared about the glass, seed beads, or metal components.

Let's get on with the show and tell, shall we!??  First up, this chunky beaded necklace. Last week I got a pendant from my pal Nan of Spirited Earth and when I held the pendant up to my bead soup, I was floored. It was a perfect match. I immediately set it aside knowing I wanted to use it somehow in my soup pieces.
I used a few of Jennifer's lampwork glass spacers and 2 of the green Unicorne cubes in this piece. The rest of the beads came from my own stash- some large flat jasper ovals beads from Dakota Stones are at the back of the necklace.  I used some large wood squares that are top drilled along the front, and did a fancy loop using some of the pale green seed beads, and a large polymer clay bead from Doreen Willey. The colors in this photo got a bit washed out, and I apologize that you aren't getting the true feeling of this first piece. I may photograph it again in better light.

Here's a nice close-up shot of the pendant and the detail on that bead by Doreen really can be seen well here.

Next up, another necklace design. In this one, I used the large heart focal, the 2 heart links, and the bronze toggle. I beaded the glass Unicorne glass cubes with some copper color pearl heishi beads in between. To add a bit of asymmetricality, I added in a red cube at one side. To attach the beaded strands to the heart links, I seed beaded loops.  Around the back of the necklace, i used the off-set lentils with some seed beads, giving this a nice fringe feel.

Here is a detail shot of the seed beaded loops.

And a shot of the Bronze toggle. Which I love love love!












Switching gears, I created this bracelet using the leaf beads, and some of the dark amber color faceted rondelles. The leaves and that lampwork melon (that reminds me of a pumpkin or squash) just seem to go hand in hand. I added the bronze mushroom charm and some brass chain to finish the piece off.

And then made the necklace to match it! Brass chain around the back, connecting to that swirly brass disc- and more leaf beads, with another melon and lampwork spacer. The acorn adds a nice woodsy touch. I really like that the leaves lie flat when separated by small brass rounds.

Here is another neckalce. This one, I created around the large wire wheel. I wire wrapped a large lampwork melon capped with one of Jennifers bronze bead caps., Below it I dangled the 2 lucite leaves, and some fringe chain. I used up the other Unicorne glass beads, and the rest of the faceted rondelles, and seeded beaded a long necklace with the pale green seed beads.  After it was together, I felt like the large wire wheel was missing something, so I stamped a copper blank with the word "quiet".  I am not sure why I picked this word, but at the time I was designing it was a nice quiet afternoon and I really enjoying it.

Here's a better look at the seed beaded necklace.  I used the same seed beaded loops technique to attach the beaded wire to the wheel.

I had 1 bead left, this lampwork tab. I was determined to use every last bead, although I do have a large amount of the seed beads leftover.  I used a Vintaj Brass bracelet bangle to wire wrap seed beads, and then attached wire wrapped glass dangles along the bangle for some extra movement and weight.
The lampwork glass is flanked by silver bead caps and faceted glass rondelles.

I cannot wait to see what Jennifer put together with the beads I sent her. I hope you have  a chance to check out all the participating blogs.  Have fun hopping!

Be sure to see the FULL participant link list here at Lori's Blog. CLICK HERE!