I knew where I wanted to start right from the beginning. My partner, Erin Honeycutt, had sent some of the white freshwater pearls that were left from when she made her wedding jewelry 10 years ago. From my stash, I pulled some tiny green colored freshwater pearls to complement. Now what? There were some clear cut glass or crystal beads in the soup so I went with the clear, natural and green, Peridot chips. Then I saw the sweetest single little Hematite bead in the soup and knew I had many various shapes and sizes that I could add. There, I had the beads ready, just wanted to see what clasps I had yet and then I would be able to start some designing. Looking through all my little snap boxes wasn't too bad as I am pretty organized. I just hadn't seen them for awhile. Ohhhh, ahhhh, I love dragonfly's! There was a dragonfly toggle and some tiny dragonfly beads to add to the bracelet to tie it all together. I used beading wire and crimp tubes to connect everything. I must admit that crimps scare me sometimes. I just don't trust them as much as wire wraps. The bracelet is a combo of one link going into three with three embellished paddles hanging near the toggle.
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| The Green Dragonfly |
Now that I've gotten my feet wet, I had best get moving on more pieces! I was so happy with my first Bead Soup Jewelry piece that I ever made that I needed to snap back to reality fast. You see, I hadn't used the focal or the closure sent in my soup mix yet. That is a must in the rules. Well, at least when I sorted the beads for the bracelet, I had grouped the rest of the beads to where I wanted them. One of the challenges for me with the soup was that I wasn't used to working with very small beads. You can see I pretty much got over that with the Green Dragonfly bracelet. Where you have small beads, you have equally small holes...... Now, that was a challenge! The darker oval shaped beads are a amethyst color and vary in sizes. I paired them with smokey gray crystals to pull the gray tones from the toggle. Here comes another first, wire wrapping with copper. I'm a silver girl, but I keep my granddaughter in copper. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I used just a little. The white beads I used in this were parts from a broken necklace. If I have this right it was one of a two strand necklace, given to Erin and made by her best friend. She still wears the other strand often. I'm so glad to have her as a part of my new bracelet, too. Then I just ended up adding some brassy pewter beads for length and did all my wire wrapping and curly q's. The toggle needed to blend in with all of that a little bit more so I went fishing again for some thinner copper wire and just added it for continuity. Another one done and I am feeling a sense of accomplishment! |
| Copper Dangles Bracelet |
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| Erin's Erie Escape |
I had planned on a pair of earrings to use the paper beads that Erin and her kids made out of old National Geographic Magazines. Unfortunately, I need to find the perfect beads to go with them. I may NEED to go shopping!!!!!
Now please go visit my partner Erin Honeycutt to see what she's created with her Bead Soup!
Here's the list of participants & links to this 3rd part of the Reveal of BSBPH #7
