Saturday, September 17, 2011

Bead Soup Block Party 2011

This is my first year participating in the Bead Soup Block Party, hosted by Lori Anderson. I was paired up with Maria Clark of Sweet Willow Designs. Maria creates gorgeous beads from polymer clay. She sent me a beautiful two-sided pendant, three smaller focal beads and a clasp that she made. Along with her creations, she also sent some really cool dyed serpentinite jasper rondelles, copper beads with a turquoise splash, oxidized copper round beads and a variety of bone beads.

The colors are gorgeous and immediately made me thing of summer fading to autumn.

Summer Fading to Autumn...

I added:
  textured antiqued copper chain
 bronze colored freshwater pearls
 8mm antiqued copper round beads
 Parawire in 24 and 28 gauge
two toggle clasps
antiqued copper oval jump rings
antiqued copper earwires


The back of the pendant is textured in a really cool pattern that reminds me of tree bark.  I love that I can wear the necklace with either side of the pendant showing!

I played around with the beads Maria sent me, making some mental sketches. I had a few different options for both a necklace and bracelet. I kept going back to dangling the copper beads with turquoise splash from antiqued copper chain. Once I settled on my necklace design, I then realized that I had enough beads to create two bracelets and a pair of earrings.




The pieces I designed are not like anything I have created before. This was the first time I have worked with polymer clay beads or even beads with flowers on them. This bead soup definitely took me out of my comfort zone, but in a really wonderful way! It is also the most wire wrapping I have done to date, and I must say I really enjoyed adding that element to the design. The only problem I encountered was how to go about dangling the freshwater pearls from the chain. The head pins I used to attach the dyed jasper rondelles were too thick for the pearls. I then remembered a technique I had seen in Heather Power's Inspired by Nature book, wire tendrils. I used 28 gauge wire to create little tendrils on each end of the pearls and then attached them to the chain. It also added a really fun aspect to the pearls.


I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the BSBP. From sending and receiving a bead soup to getting to know my way cool partner to designing outside of my comfort zone. Now I look forward to sitting back and admiring what the other participants have created!

To see what other party goers have created, just click on the link: 

Check out the map too, it is amazing!

Thank you Lori Anderson for hosting the Bead Soup Block Party. Your time and dedication is appreciated more than you know. You are an inspiration. You are beautiful. Thank you for all that you contribute to the beading world! The BSBP is a wonderful way to get to know people in the beading community, be inspired and make new friends. Hello new friends!

67 comments:

  1. You did a great job - nice pieces! The beads fit very good with the copper chain, very harmonic treasures!
    Greetings, Michi

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  2. I love the pieces. The earings have "clean" line. So beautifull!!

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  3. Gorgeous! You did a great job with your soup! It's yummy! :-)

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  4. Your pieces turned out very nice. I like all the chain and dangles in the necklace, too.

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  5. Kathleen, you did a wonderful job with the beads and I love every piece you created. You have an eye for how different pieces go together and each piece is unique and interest. Great Job!

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  6. Love the minimalist feel of your creations!! I do believe these pieces are my favorite ones I've seen today...and I've hit at least 50 blogs today!

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  7. All beautiful pieces, you've done a great job of giving each one its own clear design vision. Love these!

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  8. Maria's beads & your design...what a great match! Love everything that you made!

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  9. The little copper beads with the splash of turquoise are adorable!! I absolutely love them!!

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  10. Your creations are wonderful! Well done!

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  11. I am SO sorry for being late — today our internet provider decided to crash. My stress level is through the roof, to say the least! They’re still working on it, but it’s like dial-up.

    I absolutely love the pieces and have to check out your bead-maker! I'm really impressed with your work! You should do more along this style.

    I hope you’ll participate again!

    Love, Lori

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  12. Oh! The necklace and bracelets are outstanding! Really! I just love them, and would love to wear any of them in a heartbeat!

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  13. OMGoodness...your soup is truly DELICIOUS my Friend!!! I love the copper & agua together, it's lovely!
    Well done, another AMAZING cup of BEAD SOUP!!! ;)

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  14. stunnig! even more so knowing that this was truly a learing experience with new materials.

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  15. All four pieces are lovely - I'd have never imagined this was so far out of your comfort zone, because they look great. The necklace really reflects the idea of summer into fall. Great job!

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  16. Simple elegance, nature's style!! I really love it, and that focal is beautiful! Incredible set of bead soup creations!!

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  17. What great pieces you made! Love the fun textures and your arrangements, great job! Thanks for dropping by my soup!! Riki

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  18. You did a great job for being outside your comfort zone. I hope you will work more with polymer clay in the future. You have a real knack for it.

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  19. You received such beautiful beads and did a great job showcasing them!

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  20. Incredible color harmony. I love these pieces.

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  21. Truly beautiful pieces! They all harmonize so well together. I love your creative process, and glad to know about your solutions as well. You made these pieces look easy and effortless. Great job!

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  22. Gorgeous jewellery! I especially fell in love with the necklace. And the pc beads are just so beautiful. Fab job!

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  23. It's taking me awhile to make the rounds. Love those beads you received! Your necklace and bracelet turned out beautifully.

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  24. How could you go wrong with those beautiful beads in your soup? I adore the necklace you created, and the bracelets and earrings are wonderful with it. Nice!

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  25. Great interpretation... Summer fading to Autumn is perfect for the bead soup you received.

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  26. Oh wow, your designs are stunning! Love each piece! Everything flows together so nicely and I love the colors!

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  27. Those beads are SO PRETTY and I love how you used them. Perfect designs, not overdone. Balanced, beautiful. fab designs!

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  28. I love your soup, and how you've pulled the colours together in your designs...just stunning.

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  29. Wonderful! You have created terrific pieces of wearable art. I like your use of color and texture, and the polymer beads are fabulous. Thank you for sharing your artistic process along the way. Cheers!
    Lori

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  30. Wow, those beads from your partner are really amazing. You definitely lucked up with that soup.
    However, you also brought so much to it as well! Your results are absolutely gorgeous! The necklace, both bracelets, and the earrings are all items that I want to put on RIGHT NOW! Fantastic work!

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  31. I really, really love what you did. Yes, the beads and colors are awesome but your designs are too. Congrats!

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  32. These are some of my favorite designs of the entire hop. Each piece is so well balanced, the colors work, the PC beads are amazing...you did a great job pulling everything together into a cohesive whole!

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  33. great creations with your soup ingredients....very delicious! ;o)

    hugs

    hello gorgeous xxx

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  34. You certainly did an awesome job designing that gorgeous necklace, I love the colors you chose to accent the beautiful polyclay bead. Also love the rest of your recipe!

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  35. I love your pieces - your bead soup was incredible and you really made it shine!

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  36. What a great soup you had to work with! Love the necklace!

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  37. What a fun focal you had to work with, and you made it shine! Great job on all the pieces. I love the earrings.

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  38. oh, this is sooo beautiful! it is just a lovely lovely necklace. and i love the simplicity of the earrings. i would be wearing them all the time.

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  39. I have loved reading your entire blog. It's the unexpected elements that always stop us short and stand us still. Your blog and these beautiful pieces have done that for me today!

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  40. Oooh Kathleen! What a wealth of gorgeous creations! I love every piece you made! Beautiful!!! <3 Way to go out of your comfort zone and make amazing things!

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  41. Ooh, these pieces are sweet! Great job!

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  42. Lovely!!!! The copper goes so well with the beads you received,and pulls everything together nicely.

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  43. i love the pieces you made, i love the copper colors with the blue and the way you created a theme and interpreted it!

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  44. Copper and aqua..a timeless union...and those copper beads with the dash....I want!! Seriously! The pendant is indeed a beauty and could definitely hang either way, Beatiful result.
    jenni

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  45. Just love what you did! Your soup beads were so pretty and your design really showcased them. The copper was a fantastic choice, so warm and pretty.
    Julie and Andrea

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  46. Gorgeous!!!These are perfectly designed and crafted to show off the beads. Love it!. Soup-er fantastic!

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  47. Wow, I love your beads, and I love what you did with them. This is one of my favorite color combinations. The necklace design is perfect!

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  48. Your beads are beautiful and you did an excellent job displaying them with your necklace the copper couldn't be more perfect. The bracelets are equally perfecto!

    WONDERFUL WORK!

    Theresa

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  49. The necklace is stunning, as is the focal pendant!

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  50. Lovely soup! I like the way you kept it simple. It let the beads really shine. Well done!

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  51. I love your soup!! I am so happy to have found your blog!
    Cilla

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  52. that copper is perfect w/ the beads, wow I wish this was all mine!

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  53. Lovely collection!! Your designs really make Maria's clay beads stand out beautifully!!

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  54. Very cool necklace! Love your bracelets and earrings - the colors are great!

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  55. I love them! The earrings are my favorites!

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  56. Simple, clean and beautiful design and I love the colors. I would wear those everyday.

    Really lovely work.

    Cathie

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  57. I love the turquoise and copper, and all the dangles. What a cool necklace and bracelet, It would be fun to wear.

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  58. Gorgeous pieces!! The turqoise color go so well with the antiqued copper!

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  59. Oh my gosh, what beautiful designs created from your bead soup. They are wonderful!
    Also, thanks for sharing your show display. It looked wonderful, thanks too, for your helpful hints.
    Chris

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  60. The genius of what you created is that you honored the beads you were sent and realized a style that would set them off in the best way possible. Brilliant job!

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  61. Wow! Kathleen, you did a beautiful job with those awesome & gorgeous ingredients! I love that you were able to make 4 pieces from that soup. 4 beautiful pieces. Way to go!

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  62. I Loooove what you've created! NIce work!

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  63. I love the little dangles all aroung the chain. They work pretty well in the design.

    Ambra

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  64. Excellent job, the beads were beautiful and your pieces really do them justice with your design.

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  65. Love what you did. Especially the bracelet!

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