GOODNESS, this really was a last minute effort ... I just moved, and I pulled off most the pieces during the past three days in between going back and forth between my new apartment and the old, which needs to be fully renovated by the end of the month, or it's: bye-bye, deposit. XP Before that I renovated my new apartment together with my sister, and in turn helped her refurbishing my niece's room who inherited some of my old bookshelves. It really feels like I've spent the whole month painting walls, lugging heavy stuff about, and disassembling and reassembling IKEA furniture. XD;
ANYHOW! Onto the Bead Soup Blog Hop Reveal, that is what you're here for after all. As a reminder, this is what my partner, Susan Kennedy, sent me:
"Bwuh," I thought. "Purple." It's a color I used to like a lot. Way back. In my teens. Like, two decades ago? Now you wont find it anywhere in my apartment, including my bead stash.
OF all these, especially the sparkling labradorite beads with the AB coating caught my eye. And there was a pair of them, so ... "earrings" I thought, naturally. And, as I just finished Deryn Mentock's BoHo Bliss Hoops class, I thought I'd try my hands on the Lodestar Lantern Hoops, using up some of the pearls Susan sent me as well:
Alas, I misjudged the wire thickness for these (over here wire is sized by the diameter in mm, not the gauge) and these turned out way too big and way too heavy – for me at least. They weren't comfortable to wear at all, and while they were pretty to look at, I was disappointed. But, hrm, with that size and weight, they actually might make an okay focal? Only, I now had a pair of focals. Duh.
Now, can you guess what I came up with?
Can you?
Can you?
That's right, my first ever lariat~! And, unlike the earrings, it's got just the right weight, drapes beautifully, and is very comfortable to wear! I used two of the faceted agate beads in this as well. And, what can I say, purple is still far from being my favorite color, but I LOVE how it looks combined with the rosy gold of bronze and copper.
STILL, the third BSBP reveal was only a few days off, and I had used neither the focal nor the clasp yet. Nor did I have any idea what to do with them. My problem with the focal, partially, was it's length. Had it been only half an inch shorter, I would have used it horizontally. It would have become a bracelet, or a choker. I kept turning it over, thinking the beautiful pattern with the swirls kinda reminded me of a pretty fish pond with floating plants ... and suddenly I remembered a mixed bag of blue beads I got on last the Kreativ Welt fair, from
Creative Beads – containing beautiful crackle beads, faceted beads, and ... itty bitty tiny fish-shaped beads! So this is what happened:
I decided to keep it simple, to let the focal have the spotlight. Luckily I happened to have a mix of faceted Czech beads around in just the right colors to use as accents. I love it for its length, it's something I can wear in winter with a turtle neck sweater, and it wont be all covered up by my scarves. Oh, and, lookit, I even created a pair of matching earrings on the very last second:
The earwires I used were purchased some time ago from
Unkamen Supplies, one of my favorite Etsy shops.
NOW I still had to use the clasp ... And I don't usually use toggle clasps. They tend to be a tad bit bigger than what I prefer (I like my jewelry all fine and delicate), and I tend to be suspicious of their ability to really keep necklaces and bracelets closed. I
really wanted to do a bracelet for this soup, and there was stuff scattered all about on my desk I had recently ordered, waxed linen cord in a variety of colors, and also copper beads and findings from
Bali Beads (the ones I got for the Bead Soup I sent to Susan were so pretty I had to place another order right away, heheh), the farfalle/peanut beads I used for the lariat (from
Perlen Paula) and ... looking at the linen cord, and the copper jump rings, I remembered I had been itching to try out Lesley Watt's
Double Strand Seed Bead And Jumprings Bracelet tutorial. Check out her Etsy Shop
THEA too as well, she creates the most beautiful bronze findings. Anyway, I wasn't sure the technique would work with farfalle beads, but I'm quite pleased with the outcome:
I used up all the purple lampwork spacer beads Susan sent me in this one.
I still got some leftovers, I pulled off these with the remaining pearls and the enameled bead caps on the very last second:
I wanted to show off the pretty color of these bead caps, so I had them point to the front instead of down.
SO, yay, I did beat (bead?) the evil purple mojo. I just realized, purple and blue are colors I usually only ever think of combining with silver. But I really rather like what they look with copper, brass and especially bronze.
What I didn't use (yet) are four more agate beads, the beaded bead, and the sari ribbon. I've got plans though, so hopefully there will be "seconds" at some point. ;D
Thank you for stopping by, and please take some time to take a look at what the other participants of this Blog Hop created with the bead soup they received from their partner.
