Friday, March 21, 2014

Bead Soup Blog Party: A Blast From The Past


ES ist mal wieder so weit, die alljährliche Bead Soup Blog Party, kurz: BSBP, steht an. Für diejenigen, die noch nie davon gehört haben, hier noch mal eine Zusammenfassung, worum es geht:
Es handelt sich hier um eine Art Perlen"wichteln", mit über 400 Teilnehmern aus aller Welt! Man tauscht mit seiner zugeteilten Partnerin die Adressen, schickt ein Päckchen mit einer "Perlensuppe" des Weges, und die Empfängerin zaubert dann damit eine Kreation. Es muss nicht unbedingt Schmuck dabei entstehen, ich habe auch Taschenbaumler, Schlüsselanhänger, und sogar geperlte Pflanzen gesichtet!

Einige Regeln sind jedoch zu beachten: Die Perlensuppe muss einen Verschluss und einen Anhänger enthalten, und diese müssen von der Partnerin auch verwendet werden, allerdings nicht in ein und der selben Kreation. Das ist die Pflicht, der Rest ist die Kür. An einem festgelegten Termin werden die fertigen Werke dann auf den Blogs der Teilnehmerinnen online gestellt, und es gibt einen "Blog Hop", man springt von Blog zu Blog, und schaut sich an wer was für Perlen bekommen hat, und was daraus entstanden ist, was jedes Mal wieder total überraschend und inspirierend ist!

Organisiert wird diese Mammutaktion auch dieses Jahr wieder von Lori Anderson, und das, obwohl sie schwer krank ist! Sie macht sich eine Riesenmühe mit der Zuteilung der Partnerinnen. Mit einem Zufallsgenerator ist es nicht getan, denn es gibt so viel zu beachten: Nicht alle versenden international, dann gibt es die Perlenfädlerinnen, und jene die mit Rocailles nichts anfangen können. Es gibt Erfahrene und Unerfahrene. Viele haben schon in den Vorjahren teilgenommen, und sollen natürlich nicht wieder die gleiche Partnerin bekommen, und so weiter.

Leider ist die Anmeldephase für dieses Jahr bereits vorbei. Aber wenn ihr interessiert seid, empfehle ich euch wärmstens, euch mal bei der Bead Soup Cafe Gruppe auf Facebook anzumelden. Dort seid ihr immer auf dem neuesten Stand, und könnt im Moment hautnah mitverfolgen, wie bei den Teilnehmerinnen nach und nach die "Perlensuppen" eintrudeln.

Ich selber nehme dieses Mal zum vierten Mal teil, und dachte mir, das nehme ich mal zum Anlass, um meine Perlensuppen und Ergebnisse aus den Vorjahren vorzustellen. Meine Partnerin ist dieses Jahr übrigens Melissa Trudinger aus Australien, die ich später noch ausführlicher vorstellen werde.

IT is that time again, the annual Bead Soup Blog Party, the BSBP is in full swing! For those who may have never heard of it, here's a summary of what this is about:

Basically this is a huge international bead swap, with more than 400 beaders from all over the world taking part! You swap your address with your assigned Partner, and send each other a "bead soup", and the other has to create something using that bead soup. It doesn't have to be jewelry, I have seen purse and key ring charms, and even beaded plants!

There are a few rules though: Your bead soup must contain a clasp and a focal, and these have to be used by your partner, albeit not in the same piece. At a predetermined date, every participant posts their creations on their blog for everyone to see, and this is the day of the Blog Party. Hopping from blog to blog, seeing what everyone received and created is definitely my most favorite part of the event. It is extremely surprising and inspiring!

The one organizing this huge project once again, as in the previous years, is Lori Anderson, even though she is terribly sick! She has gone through great lengths assigning the partners, giving it a lot of thought. For example there are those who wont send international, there are seed beaders and those who are not, there are the experienced and the inexperienced. And of course there are many who already participated in the previous years, and are supposed to not end up with the same partner again! 

Unfortunately the sign up phasie for this year is already over. But if you are interested, I highly recommend signing up with the Bead Soup Cafe FaceBook group. There you'll always be up to date, and you'll be able to see most everyone posting images of the bead soups they've received as they arrive one by one, which is always very exciting!

Me, I'm taking part for the fourth time this year, and thought I'd take that as a cue to show you the bead soups I've received in the previous years, and what I've created with them. My partner this year, by the way, is Melissa Trudinger from Australia, whom I'll introduce properly in a bit. 

IN 2011 my partner was Sara Oehler from the USA. Here you can see what I sent her, and here you can see what she created with it. Here you can see what I created with what she sent me:


I2012 my partner was Susan Kennedy from the USA. Here you can see what I sent her and what she created with it. Here you can see what I created with the wonderful bead soup she sent my way:


IN 2013 my partner in crime was Merja Sundström from Finland. This is what I sent her, and here you can see what she did with it. Unfortunately the reveal page seems to be gone from her blog, but a quick search, and I found her creations on the BSBP7 board on Pinterest, whew! THIS is what I created with the amazing bead soup she sent me:


AS for 2014, the big reveal is on May 3rd, so there's nothing to show yet but the teaser I uploaded for my partner Melissa Trudinger from Australia!


4 comments:

  1. I Apologize that a lot of my blog pages disappeared. Among just the BPBP -pages! I´m going to add the pictures there, but my "hard work" of writing in english is nowhere. I´m so angry for myself, because I didn´t write those stories nowhere else.

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    1. No need to apologize, as it certainly isn't your fault. Strangely, the search on your blog still brings up the titles of the posts, just not the posts themselves. I'm very glad I was able to find the beautiful jewelry you created on Pinterest – you absolutely rocked that soup. :-)

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    2. In fact, this reminds me I need to look up how to back up my blog. I know there is a way. And after messing up my layout template today ... I'm very glad I managed to get it back to how it was!!

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  2. I have to addmit that these thing are not my strenghts. (May be you remember that.) :D
    Perhaps I made something wrong when those pages disappeared. Always is it not so, but I suspect first myself...
    The titles are there, because in some place there were the comments still left and I added the titles afterwords. I was going to add the comments too, and the pictures are still "somewhere"
    in my computer.

    Yes! It was really "the" soup! It was a magical soup of the winter in Finland. And you didn´t even know to which country you was going to send them, when you picked your soup! It attracted something in my soul. The whole story woke up. And that´s why I think it was something very special. <3 And that´s why I´m so sad that the "whole story" disappeared. :(
    But perhaps these are the things that we have to keep only in our hearts. <3 :)

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