The 2021 Bead Soup Swap Challenge Big Reveal

We’re finally here! The bead soup became a THING. If you need a refresher of what I started with you can see that here: The Challenge is On.

beaded necklace with a seahorse pendant

This was a tough soup for me. I almost never use bright gold tones. The cloisonné seahorse was a challenge but in the end I went for the gold and the whole colour palette. I mixed and matched beads from my stash with some of the soup and wired up a seahorse necklace. It’s fairly delicate piece but it has a lot of colour in there. I am pretty sure there’s carnelian, amazonite, some of my favourite little freshwater pearls with the stupidly crooked holes and, of course, the adorable seahorse.

beaded necklace with a seahorse pendant

beaded bracelet

After I got the seahorse piece done, work got super busy and I mostly ran out of time and inspiration to do any crafting outside of work. Until the day before the reveal, of course, when I figured I would wire together a few of the great faceted blue beads from the soup with one of my polymer beads. It’s pretty straightforward and I like it.

beaded bracelet

The rest of the soup will get pressed into service in other projects. There’s always room for a few more beads in my stash! And I got to play with wire which was my first joy way back before polymer.

Finally, don’t forget to see what my partner Dorit made and take a peek at what the other participants got up to, too!

5 Responses

  1. I don’t typically work in gold tones either, but isn’t it beautiful when we’re outside our comfort zone and the end result is fabulous? Nice job! Sparkle on!

  2. While using gold may not be your usual thing, you really worked it quite well. The palette for the necklace is perfect. Oh, and that bracelet is so sweet. Well done with this challenge!

  3. Hi Elaine, you did great working with the gold. Being challenged is one of the best parts of these swaps. The fish necklace is beautiful. I really like the bracelet with the polymer clay focal.