So my saga starts with how I decided I would open a shop… and still do all the other things I do most springs. This may not have been the most sensible thing in the universe and as a result I’m playing catch up. I luckily ended up with the patient and talented Allison Fitzpatrick (who lives pretty darn close, comparatively). She also has an Etsy shop at Polka Dots and Paisley.

While I was dragging my feet and going a little nuts she sent me a cute box filled with nice soup:

All the nicely arranged colours and shapes… it didn’t take much figuring to whip up a couple of necklaces which my patient sidekick helped model:

This one was a cluster of big chunky soup bits, a length of chunky chain and a key charm from my pile. It just worked, instantly. The next piece was a little daintier one with a few of my flower beads and some of the smaller elements from the soup:

The kiddo prefers the smaller necklace because it hangs where she likes her necklaces to hang. I think they both worked pretty well… picking colours was a breeze since Allison put together some super combos.

The big turquoise nugget is waiting for me to find my drill bit in the new shop space so that I can ream the hole a bit… it will be wonderful strung on leather cord with some of the silver and glass from the soup.

Despite all of my bumps this time around I managed to squeak in. This is my fourth Bead Soup Blog Party. You can see year one with Cilla Watkins here, year two with Judith Johnston here and year three with Michi Pabeschitz here.

As always, tons of thanks and credit goes out to Lori Anderson who arranges and runs this every year. This year was particularly trying and she still pulled it off!

Here are the other soup swappers:

***