Tag: jewelrymaking

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!

Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal!

Bead Soup Focal Bead Piece

I admit when Sam, my partner, sent me the focal I was not sure what to do with it. It’s way more freeform than what I work with. I tend to make very graphic, straightforward beads and my designs tend to go from those. I asked my much trendier kiddo what she thought of the bead and she was surprised I hadn’t seen it was obviously a sea bead and needed a lovely sea treasure theme. I decided to go with that and wired up a very simple chain necklace with a few of the pale stone nuggets from the bead soup to go along with the pendant. I added a handful of tiny turquoise rounds here and there.

If I end up taking this apart and redoing it, as happens a lot with my more complicated jewellery, I’ll do a little fuller multi-strand piece I think. The barrel orientation of the focal had me flummoxed but I’m catching on. You could go full shipwreck treasure with this bead.

Bead Soup Necklace in Action

I convinced Chloe to model the necklace for me. She made the suggestions for the design that I eventually went with so it was only fair. The very serious face lead to me telling her to smile which got me the frowny face and then, finally, the smiley one. Thus is life with family modeling my stuff.

I am posting this Friday night my time with just the one piece. There were a few other pieces from the accent beads on my studio table half done and, if I make it to the shop on Saturday, I’ll finish a few others up and add them to this post. In particular I want to turn the quartz nuggets into earrings at least.

You can get a look at what Sam Waghorn, my partner in the Bead Soup Blog Party this year, made on her blog or maybe her Facebook. Want to see the other blog hoppers? The whole list is on Lori’s Pretty Things blog.

Feather Necklaces

Feather pendants

I really like polymer clay feather canes and even though I’m still tweaking Donna Kato’s excellent tutorial a bit to make my own… I’ve made a pile of feather beads. From each of the bead canes I kept a few larger, pendant sized feathers because I had some great long necklaces in mind to make with them. This week I finally buckled down and cranked a few out using longer lengths of chain, antiqued bronze coloured wired and some of the bits and bobs in my stash.

The first round of feather necklaces! Glass and stone mixed with antique brass tones. #polymerclay #beads #handmade #jewelrymaking #necklaces

These are mostly ear marked for my shop and for shows but if you think you need one, give me a shout and we’ll get one out to you.