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Fulgorine

~ My adventures with polymer clay

Fulgorine

Category Archives: BSBP

Bead Soup Blog Party

Bead Soup Blog Party Giveaway Winner

02 Mon Jun 2014

Posted by fulgorine in 8th BSBP, BSBP, Giveaway, My work

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

art bead, beads, embroidered, giveaway, handmade bead, pearl, polymer clay, polymer clay beads

The winner of the “embroidered pearl” polymer clay beads from my Bead Soup Blog Party post is Becky Pancake. Congratulations!

embroidered pearl beads

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Bead soup blog party reveal and giveaway

10 Sat May 2014

Posted by fulgorine in 8th BSBP, BSBP, Giveaway, My work

≈ 57 Comments

Tags

art beads, bead earrings, Bead Soup Blog Party, beads, BSBP, embroidered pendant, floral necklace, giveaway, green and purple necklace, polymer clay, purple earrings

Welcome to my reveal for the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party. To continue the bead sharing, I’m giving away a set of handmade beads (keep reading to the bottom of this post for details). Here is the lovely bead soup sent to me sent to me by my partner Wendy Chamberlain.

bead soup with embroidered focal

My first thoughts when I saw the delicious mix of purple beads and silver caps was “Earrings!” (I LOVE making earrings.)

But I cried, “The point of the blog party is to use the focal and the clasp…”

“But look, the beads are all in pairs. Earrings!”

It was obvious to me that the pretty clasp and the pendant belonged together in the same necklace, so I decided to make some polymer clay beads inspired by the embroidery on the pendant. That way I could make the necklace and still have the mixed beads to play with for earrings. 🙂

green and purple necklace

I also used some green dyed lava cube beads that matched the colour of the leaves on the pendant and some silver seed beads.

embroidered pendant

I love the texture that the crochet beads give.

bead detailfloral necklace

And then I made some earrings… 16 pairs in fact!

purple bead earrings

purple bead earrings

purple bead earrings

purple bead earrings

Thank you Wendy for the wonderful beads, and thank you Lori for all your hard work organising the party. Now have a look at what all the other participants have made, I know I will.


Giveaway Time!

* EDIT – Giveaway is now closed. *

embroidered pearl beads
Luckily I was able to stop making earring before I used all the polymer clay beads I had made, so I am giving away a set of 8 ‘Embroidered Pearl’ beads. Just let me know in the comments that you would like to be included in the draw (join in even if you are international). I’ll announce the winner by 1st June 2014.

Bead Soup Blog Party delay

03 Sat May 2014

Posted by fulgorine in 8th BSBP, BSBP

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bead Soup Blog Party, beads, BSBP

Unfortunately the reveal date for the Bead Soup Blog Party has been postponed by a week, so you will need to check back on the 10th May 2014. As well as showing you what I have made with the beautiful bead soup I received there will be a set of beads up for grabs. So for now, here is a hint of what I made…

swirl

See you then 😉

The soup I sent

20 Thu Mar 2014

Posted by fulgorine in 8th BSBP, BSBP, My work

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bead, Bead Soup Blog Party, crystal, pearl, pendant, polymer clay

The bead soup I sent has been received by my partner Wendy Chamberlain, so here are some clearer photographs 🙂

teal and purple bead soup

I had intended to put together a soup starting with a chunky toggle similar to the one I made for the Art Bead Scene challenge back in August 2013, but after seeing Wendy’s work I kept thinking about this polymer clay pendant I made a while back. It has a funky back too…

polymer clay pendant

I already had the co-ordinating purple pearls, teal crystals and green lucite flowers. All I had to do was find a dainty clasp.

teal and purple bead soup

Remember the blog hop is 3rd May 2014, so come back then to see what everyone makes with their delicous bead soups.

Bead Soup is on its way

13 Thu Mar 2014

Posted by fulgorine in 8th BSBP, BSBP

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bead Soup Blog Party, beads, green, grey, purple, swirl, teal

Bead Soup is in the mail… Here’s a preview.

Abstract swirl

Things will become clearer once I hear that my partner Wendy Chamberlain has received them. 😉

TTFN

My bead soup has arrived

12 Wed Mar 2014

Posted by fulgorine in 8th BSBP, BSBP

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

bead caps, Bead Soup Blog Party, beads, embroidered focal, embroidery, floral, flower, lavender, purple, Wendy Chamberlain

I was delighted to discover that my bead soup had arrived this morning from my partner Wendy Chamberlain. Here’s an explanation of what the Bead Soup Blog Party is.

Bead soup blog party gift box

But what’s inside?

purple bead soup with embroidered focal pendant

Yummy! I have noticed that my camera does peculiar things with the colour purple so the various shades of the beady allsorts don’t show up well in the photo. I’m really excited to have a selection of bead caps and charms to play with. 🙂

embroidered focal pendant and flower toggle

Here’s a close up of the elegant embroidered focal pendant. I love the flower toggle, it’s so pretty. The crochet beads are amazing, I wonder how they are made!

8th Bead Soup Blog Party Partner

08 Sat Mar 2014

Posted by fulgorine in 8th BSBP, BSBP

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bead Soup Blog Party, beads, BSBP, doll clothes, miniature, teddy bear, Wendy Chamberlain

8th Bead Soup Blog Party I was lucky enough to catch the one day sign up for this year’s Bead Soup Blog Party. (I decided to skip last year since it was too close to baby’s due date.)

I got my partner a few days ago, but I’ve been having trouble with the internet so I haven’t attempted a blog entry before now. My partner is Wendy Chamberlain who amazingly is also an ex South African now living in England. She is a textile artist making the most engaging miniature teddy bears with wonderful details of beading and embroidery.

Here are some of my favourites…Purple teddy bears

Green clown teddy bear

Joachem

embroidered floral pincushion

Purple Pansy Beaded CabochonSo remember at the start of the year I said I wanted to “think bigger”? Well, in addition to making my sister’s wedding dress, I have become a little bit obsessed with making dolls clothes. Purely for my daughter of course… I don’t find myself thinking “I can’t give her that to PLAY with, she’ll ruin it!”… or “Perhaps I need ANOTHER doll for me so I can make clothes while she’s playing/sleeping”… certainly not! But the question is, now that I have seen Wendy’s delicate, detailed work should I continue with my initial chunky bead soup plan, or rethink something along the lines of miniature flower garden? I know one purpose of the blog party is to have a nudge out of our comfort zone… but I don’t want to cross the line into DIScomfort.

Space Rock and UFOs

14 Sun Jul 2013

Posted by fulgorine in 6th BSBP, My work

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bead, crystal, focal bead, handmade, necklace, pearl, polymer clay

Because the babies don’t leave me much time to clay, I have been working on “quick win” projects like earrings, and completing some of my UFOs (unfinished objects).  A while back, I experimented with diy expanding foam as a core for polymer clay. At the time I decided to wait and see if there would be a reaction between the polymer clay and the polyurethane foam – that was now nearly two years ago (:o) and so far all is well.

235_dscf9630

I call the focal bead “Space Rock Creature”. I used a mix of glass beads, crystals and pearls (faux) to string it, and I found a home for some of the beautiful stone oval beads sent to me in the Bead Soup blog party back in 2012.

235_dscf9623
235_dscf9640

More Bead Soup

25 Sat Aug 2012

Posted by fulgorine in 6th BSBP, BSBP

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bead soup, beads, BSBP

Today is the third reveal for the Bead Soup Blog Party. I was in the second reveal on 11 August.

Head over to Lori’s blog to find the list of participants (be sure to scroll down to the 3rd reveal) and have a look at all the wonderful creations.

Bead Soup Reveal

11 Sat Aug 2012

Posted by fulgorine in 6th BSBP, BSBP, My work

≈ 75 Comments

Tags

bead soup, beads, bracelet, coral, earring, handmade, mermaid, necklace, pearl, rock pool, shell, stone, yarn

Welcome to my reveal for the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party. This is the second of three helpings of beady loveliness. My partner Dorota Żerańska sent me a super generous selection of wonderful beads. Here is an overview photo, for more details see my earlier post.

Full bead soup

The first beads I unwrapped were the large white ones (I think they are coral) and they reminded me of a shell focal that has been waiting in my todo box for years. I knew I wanted an all white necklace and it was to be called “Mermaid’s Purse”. I was intending to make faux shells and coral from polymer clay, but then I unwrapped actual shell beads, and white stone disks. If that wasn’t enough confirmation the final bead I unwrapped was the mermaid herself!

white shell necklace

white shell necklace

Now that the mermaid had her bling (and a matching pair of earrings) it was time for me to consider where she herself would be at home. I noticed that the stone chips had beautiful flashes of blue which matched some blue ribbon yarn I had. I used some tiny red seed beads that matched the mermaid’s colour to make some branched dangles and created “Mermaid’s Rock-pool”.

necklace with mermaid focal
detail of necklace with mermaid
detail of necklace with mermaid

I then noticed a tiny bunch of grapes on the toggle Dorota had sent and realised that the colour of the pearls reminded me of the velvety shimmer you get on black grapes. I used one of my polymer clay focal beads which had a vine-like filigree pattern and made a multi-stranded choker and a pair of earrings.

pearl choker

I also made two bracelets.

two red bracelets

And a third pair of earrings. Dorota even sent me ear-wires!

crystal earrings

I still have many wonderful beads I haven’t managed to use yet (including two focals) so I’ll be busy until the next Bead Soup Party! Have a look at all the other participants (scroll down to Reveal #2) especially my partner, Dorota who does amazing things with seed beads. Thank you Lori for sharing this event with so many of us. 🙂

To celebrate this party I’m offering a 20% discount in my Zibbet shop until the next reveal date (25th August 2012). Enter coupon code BSBP6.

Also there may be a free surprise gift available if you are willing to pay it forward.

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Fulgor, n.
Dazzling brightness; splendor.
Fulgorine, n.
One who creates that which dazzles.

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