Bead soup blog party reveal and giveaway

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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.

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. 🙂

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

I love the texture that the crochet beads give.

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

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.

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Giveaway Time!

* EDIT – Giveaway is now closed. *

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.

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Bead Soup Blog Party delay

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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…

See you then 😉

The soup I sent

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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 🙂

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…

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

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

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

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

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

TTFN

My bead soup has arrived

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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.

But what’s inside?

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. 🙂

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

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

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…

Joachem

So 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.

Bead Soup Sent

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bead, Bead Soup Blog Party, focal bead, mokume gane, painting, pendant, polymer clay, wire toggle

The Bead Soup I sent to my partner Dorota has arrived safely in Poland. Here is a look at what I sent.

I made all the beads in polymer clay, and the toggles from wire. At the back are some green wire beads which started out as contrasting components to the polymer beads, but I couldn’t stop making and with the addition of a clasp it became a bracelet.

In other news I have started a new group on Flickr for Polymer clay painting. This is for polymer clay being used as a painting medium (not polymer clay that has been painted). This is following the fun I had doing my Latvia painting using polymer clay. I’d like to do more paintings, and at the moment it takes a bit of looking to find other examples of artists painting with polymer clay.

Bead Soup has arrived!

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Bead Soup Blog Party, beads, coral, labradorite, leaf toggle, mermaid, shell

My Bead Soup arrived this morning, and it’s absolutely fabulous. I can’t believe how generous my partner Dorota has been. I was worried I would wake the baby with all my excited squeaks this morning as I opened more and still more beads! Yummy! Yummy!

Lots and lots of fabulous beads!

And now for some closeups.

Carved mermaid bead – literally took my breath away.

At least three focals to choose from.

Beautiful leaf toggle

And if that wasn’t enough she also included one of her stunning bracelets…

…aaand chocolate power! How did she know?

Bead Soup Partner

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bead, Bead Soup Blog Party, bracelet, BSBP, earring, necklace, soutache

I am really excited to be taking part in the next Bead Soup Blog party and I have just been given my partner – Dorota Żerańska in Poland. Her blog is full of beautiful colours and intricate techniques. Here is a taste…

There are 399 participants this time so there will be three reveal dates. We are in the second wave – 11 August 2012. See you then.

Bead Side Salad

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bead, bead salad, bead side salad, bead soup, Bead Soup Blog Party

After not being lucky enough to be chosen to participate in the bead soup blog party, I decided I would do my own “bead side salad”. I already had some ideas about what I would be sending out and I had intended to use these myself to be completed by the bead soup date. Amazingly when I visited my mom she gave me a bumper lot of mixed beads and broken necklaces. Voilà! Instant Bead Salad!

So far my challenge is the opposite of the Bead Soup – there’s no obvious focal (the cabs are currently brooches) and no interesting clasp – but the whole point is that it’s a CHALLENGE. Come back on 3 March to see how I get on…