Bead Soup Blog Party Time!

My partner was the very generous Debbie from Prairie Emporium.  She sent me some wonderful ingredients -- though I didn't use everything. The leftovers will surely come in handy in future projects.

She sent feathers!

 A ceramic donut she made, a lampwork owl, some Czech glass, crystals, chain & a sterling toggle!

The first thing I made was the owl necklace. I had gotten it into my head that I had to do something other than my standard wire wrapping, so I picked up some black silk thread I had. I tried 100 different combos, but was never happy with any of her beads to go with the owl. So I dug through my stash and found some more Czech glass and some vintage glass with an "oil slick" finish, as I like to call it. Combined with my last saffron Miss Fickle Media ring and some antique brass rollo, I was satisfied at last!

 

I decided I had so much fun with the silk, but I really wanted some of that waxed Irish linen thread that all the kool kids are using - so I ordered some, and set to work on some feather earrings while I waited... It took me quite some time and a few destroyed bits of metal & findings later to figure out how to successfully attach a feather to something, but I did it!

The following week, my waxed linen arrived and the design I'd been struggling with just magically unfolded. Funny, it happened in stages. First, I knew how the focal would go with the chain. That was the very first thing I did out of anything. Long before the idea for the linen. Once I got the linen, I saw some faceted amazonite beads in my stash that NEEDED to be included that I hadn't even considered previously. So then it was a little counting out and laying out and ta da! The strung part was perfect. I knew I'd connect the back to some chain, but I assumed I'd use some smaller copper stuff I had, and that it would be short. But after I got all the beads knotted onto the cord, I realized that I needed to use that teardrop copper chain that had been sitting there staring at me for months. Except it was bright & shiny. Well, I'd been needing to break out the Liver of Sulfur for several other things as well, so I spent last Saturday morning taking care of all that. So by that evening, it was done and sealed and ready to join the rest of the necklace. But as big and beautiful as it was, it couldn't be relegated to small connector chain in the back. It needed to be seen! And so my short necklace became long. I am just thrilled to death with the result! It's definitely my favorite piece of this soup.

 

Lastly, I made this bracelet. I got to use more of my waxed linen, and a long hoarded Green Girl mermaid focal - but as I expected, the focal was way too heavy for this dainty bracelet. So I might see if I can add a few more strands of something to it and make it a multi-strand to balance the weight. It could probably be done with some patience. Or I might just take it all apart and chalk it up to a learning experience. But it's cute in theory, right? I've never really been too good with bracelets anyway.

Thanks for stopping by and please remember to visit ALL the participants!

Hostess, Lori Anderson Special Book Sneak Peeks, Cindy Wimmer

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