Bead Soup Blog Party 7 - The Reveal

First, none of this would be possible without the amazing Lori Anderson.  Not only does she put on this party for 500 but she makes three pieces of jewelry for the hop.   I barely got one done.  Thanks Lori.

And, I also want to thank my fantastic partner, K. Hutchison of  Jumbled Hutch, who sent me the soup that inspired this adventure, and what an adventure it has been!   Here is what she sent me, 

and the few crumbs left over -- K. sent just what I needed.

I hope she found the soup I sent her similarly inspiring.  I know she has made something great,  looking forward to the reveal.

From the get go this piece had a mind of its own.  Plan A was a bit of bead embroidery to frame the focal and a kumi braid with the sari silk but ... sorting thru my stash I found this pretty little raku face and could just see it peaking out of the leaves suggested by the focal. So it was on to plan B, and C . . .   I think I've been thru the alphabet twice.

The choker was the hardest thing to get right.  I added more silk from my stash and used C-Lon to knot it, macrame-ish, letting the fabric bunch up and create a base with lots of nooks and crannies for beads.  I used Shiva Paint Sticks in forest green, turquoise and copper to get the color  I wanted it.

In the end, I think it was more than worth effort, how about you?

Be sure and hop on over to all the other participating blogs:

Click Here To Hop

Bead Soup Blog Hop -- Introducing K. Hutchinson, My Partner

Not quite a year ago I was introduced to a whole new world of beading artists when I discovered the "blog hop".   I was too late to join the The Bead Soup Blog Party, created and run by the amazing Lori Anderson, last year but this year I got in!  To learn more go to: What is a Bead Soup Blog Party?

Acceptance by K. Hutchinson

So let me introduce my partner, K.  Hutchinson.  K. is a working mother with 2 young sons -- how she finds the time and energy to create art and keep up her blogging (Jumbled Hutch Blog) and Etsy shop (Jumbled Hutch) is beyond me.  And what wonderful art -- water colors, mixed media (check out her "inchies"), darling little hand drawn pendants, and, of course, jewelry.

Hand Drawn Pendants, K. Hutchinson

K and I are both self professed Nerds and Dabblers, with a strong dose of "I Could Do That" thrown in.  We have both migrated from our first loves: K. from water color and me from sewing, tho we carry those skills into our beading.

So now that K has received my soup I am free to show what I gave her to work with.   The soup is a mix of my hand dyed silk ribbons,  assorted sizes and shapes of seed beads, turquoise, a raku cat pendent and patines copper clasp and chain links.  I cant wait to see what K. does with it,  I'm sure it will be beautiful.  Stay tuned.

Memories and Thanks Blog Hop

This is a project I started before Lori Anderson announced this blog hop.  I love Gaea beads and when I saw her "Fearless Heart" bead sets I immediately wanted to make something for my Cowgirl Sisters - Ellen, Billie and Patti.  To reflect our shared passion for horses, Gaea made a a custom horse hoof print bead.

What these three amazing women have in common is incredible heart and courage.  They keep finding a way forward when it would be easier to just give in or give up, or to become bitter and hard.  And they don't think they are any thing special.  Well to me they are incredible, and I wanted to make sure they know it.

Braiding - rawhide, leather, horsehair is a traditional method for making all kinds of tack, so I wanted to hand made braids to be the basis for the necklaces.  I went thru some trial and error figuring out how to combine kumi braided cord with the beads.  I settled on making two cords for each necklace.  The first cord, used to string the beads, is made of 8 strands of pearl cotton.  The second cord is 12 strands, it is tied in larks head knots in between the beads.  (Note to self: never, ever attempt this again!  It takes a ridiculous amount of cord to tie all those knots and when you are braiding it out of pearl cotton .....)

So here are the finished necklaces.

To check out the other participants please go to Lori's most excellent blog for links:

Memories and Thanks Blog Hop

History Blog Hop

I was given Indus Valley for my historical period.   The Indus Valley produced beads for trade from shell, stone, clay, and metal -- they have even found beads of wrapped copper wire with silk fiber inside!   Their jewelry was very simple bead strung pieces and "bangri",  from which our word bangle descends.  So here are a few simple bangles:

Sorry this is late and so few bangles, I'm claiming it as a "senior moment" and sticking to it.  Thank you, and apologies, to Leah at The Beady Eyed Bunny

Bead Table Blog Hop

Sorry I am a little late with this post.

First thank you to Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures  for setting up this blog hop and providing such great beads to work with.  Here is what she sent me.  Special thanks for the darling cat head bead.







The beads seem to sort themselves into two groups, the amethyst chips forming the basis of one and the candy came stripe beads anchoring the second.





I chose to work with the amethyst group and in the spirit of the hop worked only with left overs from previous projects and repurposed materials.

Recently I've being playing around with kumihimo so I started by making a spiral braid of embroidery floss and C-Lon cord with the amethyst chips on the raised cords of the spiral.




















 I added fringe to the braid using the 4 purple and white flower beads in the center.

The larger beads are strung on C-Lon to form the back.  The clasp is a repurposed brooch, I removed the original center of the flower and replaced it with a pink pearl, the same pearls used in the fringe.











To see what everyone else made:

My Bead Table Blog Hop

Your Host: Lisa Lodge

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

Ginger Bishop, lilmummy likes...

Tanya Boden, Fusion Muse

Lisa Boucher, Lisa’s Clay Happenings

Michelle Buettner, Mishel Designs

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life

Mikala Coates, Maybe Just Perhaps

Marlene Cupo, Amazing Designs

Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's

Mary Anne Klinglesmith Flesch, Hand Crafted Serenity

Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures
Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress

Mary Hicks, Falling Into the Sky

Tina Holden, Polymer Clay Bytes!

Shelly Joyce, Au jour le jour

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Susan Lloyd, Designs by Susan

Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers

Kashmira Patel, Sadafule .. always in bloom!

Inge von Roos, Inge's Blog

Kristen Stevens, My Bead Journey

Sonya Stille, Dreamin' of Beads

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas

Sandra Wollberg, City of Brass Stories

Tidying Up the Blog . . .

Blog clean up day -- it's so much easier than cleaning up the house or (shudder) my work space.   So please excuse the odd missing photo or blog update message.

Photo above is the focal for necklace made with torn silk, this time the flat braid is accented by size 8 seed beads.  The "bail" is macramé  C-lon cord and torn silk with seed beads crochet creating the fringed edge.

More Experiments in Kumihimo

I'm having way too much fun with my Kumihimo disk,  I've been making braids out of all kinds of materials and beads, here are a couple pieces that ended up as finished jewelry.

The first piece uses fabric from my stash and some metallic round cord in a flat braid.  This flat braid is fast becoming a favorite, the channel down the center created by varying the cord sizes is a great place for beads or other shiny stuff.   I like the rustic look of torn fabric strips, I think it goes well with the clay focal.

Finished Necklace

Braid Detail

This is C-Lon cord and beads.  The large wooden beads are worked into the "rungs" of a ladder braid, the excess cord is braided into a long fringed tail that can be worn in front or behind.  Two strands, lavender and apricot, of size 6 seed beads and spiral knotted cord are woven thru the braid.  The bail is folded micro macrame, another technique I've been playing with.

Bail Detail