Friday, April 12, 2013

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:


Sunday, February 17, 2013

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.





Friday, January 11, 2013

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