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.

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.

Boho Horsewoman's Bracelet

This bracelet was inspired by the book Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry and a wonderful set of ceramic beads from Gaea.

 The focal bead has a horse shoe imprint and I wanted to make something to donate to The Center For Adaptive Riding auction. A Boho Horsewoman's bracelet seemed just the thing.


 I ripped up some light weight silk I'd dyed and made a flat kumihimo braid with a copper ring braided into one end, then I strung the Gaea beads with spiral knots in between and made a strand of red creek jasper beads using figure 8 knots. Using copper wire, a first for me, I wrapped the three strands together and attached the clasp. When I tried it on it seemed a little thin, so I purchased some copper chain, another first, and attached it to the rings at each end. All that copper was just too bright, so I hung the whole bracelet over ammonia in a covered jar (thank-you Google) and Voila! 

I'm so happy with how it came out I don't want to give it up. Guess I'll have to make another one, or maybe two.