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Bead Soup Blog Party reveal day is finally here!  I’m sure my friends and fans on Facebook will be relieved to stop hearing about what I’m working on and how it’s going, but I can say this experience has honestly opened me up to new techniques I want to try and thinking about certain beads differently.  I haven’t played around with beading much since learning how to work with wire and I think BSBP has caused me to remember why I fell in love with making jewelry.

Before I show you what I made, here’s a photo of what my partner, Andrea Trank, sent me. 

Andrea did a fantastic job of putting together a large helping of bead soup.  So much, in fact, that I wasn’t able to make pieces out of everything!  I have plans for the rest of the soup and I promise to post it when I finish.  My main goal was to use the focal and clasp first, preferably on the same piece, but did not end up happening.

I am most proud of this set I created using the polymer clay donut, fluorite triangles, and tiger’s eye beads.  I have worked with exactly one donut style bead to create a bail so you might say I was very challenged at the task of incorporating it into my creation.  I looked up tutorials on creating bails and scoured jewelry making books to see if there were any suggestions.  In the end, I just did what seems to work for me which is picking up some wire and playing with it until it works.  I love how the spiral bail imitates the spirals in the donut and then I created more to use in the necklace and earrings.  There is literally hours of work and love in this set! 

Here is what I made with the three strand clasp:

As much as I tried to make the three strand clasp work with the donut, it wasn’t coming to me.  I felt like this clasp was so special, it just needed to be dressed up and taken out on the town.  I pulled from my very personal (read: for my jewelry wearing only) stash, a lapis coin bead, coffee agate beads, and gold glass pearls to create a bracelet.  Seeing how nicely the colors go together, I have plans to make a matching necklace!  I do have plans for the other gorgeous beads Andrea sent me so check back in with me to see.

I want to thank Lori Anderson for making this blog hop happen.  She’s opened my world up to a community of very talented artists and taught me how much fun blogging can be!  Please go visit the other 199 participants of Bead Soup Blog Party.  You won't regret it!