Time for the Bead Soup Blog Party!

Hey there loyal followers and hopefully some new ones! 

Welcome to my little corner of the Bead Soup Blog Party (BSBP).  I am super happy to post my big reveal for Lori Anderson's BSBP.  Please head over to Lori's blog for a full list of participants in order to be able to fully enjoy the experience of the hop. 

Here is a picture of what my partner Cory sent along to inspire me.  I have to admit, this was a major challenge for me!  She sent me lots of items that were of a larger scale than I typically work in.  Also, in the past, I have not necessarily embraced the gemstone donut as a viable centerpiece.  I love how this exchange offered me the opportunity to stretch myself creatively.



My favorite part of my soup was the clasp she sent.  I am not used to working with metals in a finish other than silver, I love how this experience pushes us to try new things.  I did decide that I was going to make something that could utilize this clasp as a focal, so here is what I made.



I really love the color combo on this piece.  Again, this is not something I would usually do in terms of color palate.  Typically I have been wearing this piece with the clasp in front but off center, but I could easily wear the clasp in the back for a different look.   I was amazed at how difficult it was to find beads with a copper finish in the mainstream shopping experience.  I had to seek out a local specialty bead shop in order to find adequate supplies.   



And then there was the donut...I am not going to lie, for me this was difficult to use.

I was able to use the focal by utilizing lots of other fun materials from Vintaj.   Again, I was stumped on size.  After lots and lots of consult with my artsy friends, I embraced my giant modified focal and added a simple chain.  The necklace is quite long as I used 36 inches of chain. 



And here, a nice close up of my focal.  I really love the look of the patina on the bird.  This little detail also actually ties the two pieces together quite well. 

 

Here you can see how nice they look together.  Surprisingly, they coordinate very well.

 



I still have some left over soup to continue to challenge me.  I really love those cream colored carved beads, but everything I tried to make with did not work due to the size issue.  I do not give up easily.  I am confident my extra beads will end up in a project soon.  There is a special place I am going to use Cory's handmade bail, so stay tuned to see the completion of a really cool mermaid project soon.  

Thanks as always for stopping by!  I hope you will use the links provided above to visit other blogs on the hop!

Cheers,

Rhea

Time to Fly: Vintaj

Secretly, deep down inside I dream of making my abundance as an artist, teacher and healer.  Since I have recently made some small art resolutions to move towards that dream, I am putting myself out there in the design world just a bit more.  I thought the recent offering of a "Mixed Metals" design challenge over at Vintaj would be a great opportunity to take one small and fun step in that direction. 

Update:  Thanks to your support, I finished in the lead!
Thanks to all of you, this piece will also be entered in the annual contest. 

The inspiration for this piece was the lovely pocket watch.  This vintage Elgin was found by a friend of mine while she and her family were letterboxing.  Now that I am more open about my artistry, people find and give me the most amazing things!  When I popped off the back of the watch, I fell in love with the movement.  My plans to take out the inside an make a small assemblage inside went out the window at that point. 

There is amazing workmanship inside of this little guy.  It really does make a nice steampunk focal.  I had been "saving" this for a "special" project and I am glad the inspiration struck to finally use this gem instead of just coveting it!



Another element I really like in this piece are the birds.  I added the texture seen using one of Tim Holtz's embossing folders.  Vintaj's metal accepts these prints amazingly well.  I also find their jump rings can be opened and closed several times and don't seem to lose their shape or get brittle as other base metal findings do.  Their products are pretty dreamy, I cannot wait to get my hands on the new patinas!  Some of my Vintaj findings were purchased at a new place in town called The Beading Bar. 

Thank you so much for stopping by as always dear readers.  Extra super duper thanks for voting, if you chose to help me out.  I really cannot express enough, how much it means to me. 

Cheers,

Rhea

Bead Soup Teaser

I was lucky enough to be selected in the lottery for this installation of the Bead Soup Blog Party.  This is hosted a few times a year by Lori Anderson.  As the hostess, she connects fellow bloggers and jewelry artists and we exchange "bead soup."  This consists of a quality packet of beads which has to include a focal, a special clasp and some complementary beads.  Participants are challenged to use at least the clasp and focal in a project.  Then we all post on the party day check out each other's work.  I have done this once before, and I really enjoyed the process. 

My partner this round is Cory Celaya.  I am really excited, as her style is quite different than mine. Her work is absolutely lovely.  She has a real boho/tribal/gypsy style, from what I can gather.  Hopefully this connection with a different genre of work is inspirational for both of us.

We are allowed to post teasers of what we send prior to our partners getting the beads.  Here is a sneaky peek of what Cory has coming to her.

I will post a full reveal once she gets her beads and I receive mine.  Thanks for following along!

Cheers, 

Rhea 

Handmade Holiday

Just a quick post to show off a couple of jewelry pieces I  have created today.  Last minute gifts for those who will appreciate such a token.

This necklace was inspired by a necklace I saw on Pinterest.  That site is so much fun!  It was really simple and quick to create and yet still looks like a nice finished piece of jewelry.  There is lots of movement to the focal charm, which I just adore. 



This next one I really like.  It is a color scheme that I really enjoy.  It is interesting how the colors are translating in photos, it looks a bit more muted in real life. 

And a close up of the really lovely centerpiece. 



I hope both of the recipients enjoy! I also made a custom pink sparkly bracelet and earrings for a special little girl, but alas, I wrapped them up.  Oh well!

Lots more last minute holiday preparations ahead!  For those of you who are finished and prepared for your festivities, I salute you!

Cheers,

Rhea

A serving of Bead Soup

I hope you all are hungry for some jewelry inspiration.  I am partaking in a really great art event called the Bead Soup Blog Party.  Recently my partner Kari, over at Pearl and Pebble sent me a lovely mix of beady ingredients.  We were challenged by our hostess, Lori Anderson, to use our ingredients and make a lovely item to post on our blogs today.

The pendant, which is so lovely, is from Muddy Fingers.  This would be a challenge for me, as I have never really utilized ceramic in my beading endeavors before.  I do love the color, the pattern and the exquisite texture this pendant has.  I also received all kinds of wonderful stones and a clasp that is way too pretty to reside on the back of one's neck. For this reason I made two pieces and used both the clasp and the focal as center pieces. 

      



I picked up the spacers and the larger green faceted beads in a lovely shop called Bead Heaven in Downers Grove.  I splurged on something I probably would have not usually purchased for myself, as I was on vacation and I had the blog party to complete.  I think my investment paid off.  When stringing this piece I used color blocking, which is something I have never done in jewelry.  I love how the blog party has stretched me creatively.



The clasp is one I have been hording for quite some time, many years in fact.  I purchased it at Bead in Button and loved the little moon on it.  Again, I justified the specialness of this project to use a quality item.  I used blog party as opportunity to read up a bit more on photography and display.  I think I may have learned a little as the close ups are more interesting picures. 

                         

 

For the second piece, I wanted to showcase the clasp.  The focal here is from Bead Heaven and I used a few more of the accent beads from Kari.  I pushed myself again and did not do a symmetrical pattern.  I made lots of mini patterns in a slightly random way.   This necklace had to be strung twice.  The first time I made it, I put the pendant really close to the focal and my clasp would not lay correctly. I took it to an artsy gathering and consulted with my pals.  They were able to advise that the clasp move up a bit.  I am grateful for their input, as it really made a difference.  Can you see why I did not want to hide that clasp?  It is so pretty!



I still have some beads left from this wonderful exchange.  The large white ocean jasper is totally stumping me, due to their scale.  I hope to use the momentum of this experience to stretch myself to use them in something soon. 

Thanks for stopping by!  There is so much more soup to share.  Please stop over to the Bead Soup Blog Party to see the links for all the other players, they would love to have you!

Cheers,

Rhea

Bead Soup is on!

I am participating in my first ever Bead Soup Blog Party and I am loving it!

My partner's name is Kari and she has a lovely blog called Pearl and Pebble, where she documents her creative life.  She even makes her own beads from scratch!  Please stop by and check out her art. You will also be delighted by pictures of two little baby boys who are simply adorable.

Kari send me a wonderful bead soup that I can hardly wait to play with.  The ceramic centerpiece is by Muddy Fingers on Etsy.  There are also salway nuts, ocean jasper, white fossil stone and a gorgeous sterling clasp.  She is so cute, she wrote me a little bead soup recipe in the box.

Stay tuned and before too long the actual blog party starts and all of us will be posing our creations. 

Geared for Time

So today I ventured down to my creative space with the intent to organize a bit and seriously start herding items for Create. Well of course I got distracted by a new toy.  I recently purchased a small hand drill for soft metals. This is going to be a great item to have around.  I easily cut through a few of Tim's embellishments.

As you can see, in this piece I cut a hole in the clock face. I added a few spinners, ala Tim Holtz, and a gear backdrop. I love that the spinners still move.  A few more gears were added with jump rings to frame out the focal point.  In this photo my necklace is draped over my challenge book.  One of the backs of my pages has this lovely paper from the Tattered Time stack.   

The inspiration for this piece was actually the chain that I found in one of my junque boxes.  I was gathering cool stuff for travel when I happened upon this and immediately wanted to try out a jewelry piece with Tim's stuff.  I did go "matchy matchy" and used all brass pieces. I am pretty pleased with the results.

How fun to revisit my jewelry making roots.  Looking forward to a Bead Soup adventure too. Stay tuned for that one! 

Cheers, 

Rhea 



More Jewelry and Charms too

Well I finished up my complimentary necklace for the pearl one I recently posted.  I despise having my photo taken, but I did it so you all could see how they work together. I really enjoy making sets of necklaces like this so that can be worn together or separate.  I also love how you can move the clasp around to change the looks. Very versatile!  I guess I did get a little bit of sun yesterday while doing some of that pesky yard work.

I also recently finished up a charm swap for a local group of crafty pals.  They ended up getting two from me, as I did not reread the swap requirements before setting down to make them.  My original charms were the metal found object ones made with Tim's stuff, watch parts, and various odd metal items.  Unfortunately they were bigger than the size limit of 1.25 inches.  I am just glad I caught it before getting a bad swapper reputation with my gal pals.  The participants get the prize anyway, as I am sending them both along.  The second charm was made using these fantastic glass domes, Graphics 45 paper, stickels and metal flashing tape.  I punched a circle of flashing tape to "seal" the back of the charm.  I hope everyone enjoys!

Lastly, for my trusty readers, thanks again for participating in my blog giveaway!  I had an amazing 59 entries in my contest to win a Chotski Pin.  I used Random.org to choose a winner.  The 27th commenter was B-Jo.   I have notified her via email and hopefully she will respond soon.  If I don't hear from her within a week, I will draw again. 

Cheers,

Rhea