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