My Bead Soup

I was so excited over the package of Bead Soup I received from my BSBP partner, Kimberly, I almost forgot that I'm supposed to post a photo of the Bead Soup that I sent to her.

A while ago I posted a photo of the Bead Soup collection that I created for Kimberly.  I disguised it because Kimberly hadn't received it in the mail yet and I didn't want to ruin the surprise.  This is recommended in the Bead Soup Blog Party rules.
     

This is what the Bead Soup looked like when I disguised it.

     
Now that Kimberly has received her Bead Soup, I can post of photo of what it really looks like.
     

These beads are much prettier when they're in focus and you can see their colors.  I decided to keep the beads the same color, except for the silver and black, which are really neutral.  That way if Kimberly wanted to add an accent color, she could decide for herself what color to use.  Personally, I would probably choose a soft tone of purple.

     
First I saw the string of glass beads that are shaped like a flat disk and I thought they were emerald green.  I really liked them and thought that, since emerald green is the Pantone 2013 Color of the Year, it would be fun to build my soup around that color.  The next beads I found were the odd-shaped shells you see in the front of the photo and they looked really pretty with the glass beads.  I knew that Kimberly likes silver, so I picked out some silver-plated, round, spacer beads.  My intention was to make a polymer clay focal bead, but a dichroic glass, lampworked, diamond-shaped pendant jumped out at me.  I loved how it looked with the other beads.  The beads were all the same basic color, but there were multiple textures, lots of "movement," and a variety of sheens that I thought were very complementary. 

When I got home I saw that the beads I had chosen were not emerald after all, but a beautiful aqua.  I was relieved to see that the color of the glass and shell beads still worked together.  In my stash I found two sizes of aqua crystal rondelles and some black crystal rondelles to add a bit of contrast.  Next I looked through my clasps and found a lovely, silver, magnetized clasp in the shape of dual shells with crystals embedded in it.  I thought that it was especially appropriate because it was shell-shaped.

I still wanted to send Kimberly something that I had made myself, so I decided to make some beaded-beads.  Time was tight, so I used the Peyote stitch on some aqua seed beads that I had been hoarding and made some tube-shaped beads.   In spite of their simplicity, the beaded tubes add another texture and shape to the soup.      

I can't wait to see what Kimberly will make with these beads.

Bead Soup Is Even Better Than I Expected!

Oh, my goodness!  I received my Bead Soup and it's wonderful!

Kimberly Idalski is my partner and she's an experienced Bead Soup participant.  She certainly showed this rookie the right way to do this!  Not only did she send me a Bead Soup that contained EVERYTHING I would need to create a necklace and more, she also sent me a stunning hand-made pendant and a decorated box as extra "gifts." 
     
Let me start with the box.  It's a round, tin box, about 3 inches in diameter, with a lid that screws on and off.  Kim created the embellishment to the cover entirely out of polymer clay, with some crystals to give it bling.

Isn't this wonderful?  Look at the amazing colors and details in the butterfly wings, and see how the colors blend in the dragonfly wings, almost like stained glass.  The flowers are a clay "embroidery" technique.  

      
As if the box itself wasn't enough, inside of it was the most gorgeous, teardrop-shaped pendant.  Doesn't this look good enough to eat?  I think it looks like a beautiful, decorated Easter egg.  In fact, I already know exactly what I'm going to wear it with to church on Easter!  I'm going to stitch a "chain" for it out of silver seed beads.  And I haven't even gotten to the Bead Soup ingredients yet!
         

You might have guessed just by looking at the color-scheme of my blog that pink is my favorite color and I just LOVE  the way it looks with teal and emerald greens.  By the way, emerald green is THE color of the year for 2013, according to Pantone.   I'm a decorative painter and I love strokework, which involves painting lots of scrolls.  The stems and leaves on this pendant remind me of beautiful strokework.  These are so delicate and graceful! 

     
OK, now for the Bead Soup.  My brain is already racing as I think of ideas for using everything Kimberly has sent.  First is the focal bead.  Kimberly started with an oval-shaped bezel that is two inches from side to side and one inch from top to bottom.  It's a terrific shape and so large that it needs two loops for hanging.
     

More clay "embroidery" and a dragonfly, along with crystals on a base of clay in a faux  Grass Turquoise Pyrite, which she copied from the real stones.

   

Look at this incredible clasp.  It's a rose and closes with a magnet.  It is an unusual design that screams to be used in a special way.  And Kimberly has thought of everything.  There's a tag, two beautiful twisted jump rings, and some oval jump rings, as well.

   

Look at this!  A whole bag of Tanzanite Swarovski bicones!  The large teardrops are genuine  Grass Turquoise Pyrite.  There are some genuine Amethyst beads, along with some pearls, and round clay beads.

   

These are all faux Grass Turquoise Pyrite beads and the larger ones have those  "embroidered" flowers with crystals in their centers.

   

Finally the faux Grass Turquoise Pyrite was swirled into a couple of lentil beads.  Here's another example of Kimberly thinking of everything.  She included a bag of delicate bead caps, which I LOVE, and a bag of balled headpins in a variety of lengths.

        
Kimberly and I are in the Third Reveal on April 13, which means that we have a little over a month to combine our Bead Soup ingredients into a fabulous piece of jewelry.  I only hope I can do justice to her creations!

Frosted Tree Branches

These days photography is mostly a means of documenting my jewelry designs, but there was a time when film was my medium of choice.
        
When I was twelve years old my friend, Ann, had a neighbor who worked for Polaroid.  My memory is a little vague, but I think she was testing a new color film for her job.  I do remember dressing in my favorite fuchsia dress to be her model.  After that I wanted a camera of my own in the worst way.  The next Christmas morning I found a camera under the tree and I was thrilled!  It looked like a 35-mm, but was a point-and-shoot.  Made completely of plastic, it was not manufactured by any known camera company, but it was mine!  It came with a couple of rolls of black and white film.
             
I loaded a roll of film and went outside to see what I could photograph.  We lived a few miles north of Boston and it had snowed on Christmas Eve, the kind of wet snow that sticks to the tree branches like frosting.  Behind the houses across from mine was a wooded area that looked like a winter wonderland on that Christmas morning.  I shot almost the entire roll of film on those beautiful, snow-covered trees.  
        

I still can't resist snow-covered trees.  This photo was taken during a snowstorm on April 28, 2010.     

         
Back then I didn't know anything about composition, the rule of thirds, depth of field, or that a red item hanging from one of those tree branches could make all the difference.  
     

Same late-April snowstorm.  We had put out the hummingbird feeders about a week earlier.  Those poor hummingbirds were really taken by surprise with this storm!

        

These azaleas were in full-bloom when we were hit with the storm.  Fortunately, the flowers survived. 

            
Money was far from plentiful when I was a child, so when my parents had the film developed they were horrified to see that I had wasted all that film on trees.  They didn't get it.  They thought I would take pictures of people that we could put into a photo album. I lost my enthusiasm for photography after that, although I did take an occasional picture of our dog dressed up in the jumper, tights, and bonnet that belonged to my sister's Patty Playpal doll.  That poor dog.  I'm sure she would have been happier if I had continued to photograph trees.  I think the camera was eventually stepped on and broken.
          
It wasn't until the day I graduated from college that I invested in a 35-mm Minolta and began taking pictures again.  This time I read photography books, joined a camera club, and eventually set up my own darkroom.  I even shot two weddings!  Kodachrome was my color film of choice, although I still loved taking black and white photos.  After a few years my job became more demanding and began taking up so much of my time that my picture-taking ended.
     
A couple of years ago I bought a wonderful 35-mm Fujifilm digital camera.  I love that I can take pictures of trees now and not worry about wasting film.   I love that I can fix mistakes and crop out unnoticed distractions in my photos from my computer.  I really should  learn how to use all the settings on the camera and stop depending on the Auto setting.  Is it too late to make a New Year's Resolution?
          

I love the textures of  the wood, the peeling paint, the sugary snow, and the frost.    I also like the vertical and horizontal lines of the wood.

  

Color Me Exited!

Waiting for my Bead Soup to show up is a delicious kind of excitement.  It's a little bit like Christmas.  You just KNOW that you're going to get something good!

     
The other day Lori Anderson posted a "gentle reminder" on her official Bead Soup blog.  

     

http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/ 

     

She wants us to keep in mind that what we receive in our Bead Soups might be totally different from anything we're used to working with.  She doesn't want anyone to be disappointed, but instead, use this as an opportunity to try something new.  She says, "Embrace the challenge."

     

I think that's what makes this whole thing so exciting!

     

Many years ago I read Color Me Beautiful, by Carole Jackson, and learned that I am a "Summer."  According to the original concept, there are four basic color types, named after the four seasons.  With ash-blonde hair—now more silver than blonde—blue eyes, and a pale complexion that leans toward pink, I fit nicely into the "Summer" category.  According to Jackson, it means that I should wear silver rather than gold and stick with cool colors.  It was easy to figure out.  The color was cool if it had more blue tones in it and warm if it had more yellow tones in it.  Blue is cool like the ocean.  Yellow is warm like the sun.  
         

No wonder I didn't enjoy wearing that rusty-burgundy-colored dress!  It looked so pretty on the hanger, but when I'd put it on, the dress and I both looked drab.  From then on, I stuck with my Summer color palette.  I was happy to know that pink, which is my favorite color, is in my palette.

     

The problem is that I have a tendency toward picking only cool colors when I choose my components for making jewelry.  One thing that I have figured out is that I can wear copper metal.  I used to avoid it because, as a decorative painter, I saw that copper paints were all warm colors.  In reality, copper metal has a pink undertone.

     

My goal is to be more daring in the colors that I use.  

     

I recently made a pair of earrings at a customer's request using copper wire and zircon-green crystals.  That green is definitely a warm color, with plenty of yellow in it.  I had passed over those crystals so many times when designing other jewelry.  To my surprise, I really liked those earrings!

     

No, I will never wear a shirt the color of those crystals because it would look terrible on me.  But, if I use turquoise or pink crystals and add the zircon-green crystals as accents, I could wear those earrings with clothing colors that do look good on me!
   

So, I'm ready for my Bead Soup.  No matter what's in it!

Bead Soup Mailed

I mailed my Bead Soup to Kimberly last Friday.  According to the USPS tracking system, it arrived in Grand Rapids today.  It still has a little under 200 miles to go.  Because this is Presidents' Day, the Post Office is not open to the public and  there won't be any mail deliveries—but the trucks still roll.  I hope Kimberly receives her package tomorrow!

Kimberly is a very talented designer, whose tutorials have been published in polymer clay magazines a number of times.  Here are the links to her blog and other sites:

http://www.kimisjewelryandgifts.blogspot.com/

http://www.kimis-jewelry-from-the-heart.artfire.com/

http://www.kidalski.etsy.com/

http://www.kimisdesigns.etsy.com/

http://www.Facebook.com/Kimisjewelryandgifts

http://www.Facebook.com/Kimisdesigns

http://www.Pinterest.com/Kidalski

http://www.Twitter.com/Kidalski

http://www.Flickr.com/photos/Kidalski

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My Bead Soup Blog Party Partner

Lori was very sick with the flu, which caused the Bead Soup Blog Party dates to shift forward a little bit--but now I know that my BSBP partner is Kimberly Idalski from Michigan.  Kimberly and I have emailed a few times and we find that we have quite a few things in common, especially the colors and types of beads that we like.  
    
We both love to work in polymer clay.  From what I've seen of Kimberly's polymer clay work, she's quite a bit more advanced than I am.  Kimberly's work and tutorials have been published!  In fact, she's about to be published again!  Looks like I'll have to stop wasting time on housework and spend more time on polymer clay!
     
I also learned that Kimberly likes to mix polymer clay beads with crystals and pearls in her jewelry pieces, which is something that I frequently do.  I like to combine texture and sheen along with some sparkle. 
      
Another thing we have in common is our pets.  We've both been known as "the Bird Lady" because of our pet birds.  Kimberly still has her parrots, but I'm sad to say that all of my parakeets and cockatiels have gone to the Rainbow Bridge.  We both have dogs, although hers are MUCH bigger than my little Yorkies.
     
We've agreed to mail our Bead Soup packages by the end of this week, as Kimberly had a request from a magazine to submit her work for publication, which interrupted her Bead Soup preparation.  That was fine with me because it gave me time to make a few beaded beads to add into my Bead Soup.  We have plenty of time because we're in the 3rd Reveal.  We'll have almost two months before we have to post photos of what we create with our Bead Soups.
     
I know you'd like to see a picture of what I'm sending to Kimberly, but that's against the rules.  What I CAN do is post a disguised photo of the Bead Soup that I've put together.  
     

I've edited my photo so that it's black and white--after all, I don't want to give away the colors.  Then I used "solerization," which takes away all the detail.  

I JOINED the 7th BEAD SOUP BLOG PARTY!

A couple of years ago I started following Lori Anderson's Pretty Things blog at www.prettythingsblog.com.  Lori is a very special person and a woman of many talents.  She's an artist, who creates beautiful jewelry, as well as an author.  And her hair is pink!  I love that pink hair! 

I've been hearing about Lori's annual Bead Soup Blog Parties, and they sounded like so much fun that this past Sunday, just before the deadline, I signed up for the "7th Bead Soup Blog Party."      

This is a link to Lori's page explaining how it all works:
http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/p/what-is-bead-soup-blog-party.html

My name is on the list, so now I'm official.  Lori will pair me up with another beader and we'll send each other a package of "quality" beads.  I'm not allowed to give any details yet, but today I bought a fun clasp and a some beads that I love.  I still need to find a special focal bead--or maybe I'll make one.

I'll be learning who my partner is in a couple of days.  Then I'll mail my package of beads to my partner by February 10.  

After that, the real fun begins.  First, we all post a photo on our blogs of the wonderful beads that we receive.  Next, we each create a piece of jewelry from our new beads.  Finally, we each post a photo of our finished pieces on our "reveal" date.

That's what makes it a party!  We hop around to all the other blogs to see what everyone has created.

Thanks for all the work you do, Lori.  Organizing this swap and hop is a huge job!