Souvenirs From Life: September 2011

Welcome!

I am so excited to be sharing some soup with you, sit back and enjoy a cuppa.

There's a lot of soup to be had so I will keep this as brief as I can to allow you to visit with some of the other 362 participants today.

First I would like to thank Lori Anderson, the hostess of this mega Bead Soup Blog Party, for doing such a fantastic job coordinating all of this for us to enjoy!

While this is her 4th such BSBP it is in fact my first time participating.

I was paired with Kari Carrigan ,an incredible lampwork artist ,jewelry designer and Mom of 4, from the pacific northwest. In my soup mix I received 2 wonderful focals, a lampwork shell and a heart, lampwork rounds in the colors of the sand and sea, a silver toggle clasp, ivory czech glass beads, freshwater pearls in the colors of sea blue and pale green, and 3 of her original charmed pennies. A picture of the original mix and the tin it arrived in is below.

I knew right away I wanted to make her lampwork the focus of my piece, not overpowering it by adding too many other elements and trying to stick with just the ingredients I was given. This was the challenge I gave myself.

I discovered this was easier said than done and i figured out why. The purpose of this challenge is to take us out of our comfort zone and stretch our creative muscles. Most times we come up with an idea and then start to gather and create around that idea to make it come to fruition. With the BSBP we are given the components and asked to come up with the idea to fit them. Like working backwards for me.

I settled right in with the beach/sea idea given the colors and focal, creating a piece to incorporate into the design using one of my favorite altered vintage mermaid images which I sandwiched between a mother of pearl frame, some mica and riveted to a nickel silver back for some weight and stability. It took 3 tries to get this right as the mother of pearl frame is very fragile and not perfectly flat since it's real shell.

I also wanted to showcase the silver highlights in the blue green lampwork which lent a vintage feel to the beads, so i added bali silver spacers and swarovski crystal rondelles to mimic the silver banding and tie it all together.

I wirewrapped the lampwork with new silver filled wire which I oxidized with liver of sulfur adding some bali silver rondelles and connecting with sections of oxidized sterling silver chain lengths. I then added wirewrapped dangles made with the czech glass beads and pearls adding sterling silver daisy spacers. I added swarovski crystal rondelles to the shell focal drop. The finished necklace is longer than what I usually create but I really like it and the way it drapes.

I had enough of the gorgeous sea blue green lampworked beads to make a pair of earrings incorporating a swarovski crystal rondelle and czech glass bead on handmade oxidized sterling silver earwires.

With the heart focal I created a beaded drop and attached the photography chick penny charm to attach to my camera strap or camera bag. Kari must have seen that i have been actively participating in I heart macro sundays over at Studio Waterstone.

With the remaining 2 charms and beads, I created 2 more drops, one has a bird in a nest and the other, Oh Look, A Chicken! To giveaway!

I will have a random drawing on October 17th, 1 month from now, for 2 lucky people, each will receive one of these . You need only leave a comment on this post and make sure that I can reach you by activating your reply back on blogger, or have an email on your blog that I can find you or I will have to draw again!

The soup mix I recieved. You can visit my partner's blog here and her shop here.

I will create a link on the sidebar of my blog to keep up to be able to find this post again easily for those ( Like myself) who will need time to get through all the blogs.

Below you will find a list of all the other souper artists with links to their blogs!

Enjoy!