Kalmbach's Bead Soup's On,...

Welcome to my little cup of Bead Soup! 

Back in September I got a package from Kalmbach Publishing with some 'Bead Soup' from Bead World of Glendale, AZ in the mail.   This was in conjunction with Lori Anderson's new book, Bead Soup (which is a fantastic book and is so unique as far as beading and jewelry instruction books go!)

 

 

Here's the original post where I told you how excited I was to receive some 'Bead Soup' from Bead World, a place I regularly shop at (bead soups were sent from bead stores from all over the place to tons of people!).

And just look how fun the beads are that they sent me, too!

    I popped in to Bead World and shared my little goodies with the girls in the store and snapped a couple of pics and now it's time to see what I finally created with the yummy pieces of goodness they so graciously sent my way.
 

 

 

I stewed and stewed (no bead soup pun intended!) over what to create - nothing looked quite right and I haven't worked with crystals for a little while and all these beautiful shiny beads were just 'blinging' back at me. 

Did I want to hand knot something, did I want a link style bead chain,...should I wire wrap a cool pendant necklace or bracelet or should I string something?
Nothing seemed to fit, at least at first anyway.

 

Here's what I finally decided on.

 

 

 

These are the earrings I created to go with it.

 

I created these with some Swarovski Crystal Circle Pendants (don't ya just love those!!) and some chain and jump rings from my own stash and a few of the beads from my bead soup.

 

 

Here's the Set Together

 

 

 

 

I decided I wanted the lamp work pendant bead to really stand out,

and this style and design seemed to do this it quite well.

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to put one of the Swarovski Crystal Circles in the necklace,..but it just wasn't working for me.

 

 

 

 

I decided to name her Desert Gypsy because she reminds me of the Belly Dance costumes my sister would make to wear in her dance classes - they were always so amazing!!

 

 

 

 

And because it reminds me of the colors of the beautiful Arizona Desert!

 

I wanted to make a bracelet out the remaining beads, but I haven't quite decided how I want that to be yet. 

 

 

Thanks to everyone over at Kalmbach for doing this great Bead Soup Promotion for Lori Anderson's new book, "Bead Soup" - this sure was fun!

 

And, thanks to all the great folks from Bead World - you know how much I appreciate you!!

 

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Desert Gypsies!

 

 

 

Cheers,

~Shel~

 

Winter Enchantment – Windswept Dreams Necklace

Our assignment this time around for the Artbeads.com blogging challenge, was the theme “Winter Enchantment” and I found some nice items to try – and boy are they cool!

This project, by the way, is also doubling as my YOJP 2011 Week 9 Entry this week – with the theme being “Windswept”.

I had a ball with this cause I was really jazzed to try out some of the Swarovski Crystal beaded yarns. Here’s what I got:

• Swarovski Crystal 3mm Crystal Beads White Cashmere Yarn

• Swarovski Crystal 3mm Jet Beads Black Cotton Yarn

• Swarovski Light Grey Mohair Yarn with 3mm light grey pearls (ya knew there be pearls in there somewhere, didn’t cha!!?)

• Swarovski Crystal Hematite Mohair Yarn with 3mm hematite beads.

These were really fun to work with. All were soft, and the mohair and cashmere ones are really ‘fuzzy’ and remind me of nice, warm winter sweaters! They would be great to make little “Barbie” necklaces with. Yes, I even make jewelry for Barbie once in a while….I’m such a dork!

I really am a dork, because I forgot to snap my ‘before’ pics when I take all my goodies out of the bag and you get to see everything lined up before I start creating – sorry about that.


For my necklace focal bead I chose a 28mm Jet Swarovski Crystal Twist Pendant – boy does this have some heft to it! LOVE IT! And, the toggle I chose - since I was doubling this for my windswept theme for Week 9 of YOJP 2011 – was this spiral (swirly wind!) Tierracast Spiral Toggle Clasp.

I like the Tierracast toggle design and since it’s light weight (it’s silver plated not true sterling) it feels nice on the back of your next and doesn’t press down on your neck bones in the back. I know that sounds weird,…but trust me,…it’s important!

I gathered up these lovely little, fabulously fuzzy yarns with their tiny little beads and wire wrapped the ends, sliding them into some plain sterling silver cones that I purchased from my friends over at BeadWorld here in Glendale. I also got the nice sterling silver bail that’s holding the Swarovski Crystal pendant on at BeadWorld as well!

I added the pendant and the toggle clasp to the layers of Swarovski yarns and ‘Ta-da’ – it’s a “Winter Enchantment, Windswept Dream!” (it’s more of a little winter enchantment, fluffy, fuzzy looking type of dream necklace than any windswept necklace, but whatcha gonna do!?!) But, it still looks rather ‘Winter-ish’, don’t you think?

I’m really thankful to the folks over at Artbeads.com. I’ve been ordering from them for over 5 or 6 years now and their items are really great, shipping is fast, and their prices are some of the best around. You definitely can’t beat that these days – that’s for sure!

Until Next Time,
Peace, Love, Winter Enchantment and Windswept Dreams of Spring Coming Soon!!
Cheers,

~Shel~

FTC compliance disclosure: the Artbeads.com items mentioned in this post were provided as a promotional gift as part of the Blogging for Beaders Program. These items are for review or design purposes.