My Bead Soup Creation!

This has been quite an adventure for me!  Thanks first to Lori Anderson for hosting this tremendous project.  It's been a lot of fun to participate!  Next I'd like to thank my partner Jane Haag.  She is a very sweet and kind person that I'm so happy to have met...long distantly.  I've enjoyed working with her little works of art so very much.   

Now, I thought I'd start out by showing a couple of teasers so you could get just a taste of what I'm serving up.

Everyone should know by now that I'm not really a jewelry maker.  I made most of the lampwork beads in the necklace and bracelet for this Bead Soup project.  I chose some of my favorites to compliment what my partner sent me.

Hungary Yet?

Double Helix is a silvered glass which when exposed to a reduction flame brings out all different kinds of shimmer.  The main bead in the middle of the top picture is made with two different types of DH glass. The side with Psyche is where you see the green, purple and pink luster.  Triton is the other side with the rich purple luster.  The pinkish beads are made of Aurae, another DH glass that really is sort of unpredictable, sometimes gold, sometimes pink and sometimes a soft magenta!

My partner Jane Haag, sent me the most beautiful silver hammered pieces that she made herself.  I really love how Lori Anderson paired us up, with both of us being artists that create the components of jewelry.

I love what Jane sent me too, and when I saw all the ingredients I pretty much knew what I wanted to do.

If you read one of my blog posts a while back, you know what I mean by "Who am I making this for?"  The answer is, I made it for me.

I've always loved necklaces that have different tiers of strands with kind of a whimsical, random look.  I also like necklaces where you see the exposed silver wire that space out the beads or charms.  So that was my plan.

Looks Good Enough To Eat!

It was a no-brainer that I was going to use the sterling silver flower as the focal (she sent an alternate which I used in the bracelet).  That was the main piece of the bottom tier.  The silver hammered rings were stunning, but she only sent me three!  The challenge there was how was I going to make this work....remember I'm no jewelry designer.  I played around with different ideas and came up with the idea of wire wrapping one of my beads to link two together.  So that was the focal of the next tier.  Finally, on the last tier I used that last ring to attach the sweet little charms together.  Joy, calm, and bliss.....well, not yet.

I could write a book about the struggles I went thru putting it all together, but I know you have other blogs to hop.  Let's just say that I felt that joy, calm and bliss after about 3 weeks working on it...on and off.  I had to get away from it at times to collect my thoughts and think how to solve the many problems I encountered during the construction.

Triple Layer Bracelet with Kazuri Focal Bead

By the time I was finished with the necklace, I was totally exhausted so I got some of that memory wire and started using up what was left of the beads that Jane sent me. 

This is How We Hang!

Since it was necessary for me to show how the necklace would hang around someone's neck. The only person around I could use as a model was my husband, so that was out.  I could have modeled it myself, but naaahh. Please excuse the less than perfect photography.

It worked out fine with the necklace display piece, even though it was dirty.  I covered it with a pretty piece of fabric.  In order to get it to hang right, I had to wrap the back of the necklace around the front, which shows off the lovely clasp that Jane made.

Sorry to have kept you so long.  I did go back and do some editing....really!

Happy Hopping!