Bead Soup Blog Party #8!!

Today's reveal date at the Bead Soup blog party.  I know I'm way late, and didn't even let you know I was participating, but it's been an extremely busy spring, and well... life happens.  Hosted by the fabulous Lori Anderson, the bead soup blog party is an event where two people swap a group of beads, and make items with those beads.  The beads must include a clasp and a focal, but can include anything else the two people want to send.  There are 468 of us participating this year, and all of the creations will be available for viewing today on the blog party.  My partner is Karen Jones, a lovely lady that lives only an hour and half from me, and who blogs at Off the Top Creations.

Karen sent me the following pretties to play with - a gorgeous selection of green beads, some stone, some ceramic, with some copper accent pieces and a few lovely brown pieces to balance it all out.




I picked up an issue of Bead Stringing this week, and used Lorelei Eurto's bracelet recipe to make this bracelet.  I used the glass and wood beads from the soup, combined them with a clasp from TheaToo, and added my own lampwork focal and accents to the mix.  I really love this bracelet, and will think fondly of Karen and the lovely things she sent me when I wear it.

Next, on to what I did with the clasp that Karen sent.  I had quite a hard time with this one, as the clasp was a different shape than what I'm used to.  I tried several different combinations, including one version with hot pink beads, before settling on this.  I also used the copper round butterflies and some of the serpentine that Karen sent, along with chain and vintage glass from my own collection.

 Lastly, I created a quick pair of earrings out of some fancy jasper and a couple of lampwork rounds.  I'm quite happy with these, and think the bronze beads at the top and bottom add a lot to the earrings.

Of course, I also sent Karen some goodies to play with, and if you'd like to see what she's done with these, head on over to Off The Top Creations to see her reveal:

If you want to see all of the other pretties, this link will take you to all of the other participating bloggers in the Bead Soup Blog Party!