My first partner is the lovely Joanne Louvaine Bell, who blogs at TwinkieDinky, and sent an amazing Bead Soup filled with her hoarded specials, as well as some of her own work.
She packaged everything in little cloth packages, which I hope to recycle in other projects. The beads consisted of:
Joanne's own Resin Wings and Polymer Beads
Lampwork from Juliette Mullete, Karin Hirza and Dee Howell
Lampwork focal from Hendri Lourens
Bronze from Anna Chernykh
Ceramic and Polymer Flowers from Cherie Irwin and Lysa
and, what she notes as the most special, the Kim Snider wing, that she stayed up until 4 in the morning to get!
I've been massively busy with work, and had only managed to get a quick cell snap of the package, which does not portray the contents in their full glory.
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| Lampwork Pendant Necklace By Maverick Beads |
Since Joanne said the wing was her most precious, I set out to do it justice. I quickly decided on a necklace of some sort. But there were so many options, and I picked out a few beads from my hoard that would match the scale of the wing. Rooting around in the lampwork bead box, I picked out bead after bead, trying to find something that would compliment. And then there was one.... a failed execution of lampwork technique, something that might have ended up in the garbage had I been more ruthless, might have been overlooked, but was suddenly was perfect. I pulled out a pewter grey leather, and suddenly it was simple. One wing, one bead, a piece of leather.
Fearing I had failed Joanne, and her precious hoarded bead with something so simple, I made a bracelet to match. It was all of the beads I'd intended to use for the necklace, but somehow the serendipity of the simple necklace took over.
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| Bonus Bracelet for Pendant by Maverick Beads |
Joanne also sent some very lovely resin wings which are her own specialty. They are truly gorgeous! I paired the wings with a few of my lampwork beads and some crystals for some lovely long drop earrings.
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| Resin and Lampwork bead earrings by Maverick Beads |
The next pair of earrings is also a set of resin wings - paired with a matte set of handwoven seadbeads beads, some silver beadcaps, crystal and silver earwires, I hope they compliment the resin wings.
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| Resin and Handwoven Bead Earrings by Maverick Beads |
And finally, a third pair of earrings! Joanna sent a lot of things in pairs, so I hope she's not disappointed to find a bunch of earrings in the reveal. The third pair features a lovely pair of ceramic buds by Cherie Erwin of New Zealand. Finding inspiration in the olive green colour of the tops of the buds, I paired them with a couple of chain connectors and some of my own lampwork beads for a lovely pair of spring earrings.
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| Ceramic and Lampwork Beads by Maverick Beads |
This is what she sent:
Blue Berri Beads - Ceramic Yellow Bird
Serena Smith Lampwork - Lampwork Flower Buttons
Swoon Dimples - "Give More" Pink Polymer
Bo Hulley Beads - Bracelet Blank
Jade Scott - Resin Pendant
Glass Flowers and Enameled Metal
Johana provided an amazing variety of beads, but what to make? I started playing around with the purple enameled metal beads on a bead board that had some yellow lampwork that I was intending for another project. The yellow glass was hand pulled cane, which produces beautiful striations of coloured and transparent glass. I also discovered that I had a set of lampwork spacers in precisely the same colour as the enamel. The glass used to make the spacers was discontinued about a decade ago, so I have no idea what possessed me to make a bunch of spacers from it, but there they were in the bead box. I also had a couple of bright orange lampwork beads kicking about. With the addition of the yellow, purple and orange a bracelet soon started to come together. I wouldn't normally do an elastic bracelet for a blog-hop with art quality beads, but because of the size of the enameled beads, it seemed like the only solution.
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| Enameled beads on colourful beaded bracelet by Maverick Beads |
Next up, a pair of earrings with the same enameled beads - a pair of lampwork headpins, the enameled beads plus some vintage German new stock glass are stacked to form earrings that are a statement piece without being two heavy.
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| Enameled Beaded Earrings from Maverick Beads |
I was not sure what to do with the amazing Swoon Dimples bead, which says "Give" on one side and "More" on the other. I had still had some of the beads considered for the first bracelet kicking around the bead board, and decided to make a super fun spring coloured confection! It's still pretty gray days around here, with the last of the snow slowly going away. The pretty pink polymer clay pairs with a couple of handwoven lavender beads, more of the veiled yellow lampwork glass from the first bracelet, and bright aqua vintage acrylic beads.
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| Swoon Dimples Bead on Colourful Spring Beaded Bracelet from Maverick Beads |
Last up, a pendant - the first piece that came together. The little yellow Blue Berri ceramic birdie seemed so happy on top of the lampwork bead and a lampwork headpin that the piece came together quite quickly. I love the combination of yellow and green in this - seems so fresh and springlike!
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| Blue Berri bead on Spring Pendant from Maverick Beads |
I had a fantastic time working with everything Johana sent - I'm looking for the perfect compliment to the pendant, bracelet blank and lampwork, and figuring out how to mount the lovely glass flowers, so stay tuned for those in a future post.
