8th Bead Soup Blog Party Partner and Soup Teaser

I've signed up for Lori Anderson's latest Bead Soup Blog Party. I love these. This is the 8th one. She pairs you with a partner, you e-mail back and forth so you can get to know each other a little bit and the you create a 'soup' of beads and other materials to send to each other to play with and create something with. I've always been in awe of all the talent I see while blog hopping all the other participants in the Blog Hop. (By the way, that's a requirement. You have to have a blog so that on a specified day, you blog about your 'soup', what inspired you and what you created).
This time around I was paired with Katrina Taylor. This is her first time to participate, so I'm doubly honored to not only get to participate, but be able to help/have fun with someone new to the Party!  She just started creating jewelry again about a year ago and most of what she makes right now is for friends and family. But after checking out her blog, I wanna go out, you wouldn't guess she'd only been doing it for a year.  She loves Metal beads, Polymer and Metal clay and glass, but says she doesn't really have a style. She mainly just lets the beads and materials 'speak' to her about what to make. She makes some of her own beads and focals and loves BLUE! LOL  As many of you know, blue is one of my least favorite colors, although I seem to be using a lot of blue lately.
She is a veterinarian, so we have something in common, since she likes working with animals and we do Wildlife management here on our small Texas ranch. She also likes to eat out a lot. LOL  So here is a teaser of the 'Soup' I put together for her.

And here is the wrapping it was sent in. Can you guess the theme for her soup?  

Come back in a few days and you'll get to see the soup I sent, the soup I received and find out the Theme behind the soup I sent. And don't forget to check back May 3rd for the Reveal. Be sure to check out my shop, KayzKreationz for my other jewelry, Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass 'kreationz' for your Home and Garden.

Clay and Lampwork Blog Hop



Recently Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures sent out the call for another blog hop.  This one is a Clay and/or Lampwork Blog Hop.  We signed up and received either a Clay or Lampwork set of beads to work with.  I received some wonderful Lampwork beads from Bastille Bleu.  Again, I forgot to take a picture of the beads before starting, but later in the pictures I'll pinpoint the 3 wonderful beads I received.  I knew I wanted to do something that would either be a multi-strand necklace or have the appearance of multi-strands.  And as I played around with the beads, I didn't like the looks of the small blue bead in between the 2 larger lovely flower beads.  So I decided they should be the focal for the lower strand of the necklace.  But I wasn't sure I had enough beads to make 2 or 3 full strands.  So I started playing around with one main strand, done with 2 strands of beading wire and then splitting right at the center to use the 2 larger beads as the focal and the smaller blue bead above it in a shorter strand to make it appear to be 2 strands.  The more I played with it, the more I liked it.  I had just received all the glass pearls and faceted beads I'd won from ZNETshows and their last challenge I was in.  It was great, since I'm not much of a blue person and don't usually have much blue in my stash.  There was some wonderful blue beads along with the greens, clear, yellow faceted glass beads that matched the colors that were in the larger lampwork flower beads along with some white glass pearls. I also bought some pink round and faceted round glass/shell beads to bring out the pinks.  I wanted this to be a very 'blingy' necklace to make the Lampwork flower beads shine.  Then I had to make sure 2 strands of beading wire would fit through all the beads I was using.  And finally I had to figure out how to finish off the strands.  I had this lovely Silver colored leaf toggle bar clasp that came in my winnings from ZNET and thought it would go well with the 'flower' beads.  But I couldn't get the crimp beads to take both strands of wire up through around the jump ring and back down through the crimps.  It was too much. So I had to divide the 2 strands on the one main strand and crimp them both to a jump ring.  Then I made another strand to make the necklace appear as 3 strands in the center and had to crimp them to another jump ring and attach the 2 jump rings to the leaf toggle bar clasp.  It was a little more difficult than I had imagined, but I finally got them all crimped and attached.  I love the way they turned out.  And of course I had to have earrings to match.  So I hope you enjoy what I made with my lampwork beads.  In the first picture the 2 larger flower lampwork beads and the small blue lampwork bead in the short strand just above are the three beads I received.  Let me know what you think.


Lampwork Beads



Lampwork Beads Necklace



Lampwork Beads earrings



Lampwork Beads Necklace 2

Then, because I got done so quick with this set, I asked for another set and got these gorgeous lampwork beads fromStudioJuls along with the small pink/orange seed beads. And as usual, forgot the pictures, but if you look close at my bracelet, they're the large round lampwork beads.  There's 4 of them in this bracelet.  I paired them with some great Jasper I had, some gold glass pearls from ZNETshows, the small pink/orange seed beads and some small black seed beads I had.  This was my first go at a memory wire bracelet and I knew I wanted it to be 3 strands.  It took me 3 times of stringing, removing and restringing the beads to get enough on the memory wire.  I had laid them all out and thought I had enough, but NOT!  LOL.  But I think it turned out great for my first Memory Wire bracelet.  Hope you enjoy it.

 And if you're looking for more of my Beaded or Wire-wrapped jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass Kreationz for your home or garden, check out KayzKreationz.
Also, be sure to check out what everyone else made with their Clay or Lampwork sets. 

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

 

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Laurie Vyselaar, Lefthand Jewelry

Annette Rivers, MamaOwl's Mess

Karin King, The Sparkle Things Blog

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings

Mimi Gardner, Baubles, Beads and Other Curiosities

Dee Alcalde, Agape Creations Jewelry

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Lori Jean Poppe, Lorillijean Creative Corner

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Leah Mifflin Tees, My Beady Little Eyes

Terri Wlaschin, Dances in Fog

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson, Sharyl's Jewelry

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Linda Aspenson Bergstrom, TBD

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Judy Turner, Silver Rains

Gloria Allen, Gloria Allen Designs

Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's

Connie Tipton, TBD

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Andrea Glick-Zenith, ZenithJade Creations

Michele Dotson, Star Jewels

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Jennifer Clifford, TBD

Kathleen Breeding, 99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Loretta, Loretta's Boutique

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyns Creations

Shirley Moore, Beads and Bread

Bonnie Coursolle, Jasper's Gems

Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles
If the links don't work, check out A Grateful Artist for the master list.  Thanks.

Challenge of Music

I'm so disappointed and apologize to Erin and the rest of those participating.  I eagerly signed up for Erin's of Treasures Found blog for her Challenge of Music Hop and Reveal.  We were to pick a piece of instrumental music, listen to it, let it inspire us, etc. and then design a piece of jewelry or something else from the inspiration from the song. I knew which song I wanted to do from the beginning.  I have always loved the song 'Wipeout' by the Safari's.  (Although this cheats a little, because they start the song with the words "Wipeout")  In case you don't know the song you can hear it here at YouTube. (Hopefully I did this right)



 

I've listened to this over and over. I started on Erin's ideas of  drawing and free writing while the music is playing. (I haven't gotten very far with this yet)  and I finally got some ideas of what I wanted to do.  But nothing is coming together.  Although the picture is a surfing scene and you usually think of beaches, waves, etc.  I found myself going back to psychadelic colors, frenzy, hippies, etc.  I wanted to do something with some polymer clay, perhaps some crazy colored dagger beads and smaller round clay beads in between.  But then life got in the way. I had signed up for an earlier challenge (the AJE jewelry component challenge with an enameled disc from Francesca Watson-see reveal Here).  Due to circumstances, she couldn't get the disc mailed right away and I had 2 weeks of some volunteer service I'd signed up for by the time the disc came. Still I was working on it and thinking all the while of my Music challenge piece.  Then last week, my 83 year old father developed appendicitus (very unusual in people his age the doctors tell us) and had to undergo an emergency appendectomy Thursday. So I spent all of Thursday and Friday at the hospital with my mom, sister and  him.  That was the final clincher.  I lost that time to work on my idea for beads and had to finish my volunteer work this last weekend.  In the meantime, I hurt my knee again, so have been having to keep it up with heat and ice on it.  This was stressing me out so much, I finally had to let Erin know I wouldn't have a piece done in time for the reveal yesterday.  She suggested going ahead and sharing what I had done/been thinking of while going through the process, so this is my post about that.  I loved the idea of just listening to the music and letting it take you where it will.  And I still intend to finish my ideas and my piece and post it later on.  So if you're watching or following me, keep an eye out for my Music Challenge piece at a later date.  Sorry to disappoint everyone.

Bead Soup Blog Party Coming!

Yay, the Bead Soup Blog Party is coming. Lori, at Pretty Things hosts this twice a year.  And although the sign ups are closed for this round you really should check it out and join us for the next round next spring.  This consists of jewelry makers, both long time jewelry makers and newbies like me, that get partnered up with someone else.  We swap beads, findings, whatever.  The main thing is we HAVE to send a Focal,  a Pretty clasp, (not just a lobster claw) and some coordinating beads.  When we get our stash from our partner, we post a pictue of it on our blog.  Then we have until Sept. 17th to make something and post the pictures of what we did on that day for the reveal.  Then we get to hop around over 300 Blogs!  And check out what everyone made.  I'm partnered with Loretta Carstensen from California.  She makes lovely things from Polymer Clay, something I've tried and haven't been real successful with yet.  She has an Etsy and Artfire shop, plus her blog.  Check out her shops by clicking on Etsy or Artfire.  And check out her blog by clicking on her name.  Then be sure to check back later to see what wonderful goodies I receive from her and again in September to see what I make with them.
For some great Glass Kreationz for your Home or Garden, you can check out my Etsy shop, KayzKreationz, too.  Enjoy.

Great handcrafted journals, notebooks, gift tag booklets and polymer clay pendants.

Love to write? Know someone who does? Need a unique journal to keep all your thoughts in? Or a notebook or journal to give as a gift to someone who loves to write? What about a really different polymer clay pendant or even notebook with polymer clay on it to decorate it? Then today's shop is just for you. Uberart has all of these things and more. Check out a couple of her items in the box on the right. I love the little gift tag booklets. Small enough to even carry in your purse.