Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal

I can't thank Sabrina Straub enough for the gorgeous beads and other goodies she sent me.  It would be pretty impossible to make anything ugly with them because they are so beautiful.

So, here's what I started with:

And here's what I created with them!

First, the lampwork beads are so beautiful that I really wanted them to stand out and not be cluttered with much of anything else.  So, I made an enameled cuff.  First I cut a copper sheet, ran it through my rolling mill to give it a design, and formed it into a cuff.   Then I torch-fired black enamel onto it, added some little green glass beads I've had for a couple of years, and made a torch-fired enamel headpin to anchor the focal bead onto the cuff.  

Next I decided to go for a bit more elegance.  I did a simple stringing using sterling copper tube beads and black onyx beads that I already had along with one of the gorgeous focal beads Sabrina made, two black lampwork beads that she made, some lovely sterling wire beads she sent in my goodie pouch, and the very cool washer closure she sent.   

This is now my little black dress necklace.  

The last piece I made was inspired by this photo that I took several years ago at the Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, Texas.  I love this photo so much that it has inspired the color theme in my kitchen.  That's right...I have lime green walls and an eggplant ceiling.  When I saw Sabrina's beautiful green beads, I knew I had to do at least one piece with purple.

From Sabrina's bead soup I used black leather cording, the wonderful lava rock beads, and of course the gorgeous lampwork focal.

From my own stash of things I had previously made that were awaiting a spark of creativity...purple paper beads (using a brown paper bag as my base, I painted and decorated the paper used to create the beads)...a piece of purple quartz that I wrapped with copper foil and soldered on a jump ring...green and purple beads enameled by me...one lampwork bead previously purchased from a local beader (too long ago to remember where it came from) attached with an enameled headpin I made...a few ceramic glazed beads that my son brought to me from China.

I created a slide from copper wire and enameled it for my closure.  Thank you Barbara Lewis for sharing this technique on Ning!

I loved participating in my first bead soup.  Thank you Lori, for all the work that goes into this.  Thank you Sabrina, for the beads that made my heart melt.  Thank you anyone who is hopping!

Now, here's my attempt at putting in the linky tool thing.  Hope it works.

Happy Hopping!

http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=132965