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Saturday, March 3, 2012

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!



56 comments:

  1. Kathy - your pieces are gorgeous -- I am especially blown away by the last one. The eggplant color is absolutely fantastic with that lime green. Those are not colors I usually work with, but I will sure have to rethink that! :) Oh, and I adore that pic of the little frog!

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  2. Hi Kathy
    Wow you did an amazing job, my favorit is the cuff....what a great idea, never thougt about that:) It was really a lot of fun to play around with your soup and I love what you made off mine:) It gives me again new ideas how to use my beads in other ways.
    I also like how you found your inspiration through a picture. Hope you have a lot of fun hopping around:)))
    Lovely greetings
    Sabrina

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  3. I love the cuff and the second necklace :)
    I'm a partecipant from Italy, I'm trying to visit all of you.
    this was really a great experience!
    ciao ciao

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  4. Wow, the cuff is adorable. I'm suddenly in the mood of the "also-want-to-have-syndrom" feeling. An unique piece of art, great job!

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  5. Eggplant and Lime.... what a fabulous colour combination! I like them all, but the purple & lime is my favourite :) x

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  6. Kathy, you got to work with my favourite colour combo! I adore the enameled cuff you created.

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  7. I love the color combinations, beautiful textures, and the different techniques and mediums you used in these pieces! the cuff is my favorite!

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  8. I love that cuff you made. I would love to give that a try sometime. Your colors are gorgeous!

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  9. Lovely pieces! I really like the green and purple color combination... :D

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  10. Oh, you have me thinking lovely thoughts of spring! Very nice work.

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  11. Kathy - what wonderful ingredients you had to start with, and what gorgeous pieces you made from them! I love them all, but my favorite is the enameled cuff. It is so elegant in its simplicity, and the lampwork bead simply pops against the black enamel background. Beautiful work!

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  12. Your designs are unique and creative! Love the colors! You had fantastic glass beads to work with! :)

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  13. I have a feeling that I'd LOVE your kitchen!! I love that photo, and the piece you created with it for inspiration is really lovely. Your technique to create the bracelet was super cool. In fact, I really like the bracelet most, but I know I could never wear it because I'd totally be knocking it into everything. . .I'm just a klutz like that ;)
    All in all, you really met the challenge of bead soup!!

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    1. I'm real curious how well it will wear myself. I plan to try it next week. Thanks for loving my colors!

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  14. You are so talented
    The cuff is so dramatic and striking!, great job

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  15. This is beautiful, Kathy! Your enamel beads are perfect with this piece.
    I looked earlier today at Richard Salley's workshop schedule to see if I could fit one in. I love his work!

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  16. The cuff is great and the focal is great with your enamel work and stash finds. Beautiful pieces.

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  17. Beautiful work. I love that it is different. The black enamel looks great. Is it hard to do?

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    1. The enameling is the immersion technique and torch-fired. It's a bit more tedious to do a large piece like this, but it just requires a bit of patience and dipping and heating sections at a time. It was the first time I've done something this large and I was pleased with the results and quite happy that I could do it using this method. It didn't seem hard to me but I do quite a bit of torch-fired enameling. Thanks for the compliment!

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  18. Wow - such amazing work you've done there! I love all of them - the cuff is a work of art, the first necklace is gorgeous, and the last necklace has such a perfect colour mix (I love purple and green!).

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  19. Your cuff bracelet is a knock out! Beautiful piece.
    All you work is lovely...I'm just in amazed by the talent in this blog hop!
    The lime/purple beaded necklace is so pretty!

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  20. Thank you all for your very kind comments. This soup definitely accomplished what I hoped it would - it stretched my imagination and made me push my enameling skills.

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  21. All of your pieces are amazing. Just love the black enamel cuff. So stylish. So well thought out. I am so glad I got to meet you!,

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  22. Lovely necklaces, bracelet and the photos :))
    The purple one is...omg...unbelievably beautiful!

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  23. What gorgeous jewellery! Sabrina's lampwork is beautiful. Using one of the beads on a cuff was a great idea, but my favourite is definitely the purple and green necklace - one of my favourite colour combinations at the moment.

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  24. Lovely pieces! Really like the green beads... that colour really pops! Great bracelet... Does the enamel on the bracelet stand up to being bashed around? My bracelets get a lot of abuse... I'm worried about the enamel chipping off. fireball.beeds at gmail.com. WIll have to check out ning for the slide closure!

    Lynne

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  25. fabulous!!! love what you did with the wonderful beads you received.

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  26. Love them all, but really ADORE the cuff!

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  27. Awesome.. Love your colors!! love that cuff!

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  28. Love the limegreen and the purple together. One of my favourite combinations.
    Those green beads are amazing!!You made something fantastic with your soup!

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  29. Oh my! I LOVE the LBD necklace. It is FAB!

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  30. Green and purple are my favorite colors, and I love to mix them together!! Love everything you made, the cuff is really cool! Great job!

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  31. Love the colors and the beads, you did a great job putting them together!

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  32. You received a great soup package, I love the colors. I think my favorite is the asymmetrical necklace, but I also love the cuff. Good Job!
    Cheers!
    Lori D.

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  33. those turned out gorgeous and very unique. I love the cuff it's so pretty. Have a great day!

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  34. The cuff really rocks! I think it is really unique. Well done!

    Ambra

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  35. Absolutely love the cuff - that is just amazing and so unique. Also, kudos on the purple/green mixture. It's terriffic.

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  36. Gorgeous cuff!!! Absolutely gorgeous!!! And lovely necklace as well!!!

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  37. Love all of your creations - beautiful!

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  38. Everything you made is gorgeous! However, I am in awe of that enameled cuff! A true artist...that is what you are! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!

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  39. I love your pieces. The picture from Rose Emporium is great (I love that place) and the piece it inspired is so pretty. I really like all your enameling, too. I've started (have Barbara's book and the kit) but not quite happy with my results yet. The copper cuff you made is gorgeous. Congrats on some great pieces.

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  40. Aw Kathy, I am so fond of purple and green. Needless to say, I love your results! If they turn up missing, don't look for them here.

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  41. Purple and green - one of my favorite color combinations!!! Beautiful pieces!

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  42. Adore the cuff! Love the Little black dress necklace! Love the 2nd necklace as well! Great job!

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  43. My bedroom is purple and green! I love it. The ceiling is green. lol

    Your pieces are beautiful. Love what you did with the soup. You really used it well and should be proud of your work. Great job!

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  44. I very much like the color mix of greens and purples! Your last necklace is my favourite.
    Great job!
    Sabine

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  45. Purple/green is just about my favouritest (I know, there's no such word) colour combi. So naturally I really like the last necklace. But I have to say - that cuff is one awesome cool piece of jewellery. Wonderful work!

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  46. really like your cuff bracelet! great details on the side

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  47. I feel like all I can say is WOW! I love love love your cuff bracelet and your little black dress will look great with your necklace.
    Sonya

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  48. Ooooh, love them all but my special favorite is that lime and purple necklace. My two favorite colors!

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  49. I love what you made with your beads!
    My favorite is the necklace, those lampworks are gorgeous!!

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