It’s been simmering all week-I hope you enjoy it! Let’s get started by reviewing my ingredients. They were sent to me by my Bead Soup partner Inge Von Roos. You can take a look at them here. My job was to come up with a delicious recipe for these soup ingredients, and then bring it to life for you.
Inge’s beads are so beautiful, and because they were all hand made by her, the challenge for me was to come up with designs that would showcase the beads without overpowering them. Because I hadn’t made anything substantial in quite a while, I decided to start with something basic, and thought that earrings would be the perfect way for me to start.
I chose a pair of the bumpy beads to start with because I loved the bright colors, and the fun texture. I wanted them to be the shining stars for this basic recipe, so I chose textured bead caps that would mirror the texture, and displayed them on sterling silver earwires.
I decided to stick with earrings for the next couple of designs. For this pair, I chose two of the beads with green and blue swirls. I wanted to add a bit of elegance to them, and draw the viewers eye into the beads. I paired them with Czech fire polished crystals, Swarovski Rondelles, and 14KGF ear wires.
For the last pair of earrings, I wanted to use the Fine Silver flowers that Inge had chosen for me. The centers of the flowers seemed to be calling for “something,” so I set them with a pair of Swarovski stones. Then I paired them with vintage Czech glass butterflies with a peacock finish, and Sterling Silver Filled earwires.
Now that the soup was warming up, and so was I , I wanted to make my next recipe a bit more elaborate. I had said right from the start that the pastel dichroic glass beads were my favorites, so I chose one of them to work with. Again, I wanted the bead to stand out, but give it just the right amount of highlights. The pattern in the bead said “shell” to me, and combined with the blue color inspired me to choose an aquatic theme. I added a silver plated turtle, and a silver plated shell. One of the Czech dagger beads that Inge had sent was arranged with the shell, and three small Swarovski bicones helped to align the design and add a bit of sparkle. I hung it from a Sterling silver filled chain.
With two days left to go before the reveal date, I decided to challenge myself by creating a piece with as much “handmade” touches as I could. I had fallen in love with the tree focal that Inge made, and chose that for the showpiece for this design. I chose vintage Czech glass beads in cream and green, and used chose brown Artistic Wire to join everything. I used the wire to create the beaded chain, and I also made all of the jump rings and the clasp. I chose a birds nest and a leaf from my inventory and paired it with one of the Czech leaves that Inge had sent to me, and created a decorative dangle accent at the base of the focal.
Thank you for coming by to sample my soup. Please go and visit my partner Inge Von Roos and our hostess Lori Anderson , and all of the other wonderfully talented people who are a part of this blog hop. Please also take the time to leave a comment for me in the area at the end of the list….I’d love to know what you think of my creations !
But I digress….back to the beads. I couldn’t resist opening that leopard box to solve the mystery of the pink bead. Inside the box was a gorgeous flower handcrafted by Natalie from beads and metal stampings. The pink bead was at the center of the flower, and to fit in the box, Natalie had put a hole in the top that the pink bead could fit through. It made for a great mystery! There was also a smaller flower and a birds nest that Natalie had made.
Pink Chapeau Vintage Jewelry 