I feel so excited to be part of this edition of the Bead Soup Blog Party. This will be my third Party, and each one gets more fun as time passes. I have had a few stumbling blocks for this hop, but I have persevered and come out the other side.
My partner was D'Arsie Manzella (D'Arsie Manzella). She is a very talented jewelry artist, and I was so happy to be paired with her for this hop. Unfortunately, life got in the way for her, and she was unable to get my soup out until last week. I received it this past Tuesday (March 21), so I was a bit behind the curve to create a piece.
In the interim, I reached out to Arlene Dean (Arlene Dean) who offered to pair me with a new partner. I did not want to do that, because I had already sent a soup to D'Arsie, so instead, she and I came up with an idea for me to get together two other soups from my own stash, I'd take a picture of them, and then Arlene would choose one for me to create a piece of jewelry from. We did this in case D'Arsie was unable to get a soup out to me before the reveal date.
This is the stash soup that Arlene chose.
It consisted of some beautiful lampwork glass beads that I had gotten from Pine Ridge Treasures, some beautiful briolette crystals and some gorgeous teal colored stone beads. They were all pieces that I have been holding back because I thought they were too pretty to use!
This is the piece I created from them. I love making beaded chain, so I made this necklace after I created a simple pendant with one of the lampwork beads. I added some pearls to bring out the white in the lampwork flowers. I really love it. It reminds me of the woods here around our house and the flowers that peek out from the undergrowth. The crystals reminded me of the sun's rays as they filter through the trees.
On Tuesday, I received my soup from D'Arsie! It consisted of a beautiful tree pendant that D'Arsie designed herself in her studio, Mamacita Beadworks! A beautiful stone focal that she wire-wrapped herself was included. There was also a beautiful butterfly focal created by Martha Eason at Menagerie Studio. She said that she had held onto it for about 4 years! D'Arsie also included some pretty beaded chain in wood and acrylic, some pretty pink wood beads, and some gorgeous stone cylinder beads.
As soon as I was able to sit down and begin to create, I knew that I wouldn't have time to make something with all of the beads, but I wanted badly to utilize the beautiful butterfly and the stone cylinder beads. They looked so fun and coordinated so prettily, so I pulled out some of my own stash of copper, Swarovski crystals and Preciosa crystals and got to work!
This is my creation. It's a fun little bracelet and earring set that feels like spring to me! I hope that you all love it as much as I do.
I had SO much fun this year with the Bead Soup Blog Party! Thank you so much to Lori Anderson and to Arlene Dean for all of their help and patience. A super special thank you to Arlene for being such a good sport, and a sincere thank you to D'Arsie for the beautiful soup she sent!! I simply love it!!
Please visit everyone's blogs and thank you for visiting mine!
Yours Beadifully
Candida
(Everyone's blog links are below. THANK YOU LORI!!)
