Bead Soup Blog Party #8 !!!

My partner: ANDREA FRANK
Her blog is here:
http://andreajewelry.blogspot.com/

THIS IS WHAT I SENT:
http://zenithjade.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-goodies-for-bsbp-i-sent-to-my.html

THIS IS WHAT I GOT:
http://zenithjade.blogspot.com/2014/03/bead-soup-blog-party-8-first-post.html

Pretty cool stuff, right?! I was at a loss for quite a while on how to make all these awesome elements mesh well together. !!! Awesome, amazing beads and a rockin' focal and TWO cool clasps. WOWSA.

It took me until about two and a half weeks ago to finally decide on a design for the necklace. Even then, it was touchy because I wasn't sure it was finished... until I added that cool fiber to it. :) Only then was it perfect. The necklace uses copper wire, pink briolette pearls doubled up, coin freshwater pearls, red faceted agate from Auntie's Beads, fiber, a bead by Sheila Davis, some copper elements (including the cool head pin the focal is on), a copper clasp from Andrea Frank and an amazing focal by Sheila Davis of Stone Designs. Here are some photos of the necklace:

 An awesome bead by Sheila Davis... watch this space for more of her beads!

 Yes, I Galaxy Wrapped the Red Agate from Auntie's Beads. I love that look!!!

The front of the focal by Sheila...

 What I consider the "back" of the focal, and equally as pretty!

 Hey look! I used one of the clasps that Andrea Frank sent me in this necklace! :)

A cool looking necklace, I think!

After that, I created some funky rainbow earrings using the same fibers as the necklace:

I got the zebra print mother of pearl shell beads from The Beehive on facebook... click here for the link.

Andrea Frank sent me those awesome industrial style yellow rings... there's more of where that came from...

I paired the other industrial style yellow rings with more of Sheila Davis' beads, the red faceted agate from Auntie's Beads, and I provided the iridescent purple freshwater coin beads and all the copper findings. :)

These are SO COOL, but WAY TOO HEAVY. :( I'm going to have to re-work them, methinks. But they sure are neat!


After I created those lovely things, I focused on making a couple of simple and cute pairs of earrings. Here's the first pair:

I used some lovely jasper? coins, blended with the topaz elements from Andrea Frank, some button freshwater pearls I had, and some neat gold crescent moons I got from the metals box from BeadSwap-USA, *hat tip*. :)

Next up:

A pair of simple earrings using those neat industrial style rings again. Andrea Frank sent me a set of three different colors: yellow, these amber ones, and some green ones... I managed to use the yellow and amber ones, but the green ones still need to make it into a project! It should be noted that I've been trying my hand at making my own findings, and these extra-large jumprings are one of those experiments. :)

Lastly, I made a bracelet! I broke out of my copper mold, and used some gold... (I also used gold on the two pairs of earrings right above!).

 Andrea Frank sent me these lovelies along with everything else! The amethyst glass is awfully pretty with the red faceted agate, I thought. I debated about using some real amethyst to go with it, but my amethyst wouldn't fit on the gold wire! :( Boo!

I had this gold Swarovski-encrusted clasp in my stash because I thought it was pretty. I didn't think I'd ever use it because I pretty much never make anything gold! Shows what I know! ;)

And that wraps up my Bead Soup Blog Party #8 Postings!

You can CLICK HERE for the MASTER LIST of participants. There's a lot of us, but it's so worth it to see what we all created, IMHO!

Also, don't forget to visit my partner's blog to see what she made using all the goodies I sent to her! :) (Some of which I made, like the clasps & focals!!!)

I hope you like the flower photos I took- they're at the beginning of this post!
HELLO SPRING! (It's about time!)

Also, here's a link to our helpful community of artists, all linked through the BSBP (Bead Soup Blog Party) and a love of beads: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BeadSoupCafe/

*hat tip* to Lori Anderson, who makes the BSBP happen every year!!! +++ her helpful hands, aka assistants.